The Basics
First, let's review some basic information. I won't repeat everything,
there is excellent material on the WRPSS site.
- The Three Moves
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Nothing more. No dynamite. Ever.
- The Eight Great Gambits
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These are considered as the "bricks" you build your strategy unto.
We'll see later that although some of these moves work great and are
indeed really useful, you can't rely on them only. Please note that what
gives them value is the strategic intent. Three consecutive Rocks
doesn't make an Avalanche by itself!
- Hypermodernism
- Hypermodernists use mainly (some say "only", but we'll see it's wrong)
random moves. Although random throws will win 50% of the time, it's not enough
to put you amongst the best players. Furthermore, it's hard for a
human being to use pure randomness.
More on randomness.
Hypermodernism is a stupid strategy once you understand
your opponent's strategy. It is thus a weapon of the "uneducated"
or too lazy. You should try Hypermodernism only once everything
else has failed. If you don't boast about being a Chaos Theory fan, you may impress the best players with it,
at least as long as they think it's a logical pattern. The use
of appropriate Meta-Strategy here shows its strength.
You may ask "So why is a predictable pattern a better strategic
choice?".
Let's say you're facing Bart Simpson
("Nothing beats good ol' Rock!"), using random throws would be quite
stupid, the other opponents will crush him under Bureaucrats no
later than after the 4th consecutive Rock, and they will then
score a guaranteed victory (if Bart doesn't adapt, and if the
game is a regular "best of 3 of best of 3"). Randomness is only good against unpredictable moves (well, kind of, we'll see later that it's not quite true, but
now we're talking beginners' stuff...),
but the human being just prefers order over chaos and thus most
of the time uses some kind of logical progression to chose the
next best throw.
more on randomness.
- The Most Common Predictable Strategies
- These are the most often used predictable strategies.
They're very easy to beat if meta-strategy isn't properly used, or
not used at all.
Click each link to read a description of the strategy. We'll
see later how to defeat each of those.
- Meta-Strategies
- These are the heart of good playing.
Click here to read their description.
Although sometimes used by novices, they reveal their true beauty
amongst the more experienced players.
Beginners
Here I'll show you some errors beginners frequently do. Knowing them
is a good way to avoid them.
- The Strategies
- Beginners usually use the same strategy in every match. You then
just have to watch them battle one or two times to understand what
they use, and how they use it. Then comes the punishment.
The most common strategies amongst beginners are the Late Reaction and
Hypermodernism.
Strategies can be put in 4 "classes":
- Class E (from "Egoist")
- Class S (from "Sensitive")
- Class M (from "Mixed")
- Class C (from "Chaos")
Class E strategies are based on what you have previously played, effective
when your opponent chooses his moves from your own (Copycat, Late Reaction, etc)
Class S strategies are based on what your opponent has previously played.
Class M strategies are based on what both players have thrown, or when
you switch from a class to another.
Class C strategies are based on "random" data
- Meta-Strategies
- Beginners seldom use meta-strategies, as I said earlier. If they use one,
most of the time it's "Calling the Shots". And most of the time they lie.
- Random Distribution
- When using Hypermodernism, beginners take great care in choosing
their next move. The distribution is regular, each possible figure
(R, P, S)
will tend to a perfect 33%, with few identical consecutive throws.
When a beginner plays Rock Paper Rock, you can be 99% sure their next move will
be a Scissor.
Advanced Players
- Note
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For a limited time only, advanced strategies will be available free of charge!
Be sure to read them now, before it's too late. As a matter of fact, some articles
will remain free, but I don't know which ones yet.
- Content overview (not complete)
- RPS Strategical Notation, a tool to analyze strategies.
- Defeating Late Reaction: The "Prophets"
- Good Positionning
- Defeating basic Positionning...
- The Clockwork Orange
- and more...
- The Link
Go to the advanced page
Experts Only
- Note
-
This section is for members only. You don't have to pay, the Federation sometimes
give free memberships... more info on the Join Us page.
- Some Articles You Will Find There:
- Mutating Strategies: "Darwin" and "Natural Selection"
- How to beat Hypermodernists, part II
- Beating a machine
- Psychology as Dynamite
- And more...
- The Link
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Members can access the Experts Page here.
About the Author
Francois Wisard is an expert researcher in modern RPS strategies. He's the
founder of the Swiss RPS Federation, and the admin of our forum. Look for more
articles from him in the near future.
Jean Niclav, webmaster
