Korea (I've got Seoul)

[R Cohrs]

I watched a Korean movie last weekend about a spy who tries to get a golden buddha back from the Japanese during thier invasion of Korea.  It was pretty goofy, a lot of comedy, but in a main scene the hero and villain play the Japanese form of RPS to decide who gets the Buddha.  This is the version I described where you have to make your opponent look in the same direction.  Of course the spy won. 

A monk gave my friend and I some oranges and mantra cards to ward off evil at a Buddhist temple I recently visited.  There was a tree in the courtyard which my friend estimated to be about 450 years old.  Combined with the mantra-singing in the background, the candles floating on water, and the giant golden Past, Present, and Future Buddhas looming over me in the temple this was some pretty powerful stuff.  I had visions of what this area must have endured as trees were cut down to give way for high-rises, with this one powerful tree remaining a timeless symbol against intrusion. 

I suffer from occasional night terrors/sleep paralysis, probably happens once or twice a month that I remember.  One embarrassing night I woke up my brother and sister moaning in my sleep (really trying to scream) as a normal dream about zombies eating my brains suddenly became panic-induced terror. 

2 nights ago I dreamt a normal dream but succumbed to sleep paralysis.  My eyes were open although I probably couldn't tell you what my name was at that point, and I was having a terribly difficult time bringing myself back to reality.  My wall started fading in and out of dimensions and sometimes would get pushed way out then come back, and the same was happening all around me.  I wanted to wake up fully but couldn't and started to panic.  Then I heard a low murmuring voice in my left ear but couldn't make out the words, and it rose louder and louder to a deafening pitch.  I woke up just slightly, but fell right back into it where the same thing happened again.  I finally woke up terrified with my heart racing.  Most of the time I gain insight by dreaming, but I don't know what was going on here; freaked me out.  Usually I feel a presence in the room during these episodes and panic that I'm being attacked, normal terror stuff; this one was weird though. 

Reason I'm sharing the dream is just to get it off my chest.  Besides that things are going well, and I'm always looking for some RPS action.

[Maxamillion]

I could almost see & feel that tree scene from your discription. its obviously the tree of life branching into the spirit of soel!!! powerfull stuff indeed.

sleep problem seems a bit rough so i hope you got it off your chest ok now.

i think there is an old proverb about 'when meditating under the tree of life one must remember to lay off the grass.'  This is probably due to the fact the dew wets ones backside and dampens the spirit.

I believe Humour is the best medicine for sleep problems (and just about everything else)

Are you getting many laughs over there?

Keep smiling
Max

Ps i am ok for some RPS Action. may be able to reach you on the ladder soon.

[R Cohrs]

Last weekend was Chusok, which is like a Korean Thanksgiving.  Nice for me because I had 3 extra days off of work.  Last Friday I went to a local Live cafe where the owner plays drums like a maniac.  He spoke a little English, so he asked my friend and I if we wanted to hear him play.  At first he sang and played drums to accompany backing music; some Korean standards and even Desperado and Everything I Do (I Do it for You).  Pretty nice but a little tame.  There was only one other Korean couple there, and when they left he asked me if I played guitar.  So I ended up jamming out with the guy, and we played a small set of about 9 songs.  He really opened up then and was probably the best drummer I've ever played with.  My friend joined in on bass, and as he's pretty good too, it was great times.  No one was there to see it, but it was still awesome, and we're invited back to jam.  You never know what you'll find sometimes; good to keep opening those doors!

[Maxamillion]

sounds great!

next jamming sesion could produce a new SeOUL sound to rival motown.

if you catch it on a tape Pop it on the net & take the world by storm.

the we mere mortals can share your experience too.

Max

[R Cohrs]

Yo everyone!  Just enjoying a few minutes of free time before the day starts.  It's about that time of year again and I'm wishing I was headed to Toronto, but looks like tourneys with the kids will have to suffice.  I've still been visiting Seoul quite a bit, and recently I went to Namsam tower.  It's on the side of a mountain and has a great overlook of the city; you can see for miles.  I'm still enjoying my time in Korea and always meeting new people.  Not too much to say; board's just too slow lately, so peace!

[R Cohrs]

Sounds like a great weekend at the World's this year!  I'm sorry I missed it, but in honor of the Championships I spent the night at the bar with friends playing RPS for beers.  And I realized that even in our small crowd there were 5 countries represented, and some friends even showed me a variant of the game I hadn't seen before.  One friend even had an interesting theory involving transposing RPS into the 3 blocks of numbers on a roulette table.  Of course I'd rather have been fighting with the pros, but the legend of the sport is alive here too. 

[Maxamillion]

Hope you won plenty of beers in your international rps bar game.

Hopefully now that the world tourney has finished the BB will pick up again!!!!

Did you tell the players in the Bar about This Bull board?

I would be interested in knowing what you think of the SPRock 7 game i suggested on the competition thread?

thanks for keeping these Seoul Searching posts going.

Max

[R Cohrs]

Max, I'm always up for a game.  I was trying to understand how it works, but it any case I'm up for it if you can get it going.

Of course I tell my friends stories about the RPS scene.  I'm trying to host a tourney here in the near future and I was wondering if I can have permission to make it a World RPS related event?  It will be the first tourney I've hosted so any thoughts on making it a success are appreciated.

[Maxamillion]

R, Trying to understand how the game works? hmmmm! thanks for that info.
Probably explains why no one has commented yet on the thread.
I will get some quick english lessons then try to simplify / clarify the game.

