The Mac Weekly

Issue date: 5/2/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Daniel Kerwin Dream until your dreams come true. Jon Bassen '11 (center) emerged from a field of fifty combatants to emerge with the ultimate prize: the RPS championship trophy. Bassen's win signals the arrival of a fierce new generation of RPS contenders, and the end of the reign of RPS legend Will Kennedy '08 (left).

A long time ago man and woman discovered rock. Then, less long ago, but still pretty long ago, they invented paper. Then, fairly recently, they made scissors. At long last, humanity was ready for a sport that would test the nerves, pattern recognition and/or psychic ability of all who would dare play: Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Primarily used to solve petty disputes such as who cleans spilled Vella wine off the basement floor and the order of depositions in Florida's Middle District Court, once a year RPS rises to a new level of importance at the Macalester College Rock, Paper Scissors tournament. Many enter, but only one leaves knowing that on that night, he or she, but so far always he, is the greatest Rock, Paper, Scissors player this town has ever seen.

Last week in a crowded Berkeley street residence basement, that dream of RPS glory was to become reality for one of these two men:

Scott Persons '08, an avid dinosaur enthusiast and popular WMCN radio talk show host, or Jon "eagle eye" Bassen '11, a chemistry loving cross country runner and sometime loveable underdog.

Third-place runner-up Martin Mudry '09 stood subdued at last after his emphatic come-from-behind blitz came to a crashing halt at the hands of these two RPS giants.

Face to face across a table, the two would be champions squared off as the crowd swarmed and roared with expectation. Persons, as always stood impassive, while Bassen stared down his rival with the razor squint and eye-brow raise he had perfected over the course of the evening.

"Throw the rock," shouted a belligerent spectator for the 12th time that evening. Then hands morphed from mere digit filled palms to symbolic tools of demolition. Both men had proven themselves masters of the sport, but as smothering papers, solid rocks, and super sharp scissors flew back and forth, Bassen claimed the advantage delivering a series of stunning anticipatory gestures.

Continued...

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