Scissors Paper Stone

1

As a founder member of SPaStIC many years ago (Scissors Paper Stone Irish Committee) I was involved in regulating the rules of scissors paper stone in Ireland many years ago. For those who doubt you can see references to SPaStIC on the global governing body for Scissors Paper Stone/Rock Paper Scissors: (see http://www.worldrps.com/links.html)

Indeed one of our fonder memories was when we received a message from the guru of global RPS Master Roshambollah praised our website on the worldrps site (see this post: http://www.worldrps.com/wwwboard/messages/1620.html).

Anyway I thought it might be useful to collate the official Irish rules on this thread for anyone who enjoys a game now and again. As an affiliate member of the Worldrps (who orgainse the world championships which is televised in the US) the rules set in place by SPaStIC are the official rules for local play. All local games should be decided according to these rules:

Rules of the Game [Paragraph 4 of SPaStIC Constitution]

1 All matches must involve a minimum of 1.78 persons and a maximum of 2.9 persons.

2 Matches are played over a sudden death or three-legged-affair basis.

3 The duration of the match must be agreed in advance by both competitors unless an acknowledged norm has developed between the players.

4 In the event of a tie the match is immediately replayed over the same basis as the previous encounter.

5 The following moves may be played by the competitors:
Scissors
Paper or
Stone

6 A scissors is deemed the victor against paper and defeated against rock.

7 A scissors against a scissors is deemed a tie.

8 A paper is deemed victorious against rock.

9 A paper must be played with a minimum of four parallel fingers held preferably parallel to the floor. Provision is made for certain throwers to play a paper vertically perpendicular to the ground, though this practice is deemed inelegant.

10 Unless stipulated otherwise a player must pull three primes before pulling the move of his/her choice.

11 Priming speed is discretional and both players must make an effort to prime at a speed realistically attainable by their opponent.

12 The rules of World RPS shall be broadly adopted in relation to matters not addressed in this Constitution, although the Committee reserve the right to adjudicate on local interpretations of those rules.

13 Eye contact (or the lack of it) is expressly not an issue to be addressed by these rules and is entirely discretional.

14 Following through the motions and carrying out an animation of victory (i.e. thumping your opponents scissors) is entirely legal and members who complain of sore fingers will be suspended from play for a week.

2

Anyway one of the reasons I’m posting this is because I played a game of Ching Ku Pang (a scissors paper stone variant) with Bandage in Milan. It’s a team game and while it might be expected to be boring or lame Bandage will agree that it’s one of the finest sports he has ever participated in. He’s been pestering me for the rules so I found them on a cached version of the old SPaStIC website:

Ching Ku Pang

Ching Ku Pang is the game taking Fingal by storm and capturing the hearts and(especially)the minds of SPASTIC committee members.

Ching Ku Pang is a variant on the theme of Scissors Paper Stone, which is played throughout Asia and introduced to Ireland by the esteemed Malaysian mathematician Ayinthiralingham Jambulingam.

Although the game relies on the same basic weapons and signs as SPS (i.e. palm facing downwards for paper, clenched fist for rock, and two fingers extended for scissors) the fundamentals of the game are inherently different due to the unusual scoring system.

The rules of the game are as follows:

1 CKP is played as a team game with two opposing teams containing equal amounts of players

2 The following substances are prohibited in the two months preceding a tournament:
http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_542.pdf

3 The decision as to which team can attack in the first bout shall be decided by the outcome of a one-off game of scissors paper stone, compliant with SPASTIC rules.

4 The attacking team shall be represented by one player, playing with both hands simultaneously against both hands of ALL players of the opposing team.

5 If a player has less than two hands, he may not supplement his existing natural limbs with artificial prosthetics.

6 If a player has more than two hands, the two hands closest to his body shall be deemed in play with the additional hands ignored.

7 The moves are not executed in a two pumps then prime manner as exhibited in traditional SPS. Rather the attacking player should count the words One Two Three and then pull the move of his choice.

8 The hands of all players should remain stationary during the countdown.

9 Variations on the count for linguistic differences are permitted. (E.g. Ein zwei drei is quite acceptable in Germany, Austria and parts of Switzerland).

