Janken-pon: The 2012 International Rock Paper Scissors Championships

Looking back at the 2012 International Rock Paper Scissors Championships in London.

We competed in the International Rock Paper Scissors Championships in London 14 years ago this week. How time flies!

Competitive Rock Paper Scissors draws a crowd!

We teamed up with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Dave Barry and his daughter Sophie from the USA to take part in the huge event.

The San Marino Rock Paper Scissors team

More than 150 athletes from 16 teams competed in the Wacky Nation organised tournament held at the Knight’s Templar Pub on Chancery Lane in London on Thursday 9th August 2012.

As we couldn’t play as a combined 'UK-USA' team we decided to represent the plucky nation of San Marino instead.

Prior to the start of the competition I challenged football hard man Neil ‘Razor’ Ruddock to a 'friendly' Rock Paper Scissors contest to warm-up.

Clash of the titans

Needless to say I won the shootout! It was an ill-tempered clash with plenty of foul language and gamesmanship. The heated battle almost resulted in a knock-out punch too!

International Rock Paper Scissors

Matches in the Round Robin stage of the main-event were played in a ‘first to four points’ format with each player in the team taking it in turns to win a point by competing in a ‘best of three’ Rock Paper Scissors game. Our team managed to rack up a win-loss record of won four, lost one.

Before any teams could advance from our pool a play-off was required as Austria and the Lapland 'A' team had also finished with four wins and one loss!

Thankfully our team was able to win both matches to advance alongside Lapland 'A', with the Austrians sent home.

The first semi-final saw San Marino take on the Vatican City team in a ‘first to six points’ match.

Unfortunately we lost and were therefore unable to go for gold.

Sadly we just missed out on the podium, suffering defeat to Great Britain in the repechage to ultimately finish in fourth place.

The final was a battle between the might of Lapland 'A' and the Vatican City, with the Laplanders finishing on top and grabbing the gold medal.

Competitive Rock Paper Scissors

Getting to the semi-finals of the International Rock Paper Scissors Championships was the furthest I have ever reached in an RPS tournament (so far), having been knocked out in the preliminary rounds of national competitions held in 2010 and 2011.

Rock Paper Scissors tournaments around the world...

Do you know of any other Rock Paper Scissors tournaments or championships that take place in the UK or around the world?