Rock-paper-scissors

Rock-paper-scissors chart

Rock-paper-scissors is a hand game played by two or more people. The game is known by many names, including 'rock-scissors-paper', paper-rock-scissors, paper-scissors-rock, fargling, cachi-pún, scissors-paper-rock/stone, jan-ken-pon, "jenken" kauwi-bauwi-bo, камень-ножницы-бумага and rochambeau.^[1][2]

The game is often used as a selection method in a way similar to coin flipping, drawing straws, or throwing dice. However, unlike truly random selection methods, rock-paper-scissors can be played with a degree of skill, especially if the game extends over many sessions with the same player(s); it is often possible to recognize and exploit the non-random behavior of an opponent.

Game play

Each of the three basic hand-signs (from left to right: rock, paper, and scissors) beats one of the other two, and loses to the other.

A man and a girl playing rock-paper-scissors

The players count aloud to three, or speak the name of the game (e.g. "Rock! Paper! Scissors!" or "Ro! Cham! Beau!"), each time raising one hand in a fist and swinging it down on the count. On the third count (saying "scissors!" or "Beau!"), the players change their hands into one of three gestures, which they then "throw" by extending it towards their opponent. Variations include a version where players use a fourth count — "Shoot!" — before throwing their gesture, or a version where they only shake their hands twice before "throwing." Others prefer a five count cadence by saying "Says Shoot!" before throwing their gesture. The gestures are:

• Rock, represented by a clenched fist.
• Scissors, represented by the index and middle fingers extended and separated (or in South Korea, by the thumb and index finger extended).
• Paper, represented by an open hand, with the fingers connected (horizontal).

The objective is to select a gesture which defeats that of the opponent. Gestures are resolved as follows:

• Rock blunts or breaks scissors: that is, rock defeats scissors
• Scissors cut paper: scissors defeats paper
• Paper covers or captures rock: paper defeats rock

If both players choose the same gesture, the game is tied and the players throw again. There are many different ways to use this game, but in South Korea it is most likely used for descending staircases such as the picture above on the right. Two people stand at a stairway, and the person who wins in the game gets to go down one step. They continue this routine until they reach the end of the stairway, and the person who gets to the end first wins. Rock-paper-scissors is also used for choosing who will be the "chaser" or "it" for playing things such as hide-and-seek and tag.

Likelihood of a throw

Jason Simmons, a competitive rock-paper-scissors champion, claims that women tend to start with scissors,^[3] while the World Rock-Paper-Scissors Society states that males have a tendency to lead with rock. At World Rock-Paper-Scissors tournaments, scissors is statistically the least common throw.^[4]

History

Although the exact origins are unknown, rock-paper-scissors was popularized in Japan in the late 19th century and acquired popularity worldwide throughout the 20th century. Jan-ken-pon (じゃんけんぽん^?), or more commonly janken (じゃんけん^?), often transliterated in other ways such as jack-en-poy (tagalog), janken-po, etc., sometimes called rock ken (石拳, ishiken^?), and known as rock-paper-scissors or paper-scissors-stone in the English-speaking world. The origin or the derivation of the name is unknown. ken (拳, ken^?) is a fist in Japanese and Jan-ken-po is categorized as a "ken (fist) games" (拳遊び, ken asobi^?). Janken is believed to have been based on two older ken games, sū ken (数拳, number competing game with fingers) and san sukumi ken (三すくみ拳, san sukumi means the freezing aspects of a snake, frog, and slug with fear). San sukumi ken has existed in Japan since ancient times, and sū ken was imported from China in the late 17th century; the name in China of sū ken is shǒushìlìng (手勢令). Ken games began to increase in popularity in the middle of the 19th century.

Cultural references

Because of its widespread use, the game has received substantial references in popular culture. Many television series poke fun at particular characters' incompetence at understanding the rules, or show how mischievous characters are often able to "win" the game by inventing new objects which beat all the others.

Variations

Players have developed numerous cultural and personal variations on the game, from simply playing the same game with different objects, to expanding into more weapons and rules.

