How Rock-Paper-Scissors Went Viral and Became a Competitive Sport

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The Atlantic covers how two brothers brought Rock-Paper-Scissors to the internet and upped the intensity of the already stressful game.

It was 1995, in the early days of the web, when the brothers Doug and Graham Walker decided they wanted to start a website. They hadn’t settled on a topic, but the two were fond of playing rock-paper-scissors in their garage, their matches filled with aggrandizing trash-talk. So, as a joke, they decided to devote their new website to the game. They came up with convoluted rules and regulations, a fabricated history, and cheekily named strategies about how to win. They dubbed it the World Rock Paper Scissors Society, not realizing their pet project would turn into what Doug calls “a unique viral experiment.”

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