Every now and then my family will do a round of, “What would you do if you won the lottery?” Our responses usually involve taking care of business first (paying off debts, buying a home outright) before getting to the fun stuff (travel! second home by the beach!). Of course the biggest impediment we face to achieving these goals is that none of us regularly buy lottery tickets. If only we had stopped by the American Dream mall two weekends ago, we could have played to win instead of paid to win a cash prize courtesy of the New Jersey Lottery. Allow me to explain: April 10-12 was the second annual Rock Paper Scissors Throw Down, held at American Dream and sponsored by the NJ Lottery. 384 contestants vied for the top prize of $10,000, which ultimately went to Julio Rivera, a veterinary assistant from Bloomfield. Runner up Kosty Yablon didn’t do too badly either, walking away with $5,500, while the next 10 highest scoring players were awarded $950 each, making it $25K total that was handed out for playing a game of hands.

‘Anything can happen in Jersey’’: The simple game is usually played for fun, sometimes for conflict resolution and occasionally for a big cash prize of $10,000. That was the case at the American Dream mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where 384 contestants squared off this month in a three-day rock, paper, scissors competition for their shot at the big check, sponsored by the New Jersey Lottery. “Somebody’s gonna walk away with $10,000 for playing rock, paper, scissors. Anything can happen in Jersey,” said Howard Freeman, the event’s executive director.

The game is over 2,000 years old?? According to the World Rock Paper Scissors Association, the game of rock, paper, scissors dates to ancient China in the year 206 BCE, when the symbols were a frog, a snake and a centipede (frog beats centipede, centipede beats snake, and snake beats frog). By the 17th century, the game had evolved in Japan to include a fox, a village head and a hunter. It took until the early 1900s to hit the global mainstream as rock, paper and scissors.

There were referees: To maintain the integrity of the game, the matches were closely watched by referees who halted them because of poor timing or form. “Sometimes when you start the throw, you can be off pace,” said Mike Internoscia, a rock, paper, scissors official who returned to the competition for his second year as a referee. “Someone can come in before the other person. So that’s why we also make sure they stay together.”

Playing by strategy: “I read everybody does rock first,” said Michelle Womack, who was defeated in the fifth round by — of all people — her own son, Mike Womack. Mark Lyall, who is an actual psychologist by trade, tried to psych his competition out by donning a luchador mask and a T-shirt with the saying “don’t throw rock.” “What I found was that statistically, most people throw rock, then people will throw paper,” Lyall said. He was knocked out in the second round.

Playing by instinct: “I don’t think about it, dumb down everything and just go with instinct,” said Gary Wong, who played with Adeline, his daughter, by his side. Emma De Luca, who came in third, also winged it. “Whatever my hand chose, it chose. I’m Italian, so they talk,” she said. Playing with no set strategy proved effective for the champion, Julio Rivera, a 29-year-old veterinary assistant, who walked away with the coveted $10,000 check. “If you prepare too much, everyone can find out your plan,” said Rivera, who said he simply trusted his gut.

[From NBC News]

I have learned SO much from this reporting! To begin with, am I the only one who didn’t know the game’s storied lineage? Color me stupid, I had no idea rock-paper-scissors shoushiling dated back to BCE Han Dynasty China. Nor was I aware that the original “players” were frog-centipede-snake. Even when the game moved to Japan, the images were still all living creatures (fox-village head-hunter). Those early iterations sound way more engaging for a game than the inanimate objects we use today, just sayin’! And then the next mind blowing revelation I had was learning we live in a world that has a World Rock Paper Scissors Association. And clearly I’m not the only one stunned by this, because the first question on their FAQ list is: “Is Professional Rock Paper Scissors Real?” It is! There are rankings! That’s where the differing schools of strategic vs. instinctual play come into, well, play. A contestant can practice the Fiskars Defense til their hands turn blue, but when faced with an opponent playing the Gut’s Gambit, it’s anyone’s game.

PS — An anecdote about American Dream mall: I won’t say my mother was overwhelmed by its size, but after her visit she texted me, “American Dream? More like American NIGHTMARE!”

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