10 The attacking player shall be deemed victorious in any instance of equalling the defending players moves (i.e. a paper from the attacker beats a paper from the defender) and the defender shall lose the right to participate further in the contest with any hand(s) that are defeated.

11 Any unmatched moves (i.e. a paper from the attacker against a stone or a scissors from the defender) shall have no affect on the outcome of the game and players shall continue with all hands still in play.

12 After the conclusion of the first bout of the contest, the teams shall reverse rolls with the defending team attacking and the attacking team defending.

13 As with Rule 4, the team now attacking shall be represented by one player attacking against both hands of ALL players of the opposing team using both hands.

14 The attack and defence modes are alternated between the teams following each bout with play continuing until one team loses all hands, at which point the other team is declared the victor.

15 Conferring between bouts is allowed unless stipulated otherwise prior to the commencement of the first bout.

16 Hand and wrist jewellery should be kept to a minimum.

The rules of Ching Ku Pang appear complex at first but are easily mastered by the competent SPS player. CKP will never replace SPS as the number one game in SPASTIC, rather it should be viewed as a recreational activity enjoyed as an off-set to the rigorous demands of regular SPS competition play.

3

Ching Ku Pang is indeed a cracking game. I thoroughly enjoyed playing it in the trendy niteclubs and late bars of Milan. It’s a great mental test and I asked rocko to try find the rules as I think the astro team can play it in the dressing room before games to ensure we’re all mentally tuned in. As the rules say the game is complementary to the traditional SPS game and in no way sets out to usurp it.

4

I may as well post the rest of that website here as I’m at it:

SPS Strategy game at this link: http://web.archive.org/web/20030327024155/http://www.spastic.com2.info/

Strategy Discussions:

The Last of The Rock Stars

The first in an occasional series outlining the strategies behind the principal moves in Scissors Paper Stone.

Rock: Beloved of the beginner, Adored by the amateur, revered by the rookie, but is there another dimension to this beast? Former Disputed Fingallian Semi-Professional Champion therock67 investigates.

There is no doubting the fact that any new player must get acquainted with rock before entering into a bout. It is the weapon of choice for most new-comers, in part owing to tradition, in part owing to its success rate against scissors, but primarily because of the ease of execution. “When in doubt pull rock” is the mantra of most youth coaches who try and drill this move into kids from an early age to avoid mis-pulls such as a one fingered scissors or a three fingered paper, or worst of all a spread-eagled paper with an erect thumb in a handshake position. In that respect rock is the obvious method to avoid disaster because the player need not alter his priming grip to execute the move. This has drawbacks however. A study by the fairly respected Professor Shane O’Malley of Dublin City University into the progress of promising young players over their careers entitled The Reason of Rock revealed two important facts about those coached in the traditional manner:

n Players encouraged to open with rock at every opportunity were unable to diversify their attack in later life becoming solely reliant on rock

n Those players who continued to use rock at every available opportunity had most success against scissors and limited success against paper.

This led the Professor to the conclusion that unless these bright young future stars could be guaranteed opponents from a scissors school their success would be extremely limited. The EU and the US responded to the report with a joint initiative granting a generous aid package to Sub-Saharan Africa in return for the guarantee that their technically gifted players would throw a minimum of 90% scissors in competition play. This unspoken policy continued for a number of years until uncovered by journalists listening to the post-Watergate Nixon tapes. The disgraced president, himself a competent amateur, resigned and the grant aid package was halted immediately. Instead the emphasis has shifted towards a more diversified coaching scheme with young players instructed to choose from any of rock, paper or scissors as their opening move.

