Rock paper scissors has two sets of world champions worth knowing: WRPSA's own champions, led by Ken "Whitey" Watson, and the winners of two earlier events that no longer run, the World RPS Society championship in Toronto (2002 to 2009) and the USA Rock Paper Scissors League championship in Las Vegas (2006 to 2008). This page covers both, starting with ours. The official, current WRPSA record lives on our championships page.
WRPSA world champions
Ken "Whitey" Watson
Ken "Whitey" Watson is a WRPSA world champion and the player most people have seen represent us.
| Year | Appearance |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Interviewed by ESPN Radio as WRPSA world champion for its ESPN8: The Ocho coverage ("Hour 3: Ken 'Whitey' Watson") |
| 2020 | Flown to Brazil by Pepsi Japan to play footballer Keisuke Honda in a filmed match for the Japan Cola campaign "Honda and Rock Paper Scissors 2020" |
The Pepsi Japan match is the one people ask about. Honda was playing in Brazil at the time, so Watson went to him; the full story and video link are in Keisuke Honda vs Ken Watson. Our media page links both appearances.
For every WRPSA title holder and the current standings, see championships. I keep that page as the single official record rather than repeating it here, so it never goes out of date.
The historic champions before WRPSA
Before WRPSA, the best-known titles came from two events. Eleven people won them, and every one is listed below with the source-checked details of their win. An older version of this article profiled "legends" whose names and records I could not trace to any real tournament, so I removed them; every name in the tables below was reported by a newspaper, broadcaster or encyclopedia at the time.
The World RPS Society champions (Toronto)
The World RPS Society was run by brothers Douglas and Graham Walker out of Toronto. They started a "world championship" in 2002 in a rented bar, and it grew into an annual event with hundreds of walk-on competitors. The last one was held on November 14, 2009.
| Year | Champion | Details reported at the time |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Pete Lovering | Won the first Toronto event, famously wearing a bathrobe |
| 2003 | Rob Krueger | Toronto player; 320 competitors; C$5,000 purse; closed the final with rock-paper-paper against three rocks |
| 2004 | Lee Rammage | The year the event was broadcast on Fox Sports Net |
| 2005 | Andrew Bergel | Toronto lawyer who entered as part of a friend's bachelor party; more than 500 players; $7,000 prize |
| 2006 | Bob Cooper | 28-year-old sales manager from London, England; about 500 opponents; $7,000 prize |
| 2007 | Andrea Farina | Syracuse University design student; first woman and first American to win the title |
| 2008 | Monica Martinez | Toronto; won in her first year competing |
| 2009 | Tim Conrad | From Taylor, Michigan; beat Tom Butkin (also of Taylor) in the first all-American final; 512 competitors; $7,000 |
A note on 2007: some websites say Andrea Farina won in 2009. Sports Illustrated reported her win in November 2007, and the 2009 title went to Tim Conrad, so 2007 is correct.
What stands out about these winners
- Nobody won twice. In a game where perfectly random play cannot be beaten on average, a single-elimination bracket of 300 to 500 people rewards form on the night as much as skill.
- Most were not "professionals." A lawyer at a bachelor party, a sales manager, a student. The prize money ($5,000 to $7,000) was never enough to make anyone a full-time player.
- The winning moments were small. Krueger's rock-paper-paper and Conrad's paper over rock in the 2009 final are the kind of details that make RPS fun to follow: the stakes were real, but the moves were the same ones you throw at the kitchen table.
The USARPS League champions (Las Vegas)
The USA Rock Paper Scissors League was a separate, American operation developed by marketer Matti Leshem. It ran big-money championships at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and got onto national television.
| Year | Champion | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Mario Anastasov | Inaugural championship, April 9, 2006; 257 players; $50,000; aired on A&E |
| 2007 | Michael Federico | Las Vegas; beat David Borne in the final; $50,000; aired on ESPN2 on July 7 |
| 2008 | Sean "Wicked Fingers" Sears | Chicopee, Massachusetts; beat Julie "Bulldog" Crossley in the final; about 300 entrants; $50,000 |
The 2007 broadcast was hosted by ESPN's Trey Wingo alongside Jason Simmons, who played under the name "Master Roshambollah" and was one of the most visible personalities of that era. By 2014 Simmons was quoted saying the league was defunct.
The most famous "champion" never entered a tournament
In 2005 a Japanese electronics executive, Takashi Hashiyama, could not decide whether Christie's or Sotheby's should sell his company's art collection, so he asked the two auction houses to settle it with rock paper scissors. Christie's took advice from the 11-year-old twin daughters of one of its directors, who suggested scissors. Sotheby's threw paper. Christie's won the sale of a collection worth around $20 million. I cover more moments like this on the famous moments page.
What made the winners good
Nobody has published a rigorous analysis of these specific players, so I will not invent one. What we do know is how human players tend to behave, and good tournament players exploit exactly that:
- People are not random. In a 2014 Zhejiang University study by Wang, Xu and Zhou, 360 students played 300 rounds each. Winners tended to repeat their winning throw, and losers tended to shift to the next throw in a predictable direction.
- Openers are biased. On wrpsa.com, across 3,020 recorded throws from 943 players between July 29 and September 27, 2026 (mostly against our computer opponent), first throws were rock 38.1%, paper 36.0% and scissors 25.9%. It is a modest sample and not a tournament crowd, but it points the same way as the old tournament advice: paper is a reasonable opener.
- Sequences beat single throws. Krueger's winning rock-paper-paper is an example of what the Walkers called a gambit, a pre-planned run of three throws. I list all of them in the 27 gambits.
If you want the practical version, our strategy guide turns this into a checklist, and you can test it right now by playing online for free.
What happened to the older championships
The World RPS Society held its last championship in 2009, and the USARPS League stopped after 2008. Matches full of ties were hard to turn into compelling broadcasts, and the sponsors moved on. Their winners remain part of the game's history; WRPSA's own champions are recorded on our championships page.
Local tournaments still happen in bars, offices and schools. If you want to run one, our tournament guide covers brackets and tie rules, and the free event hosting tool handles the bracket for you.
FAQ
Who is the world champion of rock paper scissors?
Ken "Whitey" Watson is a WRPSA world champion; see championships for the official current record. Among the older, now-defunct events, the last World RPS Society champion was Tim Conrad of Taylor, Michigan, who won in Toronto on November 14, 2009.
Who was the first woman to win the world title?
Andrea Farina, a Syracuse University student, in 2007. She was also the first American to win the World RPS Society championship.
Did anyone win the World RPS Society championship twice?
No. Each year from 2002 to 2009 produced a different champion.
How much did champions win?
World RPS Society champions typically took home $7,000 by the mid-2000s (Rob Krueger's 2003 purse was C$5,000). USARPS League champions won $50,000.
Is rock paper scissors an Olympic sport?
No. It has never been part of the Olympic program.