Sergio, Min Jung, Glenda and I made a trip up to the Roshambo Winery for the 4th Annual Rock Paper Scissors Tournament (which rumour has it, ESPN2 covered). I think “silly” is the only word to describe this event.

The rules were pretty simple. Three rounds of best of three, standard ladder. There were 256 competitors and a lot of costumes and everyone (spectators and competitors) received $500 in funny money to spend/bet as they saw fit on the side.

Sergio and I competed and did surpringly (to me anyways) well. Sergio had trained so hard for this competition he broke a finger. The first real contest for me came in a back alley. As Sergio and I were applying our Roshambo tattoos, some guys came up to us …

dude: “You guys look really serious!”
me: “Yeah, we’ve been training. You want some?”
dude: “We only got $200″
sergio: “I’ll give you $400 for your $200. 2:1 odds on my man here.”
dude: “You’re on!”

I don’t know what Sergio was thinking but I guess he had more faith in me than I did. I beat the guy and we got our money … only to lose it not long after as I played another guy for $600. The moment I lost, Sergio came in to save the day.

Sergio: “I shall avenge him! I’ll bet you $1200 on a game!”
cap dude: “Alright. $1200 … 13 … 14 …15 … $2300!”
Sergio: “You’re on!”

And another victory, leading to the seed for Sergio’s mad bank. Unfortunately, Sergio wasn’t faring as well in the tournament itself. After soundly defeating two opponents, he narrowly lost to a guy in a kilt. He made up for this by continually betting on me when it was my turn to compete. All in all, he made close to $12000 from our $500 x 4 start.

My own competition was only slightly better. I defeated 3 opponents to make it into round two but in the first match of round two (with 32 competitors remaining) I lost a round, won a round tied up 1-1 in the last round before finally losing. Rock crushes scissors.

Sergio’s bank was not for nothing, however. He outbid another for a $50 gift certificate to a place called Underwood which in spite of the name, turned out to have really really high quality food (and bocce ball to boot).

Now I’m seriously addicted to playing RPS to solve all disputes. Maybe I should try this at work whenever someone has anything to say about my designs …

Photos from me, mj and even a video.