People love playing Rock Paper Scissors (or the recent development of Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock).
Web Watch has even attended the National RPS CHAMPIONSHIPS in Las Vegas, just to see what it’s all about that makes Roshambo such an incredibly competitive sport.
Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock
But then along comes science to ruin it for everybody, because those Science Nerds have DEVELOPED THE ULTIMATE RPS STRATEGY.
Web Watch usually goes the old tried-and-true philosophy:
- The vast majority of people throw ROCK because it’s easiest, therefore you should almost always throw PAPER.
- Throwing PAPER is hardest, and it’s the easiest to predict that your opponent is doing it due to the way the hand has to rotate and expand. Too much hand movement makes throwing paper the slowest option.
- If you’re throwing ROCK and you can see that your opponent is throwing PAPER, you can easily whip out those two fingers to make SCISSORS.
But is this the best way to play? Maybe you need to consider that when it comes to ROCK PAPER SCISSORS, past events do tend to predict future outcomes.
What the research showed:
- If you win a round, chances are you’ll repeat the same gesture.
- If you lose a round, chances are you’ll switch to the next item on the list (ie if you lost with ROCK, you’ll change to PAPER. If you lost with PAPER, you’ll change to SCISSORS)
- In some cases, a loser will switch directly to the item that the winner just used. If they lost to a ROCK, the loser will throw ROCK next.
What is YOUR optimal Rock Paper Scissors strategy? Some would say that the only way to win is not to play…