The Third Throw
Editors note: This letter fist appeared in RPS News and Notes and is a reader response from a article entitled “New thinking on playing out the third round after losing a best of two match”
While I certainly understand why you may “feel” it is the best interest of sportsmanship to play out the third throw in order to allow the opponent to regain some lost honour, I must say, humbly, that I am bitterly opposed such a view. I see this as yet another example of bully play.
First of all, I speak from hard fought experience earned in one of the harshest and cruelest playing environments known to any young player: the school yard. Our recess program was dedicated to RPS honour-stripping duels where the “third throw kill” would often be employed. For those of you unfamiliar with the “TTK”, it is basically exactly as you have been discussing: after one player wins both bouts of a three game match, he will then ask the other player if they would like to play out the third. It is really quite simple to see why the victorious player would be so eager to offer the loser such an “opportunity”. Often a player who is bested so quickly will jump at the chance to regain any lost honour, but in reality no such honour can be regained, it is basically a no-win situation for him. There is nothing that can be done to change the fact that the losing player’s honour was knocked out with a one-two punch. A third game cannot change this.
The real reason that that the “TTK” is employed is as an “insult to injury” ploy on the part of the victorious player. There is nothing sweeter than knocking down your opponent a third time as truth to your sheer dominance. 1-2 dead, 3 even more dead! I used to love doing that. I would get a huge rush from crushing my opponents into nothing one more time. Perhaps I can paint a picture this way. Go down via a 1-2: loss of honour results. Win the hollow third match = gain back a tiny amount of honour. Go down 1-2-3: loss of double honour. It is not worth the risk to play the third throw, there is way too much at stake. Honour on the playground is far too valuable to lose.
I learned this the hard way when I was young, I started at a new school and was crushed by some older kids in my first week, in my feeble attempt to get back some honour I would play the third match and most often lose. I became the laughing stock, kids would line up to play me because I was stupid enough to play the third round. It took three years before I was able to gain back my honour and I did it through cheating and deceit. I am not proud of it, but that is how I crawled back up to the top and when I got there I would rip and strip every ounce of honour I could from all the other players. I would bully them into TTK matches and let the whole school know whom I destroyed. It took years before I saw the error of my ways: I was addicted to the pursuit of winning honour at any cost.
In the end, I was on the street late at night playing RPS for drinking money when an old bum said something I will never forget, he said “There is no honour among a thief like you” or something like that. I wasn’t sure what he meant it because I didn’t really listen to what he said. Days later I realized what he meant, How can one gain honour from stealing it from another through TTK, it just doesn’t make sense. I had no honour. I had won nothing over the years, everything that I thought I had won, I had in fact lost.
I am still left with the effects today from my evil ways of yesterday. I thought about stopping play altogether, but that just isn’t an option where I come from. Today if I happen to play well enough to earn two wins of a three game match, I always refuse to play the last round. Certain players get upset with me and mistakenly think I am being rude by not allowing them to regain some honour, and, in fact, I have lost some very close friends for this very reason. But I am still too tempted to go down that evil path once again. I walk a straight path now but it is so very narrow I could slip so easily. It may be lonely at times but it is the only way I can survive myself.
