Rochambeau, Anyone?

I speak, of course, of Rock, Paper, Scissors. As it turns out, the Rock Paper Scissors World Championships are being held in Toronto on October 16. I swear that I’m not making this up. Don’t believe me? Check out the storied (founded in 1842) World RPS Society’s site, which describes the game this way:

RPS is a decision making game of wits, speed, dexterity and strategy between players who are unable to reach a decision using other means. The result of a game is considered a binding agreement between the players. RPS is a game played by honourable people and therefore every effort should be made to commit to the outcome.

I laughed out loud when I read first item in the players’ code of responsibility: “Safety First! Always ensure that all players have removed sharp jewellery and watches.” Item #6 is good advice as well: “Think twice before using RPS for life-threatening decisions.”

I also laughed out loud when I originally read about this story in the Vancouver Sun. Of course, it’s not available to us normal humans, but I had to recapture this description of last year’s runner-up, Marc Rigaux:

Rigaux managed to take second place last year despite the fact that, by his own admission, he was literally too drunk to throw anything but Rock. (In his extremely inebriated state, he threw an unprecedented number of Rocks in a row–when done deliberately, such a series is called an Avalance–but he says it probably lost him the competition.

This year’s prize pool is CAN $10,000–not bad for guessing right. Of course, after ultimate games, we sometimes play a running variation of rochambeau, known as Cop, Pimp, Ho. There’s also a surreal variation known as Cat, Microwave, Ninja Tinfoil (thanks, Imo, sorry, Chanelle). In either case, you can imagine the hand gestures.

Should anyone actually care about the origin of rochambeau, there are apparently a number of theories.