• Rock-paper-scissors is frequently played in a "best two out of three" match, and in many cases psych-outs, shouting, and trick gestures are performed to confuse or trick the other player into throwing an illegal toss resulting in a loss. Some players prefer to shout the name of a throw they do not intend to throw in order to misdirect and confuse their opponent. It generally applies that what is thrown is what is officially counted in the match. For instance, yelling Scissors or Paper, and actually throwing Rock. The rock is what is judged and tallied. During tournaments, players often prepare their sequence of three gestures prior to the tournament's commencement.^[5][6]
• Only rock and paper can be used in an elimination or odd-man-out match. The chant can be "ぐっぱでくんでもおこりなし", "gupa de kundemo okorinashi", (Translated: rock-paper groups you, don't get mad.)^[7]
• A variation found in Indonesia is composed of an earwig, a human, and an elephant. The earwig is able to climb into the elephant's ear and drive it insane, while the human crushes the earwig and the elephant crushes the human.^[8]

Additional weapons

With an odd number of choices, each beats half the weapons and loses to half the weapons. No even number of weapons can be made balanced, unless some pairs of weapons result in a draw; there will always be some weapons superior to others.

An example of an unbalanced four-weapon game adds "dynamite" as a trump. Dynamite, expressed as the extended index finger or thumb, always defeats rock, but is defeated by scissors. The paper-dynamite relationship is disputed; using it as a trump generally implies that "dynamite shreds paper," but there are those who claim that the paper would supposedly smother the fuse. Because of this dispute (and the potential unfair advantage that would result), organized rock-paper-scissors contests never use dynamite. A game theory analysis would eliminate one of the four symbols for being a strategy strictly dominated, and the resulting game would be isomorph to the original rock, paper, scissor (i.e., only a symbol's name would change).^[9]

Similarly, the French game "pierre, papier, ciseaux, puits" (rock, paper, scissors, well) is unbalanced; both the rock and scissors fall in the well and lose to it, while paper covers both rock and well. This means two "weapons", well and paper, can defeat two moves, while the last two weapons can only defeat one of the other three choices.

One popular five-weapon expansion, invented by Sam Kass,^[10] adds "Spock" and "lizard" to the standard three. "Spock" is signified with the Star Trek Vulcan salute, while "lizard" is shown by forming the hand into a sock-puppet-like mouth. Spock smashes scissors and vaporizes rock; he is poisoned by lizard and disproved by paper. Lizard poisons Spock and eats paper; it is crushed by rock and decapitated by scissors. This variant was mentioned in a 2005 article of The Times,^[11] and appeared in an episode of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory, "The Lizard-Spock Expansion," in 2008.

As long as the number of moves is an odd number and that each move defeats exactly half of the other moves while being defeated by the other half, any combinations of moves will function as a game. For example, a 101-move version exists.^[12]

A resolution diagram of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock.

Corresponding gestures.

Kuma ken

Kuma ken is another variation of rock-paper-scissors in which each player throws a number from 0 to 5. Higher numbers beat lower numbers, except that 5 is beaten by 0. The primary strategy for kuma ken is to realize that playing the numbers 1, 2, or 3 is pointless, as 4 beats them and everything they beat. Once both parties in a game of kuma ken realize this, the game degenerates into janken (play 0 to beat 5, play 5 to beat 4, play 4 to beat 0).

Jan Ken Pon

Usually, though not always, the game starts by both players chanting "Saisho wa gū!" (最初はぐう！^?, "Starting with the stone!") while pumping their fists to synchronize the moves.

They repeat the same pumping while chanting "Jan-ken-pon!" On "pon", the players display their hand gestures and resolve them according to standard Rock-Paper-Scissors rules.

