Sunday, March 25, 2007

A serious game of Rock Paper Scissors

I went up to New York City a week ago to search for a job in advertising, and I stayed with my old college buddy Brent in Hoboken, New Jersey on Thursday night. We went to this restaurant/bar to get some food and be tempted to have some beers. We resisted, though, since I had an interview on Friday.

Around the end of our meal, we started hearing a female voice yelling repeatedly, "Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" "Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" As soon as we were done eating, we went to investigate, and we found a young woman in a referee outfit with a decently sized crowd around her, and two people staring each other down in a game of Rock Paper Scissors. We looked at the bracket and realized that this was a full 64-person tournament being put on by the USARPS League. That's right, everybody, there's an official national Rock Paper Scissors League, and it's sponsored by (no surprise here) Bud Light! Check it out at http://www.usarps.com/!

There were still a few spots open in the bracket, so without hesitation, we joined the tourney. Let me tell you, it was an intense hour after that. I found myself watching my future opponents to get some strategy on them: "Ahh OK, he always throws rock after throwing paper. Gotta remember that for next round."

Brent and I ended up getting paired up against each other in the Sweet 16 round. For those 5 minutes, we were no longer friends. We were rivals. Alas, Brent beat me, and went on to the Elite 8, where he lost to a girl! The championship was two girls going up against each other, and everyone in the bar was very much on one side or the other in their cheering.

I had no idea that there was an official Rock Paper Scissors League. But it goes to show how obsessed we are with competition in our country. Even though it was all in good fun, people were getting pretty intense. I now know that you can find just about any type of game, and if you put it in the right setting and make it sound official, you can get people excited.

Oh, and the interview went pretty well too.

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