There can be no doubting that rock is a glorious move when executed properly and there is surely no more beautiful site in world sport than a barrage of rocks reigning down on a helpless scissors. It remains for me the ultimate and sweetest triumph as there is something almost poetic about a studied, stern rock destroying an audacious scissors. It is Goliath avenging David’s triumph. It is the US massacring Vietnam. It is Iceland trouncing the Mighty Ducks. It is the restoration of the old world order where power and size triumph over skill and surprise. However, there is a school of thought suggesting the end might be nigh for rock. The greatness of the move is proving its downfall because there are simply too many rocks being thrown on the SPS circuit. Variation is at last encouraged among younger players but rock remains the easiest move and hence the most popular. According to all scientific law the frequency of a move is inversely proportionate to its success rate and rock will suffer until its popularity wanes. There can be little doubt but that paper is challenging rock as the opening move of choice among the upper echelons of the professional ranks. Papers advantages are twofold in that it secures a victory against rock and draws with paper. The only possible downside is a scissors which can defeat it but in an era where rock is being thrown about like confetti why would anyone begin their game with a scissors?

So is the end of the road for rock? Have we seen the last of stone as the supreme move and the choice of the people? Is paper a genuine alternative as the people’s favourite? No, No and No. Scissors paper stone would be a dull game without peaks and valleys. The beauty of the game is the Holy Trinity of options. Rock has suffered from over-exposure in the media and outdated coaching but this serves only to lessen its favouritism, which perversely reinvigorates its success rate. The notion of an unreliable rock is absurd and this master will bounce back from its current travails. That is the greatness of the move. When all else fails have faith and you shall be rewarded.

In rock we trust.

5

Scissors The New Rock?

The most elegant of moves and certainly the most effective against rock, is scissors a viable alternative to that beast or will inconsistency against paper be the ruination of this move?

Rock, for so long worshipped as the weapon of the people is under threat. The last four Fingallian championships have been won by a sneaky scissors and this trend threatens to spread across the globe. Scissors Paper Stone players traditionally look to their Fingallian brethern for guidance as these fine players are usually on the cutting edge tactically. Indeed Irish players, in general are renowned for their innovative technique but it is from Fingallians particularly that most experts take their lead. The Fingallian Championships are the Mercury Music Prize of scissors paper stone. Not quite the Grammys, and a little obscure but certainly no Smash Hits Awards. If scissors is successful in Fingal, it is likely that this success will spread further afield. And scissors at the moment looks unstoppable.

Since the Ayatollah popularised the scissors as an attacking ploy in the late 1960s [img width=200 height=149]http://polnotes.typepad.com/windfarmblog/images/khomeini_2.jpg the hierarchy of scissors paper stone has become blurred. A sharp blow of a scissors can be devestatingly effective and it is a considerably more subtle and sly weapon than rock, though doubts remain about its consistency. Arguably invincible in confrontations with paper one could be forgiven for believing that scissors is the answer to all SPS player’s prayers, namely an all-conquering, all-powerful tool. However every silver lining is cursed with a cloud, and so the greatness of scissors is severely diminished by its fallibility in contests against rock. The sight of your primary weapon crushed utterly with a single blow from a stone can be enough to end the ambitions of any young player but perseverance is advisable. Papers are everywhere these days and studies have shown that the best counter to a paper is a scissors.

The key to scissors is not in the execution of the throw but in the thoughts beforehand. With modern coaching trends virtually anybody can be taught to make a scissors motion (99.4% of the world’s population have at least one “three fingered or greater” hand) so the question is just when to pull. This is where the difficulty of the move lies. With rock you can pull blindly against any old scissors and expect to secure victory but a scissors is successful ONLY against paper. Patience is the key. Often a paper player can be very obvious. Someone a little too big for their boots. Someone a little too cocky. Someone with a touch of arrogance. To pull paper requires confidence so watch for an opponent strutting to the priming dock. Look out for an audacious young player with burning ambition. Even suspect the undefeated champion. All these players are prime paper candidates and all can be brought back to earth with a cunning scissors. It is not good enough to approach a bout all gung-ho and determined to pull a scissors whatever the consequences. Throwing a scissors in against a rock is foolhardy and will end in tears. It is the element of surprise that brings success. The shears should be saved for special occassions or their effectiveness will be diminished. There are few certainties in sport and there are even less where scissors paper stone is concerned but you can be sure that to throw away a couple of aimless scissors will result in shards of steel not paper. Instead of confetti you will be greeted with splinters of blades as rock comes crashing down. Look out for a telegraphed paper (there has to be a Daily Telegraph pun there somewhere) but until then keep your scissors close to your chest.