The Chants

"Jan-ken-pon!" is the chant commonly said when playing the game in Japan. Depending on region, however, the chant can change. Sometimes, instead of "pon," players shout "hoi!" or "poi!" i.e., "Jan-ken-HOI!" or "Jan-ken-POI!" Phrases that sound nothing like "janken" are also used, for example "JikketTA!" In Kansai, it's not uncommon to hear the chant "in-jan-HOI!" Initially, when players tie, the chant is "aiko deSHO!," with players revealing their play at "sho!" But when players begin to tie continuously, the chant is often shortened to simply "-sho," rapidly changing the play each time. i.e., "aiko deSHO! -SHO! -SHO!". Play may continue even past this initial stage; a common secondary stage of the game is "Acchi Muite Hoi!". The players will chant "Acchi Muite Hoi" (Hey, Look over there!) and on "Hoi" the winner of the first stage will point either up, down, left or right, with the opponent tilting their head in one of these four directions. If the opponent tilts their head in the same direction as the finger, they lose again declaring previous stage's winner the overall winner. If not, the original winners win is cancelled and the game reverts back to "Jan-ken-pon".

Instances of use in real-life scenarios

Federal case

In 2006, Federal Judge Gregory Presnell from the Middle District of Florida ordered opposing sides in a lengthy court case to settle a trivial (but lengthily debated) point over the appropriate place for a deposition using the game of rock-paper-scissors.^[13] The ruling in Avista Management v. Wausau Underwriters stated:

Upon consideration of the Motion – the latest in a series of Gordian knots that the parties have been unable to untangle without enlisting the assistance of the federal courts – it is ORDERED that said Motion is DENIED. Instead, the Court will fashion a new form of alternative dispute resolution, to wit: at 4:00 P.M. on Friday, June 30, 2006, counsel shall convene at a neutral site agreeable to both parties. If counsel cannot agree on a neutral site, they shall meet on the front steps of the Sam M. Gibbons U.S. Courthouse, 801 North Florida Ave., Tampa, Florida 33602. Each lawyer shall be entitled to be accompanied by one paralegal who shall act as an attendant and witness. At that time and location, counsel shall engage in one game of "rock, paper, scissors." The winner of this engagement shall be entitled to select the location for the 30(b)(6) deposition to be held somewhere in Hillsborough County during the period July 11–12, 2006.

– ^[14]

The public release of this judicial order, widely circulated among area lawyers, was intended to shame the respective law firms regarding their litigation conduct by settling the dispute in a farcical manner.

Auction house rock-paper-scissors match

Large Trees Under the Jas de Bouffan sold for $11,776,000 at Christie's.^[15]

When Takashi Hashiyama, CEO of a Japanese television equipment manufacturer, decided to auction off the collection of impressionist paintings owned by his corporation, including works by Cézanne, Picasso, and van Gogh, he contacted two leading U.S. auction houses, Christie's International and Sotheby's Holdings, seeking their proposals on how they would bring the collection to the market as well as how they would maximize the profits from the sale. Both firms made elaborate proposals, but neither was persuasive enough to get Hashiyama’s business. Unwilling to split up the collection into separate auctions, Hashiyama asked the firms to decide between themselves who would hold the auction, which included Cézanne's "Large Trees Under the Jas de Bouffan", worth $12–16 million.

The houses were unable to reach a decision. Hashiyama told the two firms to play rock-paper-scissors to decide who would get the rights to the auction, explaining that "it probably looks strange to others, but I believe this is the best way to decide between two things which are equally good".

The auction houses had a weekend to come up with a choice of move. Christie's went to the 11-year-old twin daughters of an employee, who suggested "scissors" because "Everybody expects you to choose 'rock'." Sotheby's said that they treated it as a game of chance and had no particular strategy for the game, but went with "paper".^[16]

Christie's won the match, with millions of dollars of commission for the auction house.

Rock-paper-scissors in video games

RPS in main game mechanics

Some Facebook apps revolves almost entirely around Rock-Paper-Scissors matches, like Rock-Paper-Sumo.

However, most of the time, rock-paper-scissors cycle are used as fighting mechanics, like in Real-Time Strategy, first-person shooter, and RPG video games : each unit is strong against one of the two others and weak against the last type of unit. Similarly, many card-based video games in Japan use the rock-paper-scissors system as their core fighting system, with the winner of each round being able to carry out their designated attack.

This mechanics emulates cycles in some real-world combats (like this one: cavalry > archers, archers > spearmen, and spearmen > cavalry.) Such game mechanics can make a game somewhat self-balancing, by preventing any one simple strategy from dominating gameplay.