This is my first attempt at tourney running too so like yourself so any helpfull feedback / thoughts will be appreciated.

Hope to start a pilot run in the near future so keep a look out for the wanabe in sprock game thread!

best of luck with your live tourney in Korea

Max

[Brad Fox]

Event recognition isn't my department but if you go to wrps.com there's a link on the left with information on running an event.

WRPS will "recognize" all kinds of tournaments if you submit a form and agree to some simple requirements.

For that matter, I have no idea whose department event recognition is... probably some kind of elaborate computer in the basement or something.

[custardchuk]

A sanctioned event in Korea. mmmmmmm.........
I've been looking to break into the Asian series and I still have my best game in me this season.
Keep me informed.

[R Cohrs]

Alright looks like being recognized is the way to go for now.  There's too many rules to being sanctioned, especially financially and gathering 128 people together that just won't work for me right now.  But, we'll see how the first tourney goes and work from there.  Right now just a low-key affair; I'm hoping for at least 10 people to turn out, and it would be nice to see that number climb.   

chuk- you're always welcome to come over mate.  Same of course for most of the Boarders, in fact I can only think of a single exception... 

[R Cohrs]

Yesterday I hosted the first "Seoul of Rock Paper Scissors" Tournament here in Hanam.  It was a lot of fun and hopefully will lead to future tourneys.  So here's the rundown:

   First of all this tournament complied by all international standards.  I performend quadruple duty and acted as host, head ref, scorekeeper, and player.  I also trained Peter "Che" Guevarra as a secondary ref and scorekeeper and I'm proud to say he performed very well.  I primed everyone on the rules as posted on this website but only had to give one verbal warning for a non-regulation vertical paper.  The refs of course kept priming in sync.  I did use some artwork from this site, and per guidelines, I included the worldrps.com link on all copies of artwork.  Just trying to say that I wanted to be as legit as possible because it would be great to have this tourney "officially" recognized as the first World RPS tourney in Asia.  I also have quite a few pics which I'll share as soon as my friend can make them available.  No merchandise was sold, but I would say our sponsor was the Live Bench owner who supplied us with free food and helped set up for the tourney.     

  The players of the night were:  Myself, Francis "The Fran", Peter "Che", Helen "Holly Go Lightly", Jaime "The Pill", Jen "Julio Baptista", and Sara.   With this group of 7 we had enough for a 3 round tournament.  Players were assigned their brackets by drawing names from a hat with "Julio Baptista" winning a bye into the 2nd round.  We followed best 3 of 3 format.  So here's the recap:

Round 1:  "The Fran" - PPSSS : RSS (W)
                   vs
                 Sara  -     RSPPP : SSP (L)

Grudge Match!   "R Cohrs" - SP : RSS (W)
                           vs
                       "The Pill" -  PR : PPP (L)

           "Che" -        SRR : SS (L)
             vs
  "Holly Go Lightly" -  PPP : RR (W)

       "Julio Baptista"
             Bye

Round 2: "The Fran" - SS : PPS (L)
                 vs
              "R Cohrs" -  RR : RSR (W)

Grudge Match!  "Holly Go Lightly" - PPPR : RRR : PP (L)
                             vs
                       "Julio Baptista"  - SPRP : SRS : SS (W)

Final Round: "R Cohrs"     - SPSS : SPPRS (W)
                      vs
              "Julio Baptista" - PPSP : PPRRP (L)

  I'm happy to say that I came away as the winner of the tourney.  Also I lost only 2 throws during 3 rounds.  The most difficult match for me (marked Grudge) was "The Pill", who has already proven her worth in street games.  "Julio" and "Holly" also have a close history so this was again a great match.

 Prizes:  The buy-in for the tourney was 10000 won (about $8), with 2nd place getting their buy-in back, so winner took home 60000 won ($50).  I also supplied a bottle of whiskey, a family supply of Peppero (Korean Snack stick with chocolate), and 1 genuine World RPS Tourney Street dollar for the winner, so all told about 100000 won ($80) in prizes.  As the winner I donated my street dollar to 2nd place as I already have them and shared the Peppero and Whiskey with the group. 

After the tourney I played a couple friendly games with the owner of the Live Bench and a Korean friend.  Then we watched some live music and at various points "The Fran" played bass, "Julio Baptista" sang and played guitar, and I also sang and played guitar.  We also drank the local favorite beer Cass. 

End result:  It was a lot of fun and worth the effort to put this together.  It looks promising for future tourneys here as several friends expressed interest.  There was also talk of forming a team, with the proposed name of "Hanam Hounds."  As I mentioned I should have access to the pictures shortly.  An interesting note is that many of these same people told me several times that it's all luck, but at the end they argued that I had an advantage because I knew strategy in the game.  I'd have to say I dressed to intimidate, wearing all 10 rings, along with 8 piercings, my cowboy hat, world RPS shirt, and sunglasses, and this seemed to work to my advantage.  In the last round of the Finals, my opponent bowed her head and tried to focus on her throw only, really helping with the advantage.   

One last note is that even though there were only 7 of us, we represented 4 countries, America, Ireland, England, and Australia, and post-game match-ups included Korea as well.

[R Cohrs]

*See above

Photos are up on Facebook 

[Maxamillion]

King of Seoul too Mr Cohrs!!

congrats on running a successfull tourny

looking forward to seeing if you can do the same in sprock challenge.

Max