Oracle Online

The United States of America Rock Paper Scissors (USARPS) League, however, is playing for fun. Well, fun and money. On March 2, the Minnesota Timberwolves hosted the state’s first annual all-ages RPS Tournament at the Target Center, sponsored by USARPS.

Five elimination rounds took place off the court before the T-Wolves game, and finalists Kelly Kanz and Karie Myer battled it out on-court during a third- quarter time-out for the grand prize of $500. Myer happily walked away with her prize after defeating Kanz.

The USARPS League was created in 2006, by a television producer named Jeff Kmiotek, who knew of serious RPS players and wanted to make competitions televised events with monetary prizes. Competitions have been televised on Fox Sports Network, ESPN, and even the A&E channel.

One of the most legendary RPS players in the world is a man who calls himself “Rochambeau”, or the “Master”. The Master has exchanged his days of competition for recruiting a new generation of young players since the creation of the league.

In fact, most competitors in the Target Center tournament were under the age of 21, the youngest being 12-year-old Zach Damond of Richfield, MN.

“I had a sleepover one day with my friends and I said let’s play rock, paper, scissors, and we did, and now we always play,” Damond commented.

Damond made it to the third round before he was eliminated, but claimed afterward that he thinks the game is just luck.

Just luck-or strategic planning? Players are divided. According to an adult-based gambling trio of RPSers who were in the tournament, The Hustlers, the game has been passed down through the blood line for generations.
Rockmaninoff, a Hustler, says he never plays a game of RPS, but “always the person.”

The Master claims the best way to train for an RPS match is to start a group for practicing RPS skills and start incorporating it into daily life. And that is exactly what he did. Beginning at an early age, the Master defeated many players twice his age.

“I was kind of the Bobby Fischer of RPS at that time,” the Master said. “I’ve played in North America, Australia and Asia.”

Although the USARPS League may seem adolescent, that is not the case. The T-Wolves tournament represented an opportunity to branch out to kids, a bracket of the population that once was excluded from the events.

The first 21+ Tournament Finals were held in Las Vegas, Nevada, last spring at the Mandalay Hotel and Casino with a grand prize of $50,000.

Although more Vegas contests are expected, Target Center finalists and winner, Myer, will not be entered due to age requirements. Plus, the spirit of the March 2 tournament was more about fun, less about competition.

According to Timberwolves contact Kristen Schowe, “We didn’t want to make it about drinking, gambling and Vegasčwe wanted more of a family feel, and we wanted the possibility of seven-year-old girls to be able to take on 35-year-old menčimagine that!”

USARPS creator, Kmiotek, adds that the T-Wolves tournament was a joint effort between the USARPS league and the T-Wolves. The T-Wolves contacted the USARPS League after the 2006 televised finals in Las Vegas and an event was born.

“We reached out to them and they were excited to partner with us, feeling it would generate great exposure for the sport,” T-Wolves Senior Director of Ticket Sales, Bryant Pfeiffer said. “In addition to being a unique and different form of entertainment for our fans, this promotion will sell 200 tickets for us as a Wolves tickets apart of each registration.”

Hamline was contacted a short while before the February 23 registration deadline for the tournament; however, the notice was too short to publicly get the word out about the event.

Hamline’s Becky Wolf speculated that if representatives from the T-Wolves had given Hamline more notice, then there would have been more time to inform students of the tournament. Students who did know about it didn’t find paying the $19 registration fee worth the gamble.

Both Pfeiffer and Kmiotek anticipate another tournament similar to that on March 2 in the near future and as the Master said, he sees value in younger generations getting into the sport, as it would be easier to incorporate into everyday life at an early age.

Unique to this now-official sport is the variety that it caters to. One can be old, young, big, small, sick, healthy, or what have you, and still have a good chance of winning. Many pros, including The Hustlers and the Master swear by being able to read your opponent as a key to RPS victory.

As Kmiotek noted, a functioning arm, wrist and hand are all encouraged before going into a match. After that, whether it is luck or strategy, training or agečno one knows for sure.