“What do you do in rock, paper, scissors club?”
A question Tyler Adams is asked quite often, he said. Every time, his answer remains the same: “We play rock, paper, scissors.”
Junior year, Adams and his friends would play the game during down time when they wanted something fun to do.
Feeling inspired, he created the club that has continued to meet every Wednesday after school in the library.
Adams, however, understanding the repetitiveness of the game, got inventive: he created varying tournaments, a bracket system style of play that results in a singular winner.
Players are randomly assigned a competitor that they face against, either in long-form or short-form formats.
Long-form, players play the game in rapid succession, fighting to be the first to 40 points. Short-form, players vie to be the first to 10.
Lauren Gerboth, a senior, explained how she joined the club: “Adams . . . talked about creating the club during classes . . . so I joined.”
Gerboth, a frequent attendee, has won a total of 6 tournaments this quarter, an impressive number considering the apparent randomness of the game.
She does not, however, buy into that supposed luck-based nature: when one is playing as many rounds as they do in these tournament styles, it becomes more “skill based, especially when [one] can catch onto patterns [the opponent] is presenting.”
She is not alone. Approximately eight regulars show up to the club meetings every Wednesday. Each one of them has a unique playstyle. Some members, such as Gerboth, tend to rely more heavily on rock, while others, like Sarah Cohen, tend to rely on paper.
Cohen said, “I rarely play rock.”
According to Adams, there is something to say about getting into a competitor’s head space, disrupting their subconscious pattern, and taking advantage of it.
It is clear that for the members attending the club, rock, paper, scissors is more than just a game of chance, and the varying forms of tournament play make it enjoyable for everyone.
Looking for something to do on a Wednesday after school?
Go try out rock, paper, scissors club!