Examples include:

- Star Wars: Empire at War: the relative efficiency units in respect to each other encourages the player into having a mixed Army/Fleet.

- Pokémon: attacks have varied effectiveness based on 17 elemental types and has a complex effectiveness chart, though the system is shown in the three basic types: Fire is super effective against Grass but not very effective against Water. Grass is super effective against Water But not very effective against Fire, while Water is super effective against Fire but not very effective against Grass.

- Dead or Alive: a counter defeats a physical attack like a punch or kick, a physical attack defeats a grapple, and a grapple defeats an attempt at a counter.

- Team Fortress 2: certain classes are designed with clear strength or weaknesses against other classes, which encourages players to respond to the changing battlefield and coordinate their efforts.

- Fire Emblem: Fire Emblem uses a strict rock-paper-scissors system: sword is stronger than axe, axe is stronger than lance, lance is stronger than sword (and in a similar way with types of magic).

- Jump Super Stars and its sequel Jump Ultimate Stars

- Killer Instinct 2

- RuneScape, an MMORPG: in the "Combat Triangle", melee attacks are effective against ranged opponents, ranged attacks are effective against magic opponents and magic attacks are effective against melee opponents.

- Dinosaur King, initially an arcade game ported later to the Nintendo DS

RPS as a secondary main game mechanics

In these games, RPS is not the main way of resolving conflict or advancing in a game, but is mixed with other mechanics.

- Sega's 1986 Alex Kidd in Miracle World: right at the end of each level, the player must beat an enemy at a best-of-three game of rock-paper-scissors.

- Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja 4: when two players collide, one must press a button to determine rock, paper, or scissors. The winner then proceeds to attack the loser.

- Dragon Warrior Monsters, players must beat Goopi in rock-paper-scissors contests in order to progress in the game.

Other Appearances

In Battlefield: Bad Company, Privates Haggard and Sweetwater are commonly seen playing rock-paper-scissors while the squad receives orders from US Command.

In Xenogears, one of the minigames in the town of Lahan is RPS. Defeating the RPS Champ five times in a row earns the main character, Fei, the RPS Badge.

Rock-paper-scissors analogies in nature

Lizard mating strategies

The common side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana) exhibits a rock-paper-scissors pattern in its mating strategies. Of its three color types of males, "orange beats blue, blue beats yellow, and yellow beats orange" in competition for females, which is similar to the rules of rock-paper-scissors.^[17][18]

Coliform bacteria

Some bacteria also exhibit a rock-paper-scissors dynamic when they engage in antibiotic production. The theory for this finding was demonstrated by computer simulation and in the laboratory by Benjamin Kerr, working at Stanford University with Brendan Bohannan.^[19] The antibiotics in question are the bacteriocins - more specifically, colicins produced by Escherichia coli. Biologist Benjamin C. Kirkup, Jr. further demonstrated that the colicins were active as E. coli compete with each other in the intestines of mice, and that the rock-paper-scissors dynamics allowed for the continued competition among strains: antibiotic-producers defeat antibiotic-sensitives; antibiotic-resisters multiply and withstand and out-compete the antibiotic-producers, letting antibiotic-sensitives multiply and out-compete others; until antibiotic-producers multiply again.^[20]

Tournaments

World Rock Paper Scissors Society sanctioned tournaments

Starting in 2002, the World Rock Paper Scissors Society standardized a set of rules for international play^[21] and has overseen annual International World Championships. These open, competitive championships have been widely attended by players from around the world and have attracted widespread international media attention.^{[22][23][24][25][26]} WRPS events are noted for their large cash prizes, elaborate staging, and colorful competitors.^[27] In 2004, the championships were broadcast on the U.S. television network Fox Sports Net, with the winner being Lee Rammage, who went on to compete in at least one subsequent championship.^[28][29]

USARPS Tournaments

USA Rock Paper Scissors League is a US-based rock-paper-scissors league. It is sponsored by Bud Light. Leo Bryan Pacis is the commissioner of the USARPS.

In April 2006, the inaugural USARPS Championship was held in Las Vegas. Following months of regional qualifying tournaments held across the US, 257 players were flown to Las Vegas for a single-elimination tournament at the House of Blues where the winner received $50,000. The tournament was shown on the A&E Network on June 12, 2006.

