Tim Conrad World Rock, Paper, Scissor Champion Interview

Tim Conrad World Rock, Paper, Scissor Champion Interview

It is the universal decider of disputes. A game passed down through generations to help solve the simple but most contentious everyday issues: Who gets the last piece of pizza? Whose unstacks the dishwasher? Who does the coffee run?

To celebrate the expansion of Staples.com.au into Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, and its new online Paper, Scissors, Ink game, Staples is bringing the World Rock Paper Scissors (RPS) Champion Down Under.

The arrival of the World RPS Champion coincides with the launch of Staples' free online Paper, Scissors, Ink game. Allowing Aussies to share in some simple fun by playing live against friends or stranger, the game is hosted exclusively at Staples.com.au/game. Players will go into the draw to win a trip to Los Angeles, $1000 spending money and tickets to the Staples Center (a world-class arena for sports and entertainment).

Staples is dedicated to making life easy for Australian small businesses and excited to expand its no-fuss values into Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.

Richard Haigh, head of Staples.com.au, says: "Staples is well known in many countries but being new to Australia we wanted to do something fun and unique that illustrates our different approach to office product supply. Buying office products may not be the highlight of your week but who says it can't be a bit of fun?"

Offering a wide range of office products (of course including ink, paper and scissors!), Staples is dedicated to making it easy for small businesses to buy office products online.

Interview with Tim Conrad

Tim Conrad is the World 'Rock, Paper Scissors' Champion! Tim Conrad from Michigan, USA began his rock paper scissors journey in high school.
The World RPS Champion says: "My friends and I started playing RPS in school to pass the time between classes. We played so much that other kids started to stop in the halls to watch. We used RPS to settle the simplest of arguments, like who got the last slice of pizza! RPS is the fairest way to settle anything."
And so Elite 47 was born; an RPS team that Tim is a proud member of.

In 2009, Tim and his fellow Elite 47 comrades headed to the World RPS Championships. "The trip started off as a holiday for Elite 47 and turned into something very special. We arrived to see hundreds of people from all over the world playing for the championship. As the matches went on I was able to develop my strategy and use it the entire way... until the very last match," said Tim.

In the final match Tim was pitted against his best friend and teammate Tom Butkin. "Before the match started we just looked at each other and laughed. No matter what happened we were both walking away winners with an experience that can never be matched. But I'm glad I won - now I can say I'm a World Champion at something and I've got the trophy to prove it," said Tim.Question: What inspired you to begin playing Rock Paper Scissors, competitively?

Tim Conrad: We started off playing at school and then one of my friends actually found the Rock Paper Scissors society online and found out that they actually hold a tournament, every year and he came up to us and said 'we've got to go, we've got to get a team together and go'. It was something we played so much and the plan was to just have fun; when we got there it was a very competitive atmosphere and absolutely everybody was taking Rock Paper Scissors seriously and it made it fun for us because we take it seriously, back home.


Question: Can you talk about how often you 'train' for the RPS Championships?

Tim Conrad: We just play over and over again. The event itself was six hours but there has been days were we have played longer than that just sitting at home. We have been playing for about seven years now and it's something that has never faded away, we don't randomly play every so often, we play just about every single day.


Question: How did you prepare for the final match of the World RPS Championships?

Tim Conrad: The final match was a hard one! When I played against everybody else it was all focus, I was 100% focused on winning and when it came down to the final match it was against my best friend and I looked across at him and we were just starring at each other and then we just started cracking up laughing and were thinking 'how is this even possible, out of all these people here, it's you and me, right now?' We decided to just play and not worry about what happens, we let everything go and played as if we were playing back home, we played for the love of the sport.


Question: How often do you break out a game of Rock Paper Scissors?

Tim Conrad: Any chance we get - anytime there is an argument that's the best way to solve it instead of flipping a coin it's a game of Rock Paper Scissors. There is no emotion involved in flipping a coin with Rock Paper Scissors you have everything running through you. Any sort of argument that you have, Rock Paper Scissors is the easiest way to settle it and we all have a great time doing it.


Question: Do you add extra moves, or stay with the typical rock, paper or scissors?

Tim Conrad: Yes we have created a couple of different variations of the game and Staples.com.au have created a new, live version of the game. At Staples.com.au/game you can play and instead of Rock Paper Scissors they have changed it to Paper Scissors Ink because it is an office supplies company and they don't sell rocks! It's a blast to see the different variations and I've heard so many different ways people have been playing whilst in Australia; yesterday someone showed me the 'T-Rex' which rules all and that was probably the strangest one I've seen so far.


Question: How do you decide which move to choose?

Tim Conrad: I don't choose before I go into it. I play as I'm going through, the first one is definitely a random move, I can never decide what I will do for the first move. After that I can kind of feel how my opponent is going to throw, I can see with their aggressiveness and the way that they are throwing; it is all about reading your opponent. If you can read your opponent you can predict what they're going to throw. I played someone for 15 straight matches and I was able to look at them and say in my head what they were going to throw and every single time I was right. There are certain ways people can throw, especially with the hand and arm; if someone has a clenched arm or tight fist it's going to be a rock because they're already aggressive. You can tell when someone has a loose grip that they're going to throw paper - there are different ways you can read people.

I have been having a hard time facing females in Australia because they're hard to read, I don't know what it is - I've tried to be intimidating but it has not worked since I've been here.


Question: What have you won whilst playing Rock Paper Scissors?

Tim Conrad: At the tournament itself I won a gold medal, a trophy and $7,000. The biggest win has been being able to fly around the world; I'm in Australia right now and I've come from such a small town so to be over in Australia is such a blessing. I have to thank Staples.com.au for bringing me out here.


Interview by Brooke Hunter