Janken World Championship

[Mulboyne]

Japan seemed criminally underepresented in the World Championship last month. Certainly by comparison with all the competitors and coverage of the Nathan's Hot Dog event



Coverage on the 2004 Rock Paper Scissors International World Championships site. History, strategies etc on the
World RPS Society site.

Today, RPS is one of the most popular games in the world. Players of the sport from New Zealand to Japan to Great Britain carry their World RPS Society membership cards with pride. Officially, the sport is known as Rock Paper Scissors or RPS. However, the informal name differs across the Globe, with variations such as:
Paper Scissors Stone (United Kingdom)
Muck Chee Baa (Indonesia)
Janken or JakenPon (Japan)
Jan Ken Po (Hawaii)
Roshambo/Roshambeau (USA)
Stone Scissors Well (France)
Hammer, Nail, Paper (Vietnam)
Shnik Shnak Shnuk (Germany)
Ching Chong Chow (South Africa)
Farggling (U.S.)

[tatsujin]

[Mulboyne]

[Mulboyne]

IHT: Las Vegas's latest game - Rock, paper, scissors

LAS VEGAS: As if it were necessary to further whip up a ballroom filled with raucous people already giddy on free-flowing beer, Matti Leshem was on the microphone trying to imbue some more excitement. "This is the greatest sport ever to sweep the United States of America," Leshem, the co-commissioner of the 17-month-old USA Rock Paper Scissors League, bellowed Saturday afternoon. Leshem says he believes that, but several people in the crowd burst out in giggle fits...Leshem, a 44-year-old Hollywood producer who says he never plays the game for less than $100 a throw, founded the league last year after discovering there were leagues in Australia, Canada, Europe and elsewhere...Leshem said he considered the event an important step toward earning respectability for the game, providing clear rules and refereeing standards and creating a community for like-minded people to indulge their passion. He said that there are hundreds of thousands of players and that he dreams of making it an Olympic event...

...While many said the free trip was reward enough, others had hopes for the top prize. Among those was Antony Maanum, 26, of Overland Park, Kansas, who won his passage at Maloney's Bar and Grill in Shawnee Mission, Kansas. Maanum was dressed in a custom-made red silk boxing robe with white lettering on the back that read "Antoine 'Shears' Maanum," and explained that he was wearing red cooking mitts because "my hands are just too hot"..."It's kind of silly, but you see boxers all the time, and they're cocky and they're full of attitude, and I thought I'd take it to another level," said Maanum, a lifelong player who said he became so good as a child that others would only flip coins with him to decide things. "I'm definitely serious when I'm playing the game, but with my costume my opponents don't think so. And I beat them"...more...