The $50,000 2007 USARPS Tournament took place at the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay in May 2007.

In 2008, Sean Sears beat out 300 other contestants and walked out of the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino with $50,000.

The inaugural Budweiser International Rock, Paper, Scissors Federation Championship was held in Beijing, China after the close of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. A Belfast man won the competition.^[31]

National XtremeRPS Competition 2007-2008

The XtremeRPS National Competition^[32] is a US nationwide RPS competition with Preliminary Qualifying contests that started in January 2007 and ended in May 2008, followed by regional finals in June and July 2008. The national finals were to be held in Des Moines, Iowa in August 2008, with a chance to win up to $5,000.

UK Rock Paper Scissors Championship 2009

The 1st UK Championship took place on July 13, 2007, and then again on July 14, 2008, in Rhayder, Powys. Steve Frost of Powys is the current holder of this WRPS Sanctioned event.

The 3rd UK Championships took place on June 9, 2009 in Exeter, Devon. Nick Hemley, from Surrey, won the contest.^[33]

Guinness Book of World Records

On April 3, 2009, Colonel By Secondary School in Ottawa, Canada, held the largest recorded rock-paper-scissors tournament, with approximately 1150 participants. The contest was throughout all the Grade 9-12s, and included teachers. The winner, Cody Lombardo, took home a trophy, and had his name in the Guinness Book of World Records.^[34]

On July 9, 2010, over 6500 attendees of the LIFE 2010 Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, participated in the largest tournament of Rock-Paper-Scissors ever, shattering the previous record of 1150 participants.

World Series of Rock Paper Scissors

Former Celebrity Poker Showdown host and USARPS Head Referee^[35] Phil Gordon has hosted an annual $500 World Series of Rock Paper Scissors event in conjunction with the World Series of Poker since 2005.^[36] The winner of the WSORPS receives an entry into the WSOP Main Event. The event is an annual fundraiser for the "Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation" via Gordon's charity Bad Beat on Cancer. Poker player Annie Duke won the Second Annual World Series of Rock Paper Scissors.^[37][38] The tournament is taped by ESPN and highlights are covered during "The Nuts" section of ESPN's annual WSOP broadcast.^[39][40][41] 2009 was the fifth year of the tournament.

The Scisscors Cup

The RPS WC tour affectionately known by many as the Scisscors cup due to the fact that the Italian fashion designer who created the tour's clothing made a spelling mistake. Took place in Europe over the summer of 2010. The first matches were played in Prague's Strahov stadium which holds a capacity of 220,000. Series matches then continued to the city's of Budapest, Novi Sad during the Exit music festival, Zagreb, Milan, Zurich and a final which took place under the Eiffel tower between Mark Oates and James Wallace (DJ Jigsaw). The match was won by Oates with the throw of a scissor after both players matched each others hands 5 times in a row.

Red Bull World Online Series

Although not a official event nor a sanctioned event, the Facebook application "Red Bull Roshambull" plays host to a exclusive contest which brings a lot of interest from both People who compete in the Real Tournaments around the world and players of the game who have no experience of Real Tournament Play..These players that have never had contest experience in Rock Paper Scissors are known as "Fake Players" or "Amateurs" by the Professional players.Online RPS is often referred to as "fantasy RPS" or "fake RPS" and is believed by many Professional players to be no substitute for the real thing.

The World Series was created by James Heyes,who created the event after the application creators stopped hosting a popular weekly event.

The World Series is played on a weekly basis in which it replicates a touring contest, with points being awarded for how well a contestant did in each Tournament, and after a set amount of Legs have been played, a playoff between the top 24 ranking players to decide the overall champion. There is a slight friendly rivalry between the Amateurs and Pro players which lead to other events to coincide with the tournament being created.
During the 2nd Series the rivalry heated up by a team event being created containing the best Amateur players taking on the Highest Ranked Pro players started up, dubbed "Pro's versus Joe's", in which the Pro players won with ease. In the 3rd Series a similar Team event was created to coincide the ongoing FIFA World Cup where members of each country would team up to compete against each other,The Norweigens won this event but the amateur players dominated as all the teams in the final stages had only 1 team with 2 professional players.

