After months of gruelling, mind numbing, war of nerves competition the cream of Australia's RPS players imploded at the 4th annual 2008 'Australian Rock Paper Scissors Championships' (ARPSC) National Final, Saturday 9th of August at' Fisherman's Wharf Tavern', Gold Coast, QLD.

The final 16 players in the main event were made up of Eight StateTerritory/NZ finalists who qualified via respective qualifying rounds and eight wild cards that progressed via the Australian Qualifying round held earlier on in the day.

Only one player would concur this war of attrition and inturn claim the prestigious title & take home the major prize of a trip to Canada to attend & compete in 7th annual 2008 World RPS Championships (WRPSC) in Toronto, 25th October.

This player was none other then 2008 Victorian state champ, 'Lisa Rose' who played a game of courage and skill from start to finish
as she battled his way to Australian RPS glory and folk law. When it came time for the final, 'Rosey' appeared surprisingly calm as she
entered the arena to face off against her challenger, 23 year old wildcard Emily 'Tags' Keating from the Gold Coast.  The tension in the main arena the pair battled for the title was extremely intense for the very vocal & appreciative crowd.  

Preparation is already underway for the 2009 'ARPSC' .  Players, coaches and trainers are now encouraged to hone their skills in the off season in order to put their best hand forward for the 2009 series.

We always love it when artists use RPS as a theme for exploration. Probably because for those that really understand what competitive RPS is about will understand that the World RPS Championships concept is probably equal parts: living breathing art installation as well as a sporting event. 

So it is great to see that Scottish artist Alec Finlay  is currently creating a series of art projects on the theme of RPS. These include a neon, currently being existed in the exhibition 'thoughts within thoughts' at ARC gallery (Sofia, Bulgaria). The neon versions of the traditional hand symbols flash on-and-off in a never ending game. Finlay has also produced a series of prints, using specially made RPS rubber stamps, in which he plays the game with every visitor to his studio. Here, though the symbols represent oppositions in conflict they also appear as a beautiful interpenetration of line over line, a single image.

This RPS project is ongoing and represent Finlay's interest in play and systemicity – for instance, he has also created poems as word-puzzles and a number of art projects based on cryptic crosswords. He comments:

'One of the interesting things about using the RPS rubber stamps is that they can run counter to the competitive aspect of RPS, as usually when we play we choose our rubber stamp randomly, so rather than getting the 'hit' of throwing in competition, what you get instead is a quieter thrill, as one outline symbol appears stamped over the other, is caught within the other.'

Proving that not only does Norway have gobs of offshore oil, but it also has mobs of RPS players all throughout the country and region. So much so that the Sami community ( ie: Lapplanders) are staging their first RPS event on July 12th in Gammalkroa, Bjerka, Norway. 

Tickets are 50 Nor. Kroner and spectators are 30 Kroner.

Event starts at 1:30pm (or 13:30 for you Europeans)

You can read more about the sami people here