Back home, when we were still kids, we called this game “pik”, probably the Visayan way of saying “pick”. The game is played by two players first holding hands and then, on the count of three, releasing the hold to do a gesture of a “bato”, “papel”, or “gunting”. The rule is simple: Bato wins over gunting. Papel wins over bato. Gunting wins over papel.

And guess what? I have just learned from the Thinking Blog that there is actually a professional competition for the game complete with an annual world championship at that. This was held last October 13 in Toronto, Canada with a total of $10,000 in prize money. In the championship, a woman bested a man to become the first ever woman world champion.