Gameroom Rock/Paper/Scissors tournament II [Concluded]

[GeneralHankerchief]

Finals Results

"Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.
Withering my intuition leaving all these opportunities behind.
Feed my will to feel this moment urging me to cross the line.
Reaching out to embrace the random.
Reaching out to embrace whatever may come."
~Tool

Across the massive stadium that is filled to capacity, there are four distinct groups of people:

First, there are the contestants that are finished. These include the just-completed players from the consolation match: Victorious Centurion and meditative Sigurd. They also include the people whose runs had ended prior to today: Jolt, Double A, Sprig, Sasaki Kojiro, Yaseikhaan, CountArach, Death is Yonder, and Csargo. Once their mandatory media session is finished, these people's official capacity in the tournament (save for Centurion, who is taking part in the medal ceremony) is finished. They make their way to their reserved front-row seats and join the second group.

The audience is large, powerful, and overwhelming. They have seen their share of drama and epic matches in this tournament, but they are still not satisfied. They know that the best is yet to come, and they are restless and frenzied with anticipation.

The third group, the contestants themselves, can't hear the audience, but can feel their thunder in their isolation rooms, a hint of the intensity that is still to come. After a while, their thoughts of distraction or searching patterns become useless, and they each think about what they have done to get here, and what they still have to accomplish.

#3 Stildawn started out quite inconsistent in the tournament, his first six results being, in order: L-W-L-W-L-W. However, he broke this pattern on Day 7 with a victory against Sprig and hasn't looked back since. From Days 6-10, he logged five straight wins, with a loss to Csargo on the final day of the round robin finally cooling him off. From there, Stildawn had a lot of time to rest and make adjustments, as his well-earned first round bye was followed up with a victory by forfeit over #7 Death is Yonder. With his performance in the round robin going thoroughly under the radar, and his oppositionless advancement into the semis, there were questions on whether or not Stildawn truly belonged with the other giants. He answered these questions convincingly with a defeat over #2 Sigurd, and now finds himself on the world's biggest stage with everything on the line, one more match to go.

His opponent is #4 Thermal Mercury. While #1 Centurion1 had his hot streak at the start of the round robin and Stildawn had his at the end, Thermal's streak was in the middle. After starting off slow with a draw and a loss, Thermal reeled off three straight victories before losing to CountArach. Hanging in there for the next few rounds, Thermal began a second hot streak on Days 10 and 11 by replicating #6 Sasaki Kojiro's feat by defeating #1 and #2 Centurion1 and Sigurd on successive days, thereby securing the final first round bye. This streak sustained itself longer than his previous one did. After his well-earned bye, Thermal kept it going by registering wins over #5 Csargo and then, most spectacularly, a second victory over Centurion in the semis.

As the contestants leave their rooms and prepare to enter the stadium, their thoughts turn from themselves to each other, most specifically their first match on Day 2 of the round robin. Each man back then had failed to get a victory on Day 1 and was looking to beat the other to get back in the thick of things. They had proved evenly matched on that day, with Stildawn eventually emerging victorious after his tiebreaking throw of Rock trumped Thermal's Scissors after both initially threw Scissors. With that initial match on both their minds, they take their positions and wait for...

...the fourth group, which consists of solely one man: The referee, who enters the stadium, acknowledges the contestants, congratulates them on getting so far, and raises his hand. As the contestants wait for his call, the entire stadium drops quiet, as does seemingly the rest of the world.

"Rock... paper... scissors... shoot!"

It is over, then. There is no more thinking to be done; no more obsessing over trying to outmaneuver the opponent, no running through possible scenarios and motivations in your head, no nothing to do except throw. And so the contestants do so.

There is no tie. Unlike their previous match, the contestants do not need to rethrow.

Stildawn decides to throw Rock, good old reliable Rock, which Sprig for a time and Yaseikhaan for a much longer time subscribed to. After all, why wouldn't he? Even though throwing Rock only won the match for him once in the entire tournament, that one win came against Thermal. Thermal, though, throws Paper.

Pandemonium. This is all Thermal can comprehend. The audience screaming so loud that the very ground beneath them vibrates. Next to him, Stildawn yelling in fury and despair. The referee, about to get swept away beneath the tide of fans that have rushed the floor, futilely trying to signal Thermal as the winner.

Eventually, the pandemonium does subside, but it takes about 45 minutes to do so and restore order, and everyone in the building knows that it will erupt again once the medals are awarded. For now, though, Thermal Mercury is looking forward to the moment. After all, why wouldn't he? He earned this moment. Over the course of the game, he got hot at the right time and defeated serious heavyweights such as Sigurd, Centurion1, and, most importantly, Stildawn. And for that last victory, he is officially the Rock/Paper/Scissors champion of the world.

Thermal Mercury takes first place in the tournament!
Stildawn takes second place in the tournament!
Centurion1 takes third place in the tournament!

Thanks to all for participating and making it a great tournament!

I kind of like the idea of me running these over my large academic breaks, so we'll see you all again in the summer!