The importance of scissors is no longer in doubt but its role in competition play is still not clear. Many players like to open with a scissors for a surprise attack but forget that paper is statistically one of the three least popular opening moves, so chances are it may not be drawn. Exactly how good is scissors? It’s hard to say if it is any better or any worse than rock. Certainly it provides different results but is unquestionably more suited to a match against a paper oriented opponent. Perhaps we might turn again to that scholar and muse Professor Shane O Malley of Dublin City University. Prof O Malley has indulged his passion for Scissors Paper Stone a little of late and on a year long sabbatical in Arklow completed a dissertation entitled, Scissors - I Will Cut You Down. In this paper O Malley famously arrived at the following conclusion known as the Trinity Theory: Scissors is to Paper as Rock is to Scissors. Scissors is a move which many men play but few play well.

Paper or Pauper?

Paper was always the saviour of the downtrodden, the final desperate fling from a defeated master, a token gesture from the academics towards a more balanced competition when rock dominated against scissors. Yet it has evolved into something greater over the last half century. Once again, “The Man with the Golden Fist”, therock67, investigates.

It says a lot about the popularity of paper in modern times that it would seem impossible to write any strategic analysis of Scissors Paper Stone and not include a section on paper. Paper has grown from everbody’s third option, the get-out of jail desperation measure or the Hail Mary throw into something far more substantial. Ranked as one of the top three all time plays, paper has now become the third great force of scissors paper stone. Why?

The single greatest weapon in paper’s armour is its disregard for the merits of rock. Nobody preaches more than a rock-ite and this is often intimidating for opponents who become confused by the apparent lack of options facing them when confronted with a foul-mouthed, jumped-up, snarling rock player. This is the barren surroundings in which paper has grown. Not content to accept defeat against rock in the hope of winning elsewhere (as scissors does) paper has sought to challenge rock’s very existence and right to domination. So instead of running scared paper stands up to be counted and with devestating results. It is fair to say that nobody pulling a rock expects a paper in return so the sight of a paper sneaking in on the blindside cloaked by a last minute fist-release from a technically gifted player is stunning in its surprise. How many times have we seen a national hero staring down at his apparently infallible rock in disbelief when caught out by paper? Therein lies paper’s strength.

Why has it taken until the latter half of the twentieth century for paper to gain a foothold in the Scissors Paper Stone hierarchy? Quite simply the move was never played properly before. Paper suffered from its branding as an afterthought in the minds of many top players. It was long assumed that if paper struggled against scissors then it surely could not challenge rock so when paper was pulled victoriously, the results were written off in the media as flukes or poor tactics on behalf of the defeated rock. Only with the popularity of paper in Nazi Germany [img width=500 height=376]http://img.timeinc.net/Life/lifebooks/olympics/gallery/4.jpg did the world sit up and take notice. Here was a nation gripped by paper fever and a seemingly glorious and mutually beneficial love affair with paper was sweeping into Poland and elsewhere across the continent. Thus the Paparazzi were born.

The Paparazzi are the most passionate and vocal of all Scissors Paper Stone supporters. They are unique in that their support is never directed towards one particular player or nation, rather they have a fanatical appreciation for paper throws. They add some notable glamour to contests with their incessant chanting for paper and their roar when a player acknowledges their baying with a triumphant paper but there are many blazer-clad officials who would rather the Paparazzi did not display their enthusiasm quite so vociferously. The razzmatazz brought to the game by these die-hard paper fanatics is indeed offset a little by their occasionally loutish behaviour. Greek veteran Giorgos Akremanis was ridiculed an Egyptian tournament last year over his inability to pull paper. Akremanis, a moderately successful but limited player who was born with only one hand with three fingers, is clearly unable to pull any sort of paper and did not deserve to be humiliated.