The 1st Championships ended up with 79 players competing over 19 legs, with Alan Giles, an amateur player, of Fowly, UK winning the inaugural title.
The 2nd Championship reached its climax with 2 Australian pros, Clayton Dwyer and Frances Anne Ricketts, going into the final leg of the series only a few points off the leader Anna Kvalheim, but during leg 23 Anna was eliminated early on, leaving Clayton and Frances in the running. The last leg draw gave the chance for the League title to be decided in the Semis but with Clayton being eliminated early, Frances finished far enough to take 1st place. Alan Giles was eliminated in 25th place. In the playoffs Frances Anne dominated the Double Elimination brackets and managed to get to the final without dropping a point. It was only the final match of the series that saw her lose a point, but she beat Mark Thomas in the final to win the series. The 3rd Series saw Frances Anne fail to make the final stages, but Andrew Lampman won 3 of the legs to secure the League Phase of the Title

Season	Final Rankings	League Stage Top 3	Team Event Winners
Summer 2009	1st: Alan Giles (A) 2nd: Mark Thomas (A) 3rd: Frances Anne Ricketts 4th: Shiva Roshambollah	1st: Mark Thomas(A) 2nd: Monika Hjelmås (A) 3rd: Javier Manzano	No Team event took place
Winter 2009/10	1ST: Frances Anne Ricketts 2ND: Mark Thomas 3RD: Roman P (A) 4TH: Mac Anamourlis(A)	1ST Frances Anne Ricketts 2nd Clayton Dwyer 3rd Anna Kvalheim (A)	Pro's vs Joes Pro's Team Clayton Dwyer (c) Frances Anne Ricketts Martin Burley Will Pridmore Mark Thomas Russell Cohrs
Summer 2010	Playoffs to begin Shortly People competing: Andrew Lampman(a), Brett McFarlane(a), Mark Tuden(a) Jamie Viens (a) Dave Dungan (a), William Hooper(a), Mac Anamourlis(a), Tom Bussineau(a), Shiva Roshambollah Anna Kvalheim(a), Sarah Dixon(a) James Heyes(a)	Season in session 1st Andrew Lampman(a) 2nd Brett McFarlane (a) 3rd Mark Tuden (a)	World Team Challenge GOLD MEDAL - Norway Erik Westnes(a),Monika Hjelmas(a),Anna Kvalheim(a) SILVER MEDAL - African Nations Mac Anamourlis(a),Craig Von Hagen(a),Jakqui Krobo(a) BRONZE MEDAL - England James Heyes(a),Sarah Dixon(a),Andy Mills(a)

(A) denotes Amateur Status

The following Professional Players are known to compete in the World Series on a regular basis
Clayton Dwyer , Frances Anne Ricketts, Shiva Roshambollah, Sean Sears, Shawn Ring, Martin Burley, Will Pridmore, Russell Cohrs, Jeff St George, Graham Walker, Pal Magnusson.

See also

• Simultaneous action selection
• Morra (game) - Another hand game for deciding trivial matters

Notes

References

External links

• USA Rock Paper Scissors League
• World Rock Paper Scissors Society
• UK Rock Paper Scissors Championships
• Abrams, Michael (2004-07-05). "Throwing for The Gold". Pursuits. Forbes FYI. http://www.forbes.com/execpicks/fyi/2005/0407/061.html. Retrieved 2007-04-09. 
• Hegan, Ken (2004-01-07). "Hand to Hand Combat: Down and dirty at the World Rock Paper Scissors Championship". Rolling Stone Feature Article. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5938313/hand_to_hand_combat/. Retrieved 2009-03-30. 
• "History of Rock Paper Scissors" at JBrowse.com
• Etymological origin of Janken (Japanese)
• About Ken games (Japanese)
• Origins of Janken (Japanese)
• Janken in the world (Japanese)
• A biological example of rock-paper-scissors: Interview with biologist Barry Sinervo on the 7th Avenue Project Radio Show