# Any examples of rock-paper-scissors players in professional sports? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [July 8, 2018, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-examples-of-rock-paper-scissors-players-in-professional-sports/817514 "2018-07-08T12:51:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2018, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-examples-of-rock-paper-scissors-players-in-professional-sports/817514/1 "2018-07-08T12:51:59Z")
Are there any good examples where sports(wo)man A consistently beats sports(wo)man B who consistently beats sports(wo)man C who consistently beats sports(wo)man A when playing the same sports under the same rules? ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2018, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-examples-of-rock-paper-scissors-players-in-professional-sports/817514/2 "2018-07-08T14:30:30Z")
Well, here’s a literal example: [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCOkfWHMtNo&t=5s) of Franck Ribery and Toni Kroos playing rock paper scissors to decide who gets to take a free kick. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2018, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-examples-of-rock-paper-scissors-players-in-professional-sports/817514/3 "2018-07-08T16:12:29Z")
> [@chizzuk](#): > > Well, here’s a literal example: [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCOkfWHMtNo&t=5s) of Franck Ribery and Toni Kroos playing rock paper scissors to decide who gets to take a free kick. Really? You couldn’t even be bothered to read that very short OP for comprehension before dropping this stinker? ---
**Author:** ![Kimble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimble/32/19185_2.png) [@Kimble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimble)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2018, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-examples-of-rock-paper-scissors-players-in-professional-sports/817514/4 "2018-07-08T17:35:50Z")
For lopsided results against good people, I immediately though of Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. Unfortunately, Serena doesn’t lose consistently to anyone (but see below). Further searching of the women’s tennis space found two loops with Lindsay Davenport – neither of which are truly satisfying, but they are the only ones I found with a 2-match margin on all sides: Davenport 10, Monica Seles 3 Seles 20, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario 3 ASV 7, Davenport 5 Davenport 12, Amelie Mauresmo 4 Mauresmo 3, Sharapova 1 Sharapova 5, Davenport 1 Seles had a lot of lopsded career results that seem ripe for this kind of search – the two mentioned above, 9-5 versus Capriati, 10-7 vs Navratilova (pretty much the only person with a winning record against her), 5-10 against Graf, 5-15 against Hingis, 1-9 against Venus – but I didn’t see any other RPS-type loops. ASV is 4-3 against Serena Williams (pretty much the only person with a winning record against her) – if that’s consistent enough for you (which I strongly doubt), that will give you loops with Seles, Venus, and Kim Clijsters. ---
**Author:** ![Kimble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimble/32/19185_2.png) [@Kimble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimble)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2018, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-examples-of-rock-paper-scissors-players-in-professional-sports/817514/5 "2018-07-08T17:51:30Z")
Among NFL teams, from the 2001 to the 2005 season (the start of the Tom Brady era): Patriots 5, Colts 1 Colts 4, Broncos 2 Broncos 4, Patriots 1 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2018, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-examples-of-rock-paper-scissors-players-in-professional-sports/817514/6 "2018-07-08T20:14:55Z")
You might find some loops in chess, particularly where one of the players is a computer. Some players are better at playing against computers than others. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2018, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-examples-of-rock-paper-scissors-players-in-professional-sports/817514/7 "2018-07-08T20:53:55Z")
It’s very common in sports, probably any sport. All it takes is two things… Athlete or Team A, who is exceptionally good and can beat most opponents in that sport. Athlete or Team B, who is exceptionally bad and most opponents can beat them. Except for some reason there is some quality in Athlete/Team B that makes them a great matchup against Athlete/Team A. Any time you have that situation, and I’m sure it happens often, you’re going to have a rock/paper/scissors situation. Where Team/Athlete A is rock, Team/Athlete B is paper, and most others in that sport would be scissors. Just one example, based on being a Seattle Seahawks fan. The Seahawks dominated much of the NFL for a few years (especially 2013 when they were champions) but struggled against the (then-St. Louis) Rams. The Rams were not a good team and were in the bottom of the division and toward the bottom of the league in that span. But they had the Hawks’ number, and couldn’t be beat in St. Louis and were a struggle to beat even in Seattle. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-examples-of-rock-paper-scissors-players-in-professional-sports/817514/8 "2018-07-09T07:38:11Z")
> [@Mr\_Shine](#): > > Really? You couldn’t even be bothered to read that very short OP for comprehension before dropping this stinker? To be fair the parenthesis added a very weird complication when I first parsed the sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-examples-of-rock-paper-scissors-players-in-professional-sports/817514/9 "2018-07-09T08:39:23Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > To be fair the parenthesis added a very weird complication when I first parsed the sentence. Yes. What a strange way to spell, “athlete”. ---
**Author:** ![borschevsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@borschevsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/borschevsky)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-examples-of-rock-paper-scissors-players-in-professional-sports/817514/10 "2018-07-09T14:59:20Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You might find some loops in chess, particularly where one of the players is a computer. Some players are better at playing against computers than others. There’s one famous example that might qualify, at least for a specific time frame. Garry Kasparov had an extremely lopsided lifetime score against another top player Alexey Shirov - something like 15 wins, 14 draws, and no losses. In the late 90s, Shirov played a match against Vladimir Kramnik for the right to challenge Kasparov in a world championship match. Shirov won with 2 wins and no losses. The Shirov-Kasparov match fell through, and Kasparov eventually played Kramnik instead; Kramnik won, again with 2 wins and no losses. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-examples-of-rock-paper-scissors-players-in-professional-sports/817514/11 "2018-07-09T16:24:29Z")
Somewhat off-topic, since not sports-related, but I feel compelled to point out in case anyone doesn’t know that [nontransitive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nontransitive_dice) [dice](https://www.cut-the-knot.org/Probability/NonTransitiveDice.shtml) exist. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-examples-of-rock-paper-scissors-players-in-professional-sports/817514/12 "2018-07-10T00:07:24Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Somewhat off-topic, since not sports-related, but I feel compelled to point out in case anyone doesn’t know that [nontransitive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nontransitive_dice) [dice](https://www.cut-the-knot.org/Probability/NonTransitiveDice.shtml) exist. I would love to see an RPG that used those somehow. 🙂