Will paper ever gain the international appeal of its cousins scissors and stone? Paper remains a cult weapon despite its increasing success rate and this is probably as a result of its performances against scissors. It seems that when the pressure is on and the mighty rock must be destroyed one should look no further than paper but in the depths of winter, away from the limelight, when the battles are tough a paper is no match for a scissors. So the future of paper is blurred? It might develop into an attacking tool to be used solely against rock or it may remain the cult weapon beloved of the Paparazzi but a little too eccentric to bring regular results. Indeed if someone could combine the power of rock with the stealth of scissors and the bravado of paper they would be quite the player indeed. Until then paper will remain as a valuable weapon, but alas no panacea. Perhaps Shane O’Malley summed up the qualities of paper best with his famous maxim: “Blessed are the papers for theirs is the kingdom of rock.”

6

Some outstanding SPS theory and musings there. Possibly too complex for the casual weekend player but plenty of food for thought all the same. Great to see the old site again but I can’t find that message from the girl in Asia who wanted to travel accross and play you!!!

7

Some of the email is at the bottom of this page: http://web.archive.org/web/20030327024155/http://www.spastic.com2.info/

I think that was the lass. It was amazing how many people took us seriously. The world competitions do exist and they were hoping we’d come. Some tv crew from the States wanted to film us as well but we had to go to London to do it and didn’t bother.

8

Some outstanding SPS theory and musings there. Possibly too complex for the casual weekend player but plenty of food for thought all the same.

Glad you mentioned that Bandage. Some people are a little fearful of SPS tactics, believing them to be beyond their comprehension. That’s not the case though. We all have to start somewhere.

What I’d advise a youngster starting out on the game is to work on the basics first. Master rock and then work on your other moves. I’m not advocating an avalanche of rocks every time you play the game - variety is important - but you should be looking to score or defend well with rock.

If you happen across the odd paper or scissors victory treat it as a bonus but really you shouldn’t be relying on either of those moves for scores. Rely on rock, work on it and it will reward you. It’s perfectly possible to be a more than capable player if you’re only scoring off rock so don’t rush ahead with trying to master scissors or paper.

9

It is definitely true that you’re drawn to rock as a beginner. You mention the fact that it doesn’t involve any change from the ‘pumping’ motion and so you can automatically fall into rock if you’re nervous or uncertain. And these are definitely traits the beginner will possess.

Arising from this I often throw in a paper to begin with myself. You say it’s the sign of a cocky competitor and in many respects it is. But I believe paper also displays fear. Some competitors lose their nerve if there’s a run of ‘rock’ ties and so they float paper in straight away so that their victory or defeat is swift and relatively painless.

Scissors is always a last resort for me personally…or is it???

10

That’s a decent understanding of the game for a beginner Bandage. You’re right about rock - it’s the easy move. That said it’s very useful in the triple bluff for more advanced competition play.

There’s one thing about rock that puts it head and shoulders above paper in my opinion: you know when you’re having an all out rock war. Everyone is pulling rock every time and then someone throws in a sly scissors to catch out the presumed inevitable paper that would trump rock? You’ve essentially got 2 guys pulling rock wondering when to break rank and pull paper. Then some sly lad slips in a scissors and the rock just destroys him. That almost never happens with paper.

11

Yeah, it seems fair to say that paper’s one of the 3 best moves in the game alright.

12

rock, if some loonball opens with scissors and you beat him with rock first up then how should you approach the second game given it’s obvious your opponent is a complete nutter?

13

That’s a tough one Bandage. I’d liken it a little to facing a southpaw in boxing but maybe that’s giving your opponent too much credit.

In circumstances such as the above I’d keep faith in rock. No point in playing paper because your opponent obviously has a weak rock that he won’t rely on - why else would he open with scissorss? I suppose a pair of shears is an option in case he opts for paper in a counter-offensive but it depends on how experienced your opponent is. For now I’ll assume he’s naive and advise a wholesome rock.

14

This game is dead, long live

Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock

15

Havage, got my Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock t-shirt yesterday. Spock!

Scissors cut Paper covers Rock crushes Lizard poisons Spock smashes Scissors decapitate Lizard eats Paper disproves Spock vaporizes Rock crushes scissors

16

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kov2G0GouBw

17

:lol: What a queer individual.

18

My name is Flano and I’m better than you.