The opponents faced off across a table of varnished wood, each silent just before the match. The referee gave the signal, and with a flurry of fists and fingers, UF's second annual rock, paper, scissors tournament began.
The tournament, held at the Southwest Recreation Center, attracted 28 contestants Friday night, each competing for the rock, paper, scissors champion T-shirt.
Program assistant Karley Counts referred to the prize as "the T-shirt of all T-shirts."
Tournament play was governed by the official World RPS Society rules, which operates under the standard rock, paper, scissors format.
Although the single-elimination tournament featured many intense contestants, Counts said before the contest started that she did not expect many injuries.
At last year's tournament, "There were a couple of bruised egos, but not much more," she said.
UF student Jeremiah Tattersall, however, had other ideas.
"It's a contact sport for me," Tattersall said while sitting in the stands before the match.
"People think it's all in the forearm," he said, "but it's really all in the legs."
Tattersall and his friend UF student Brian Beard came fully prepared to compete.
Tattersall said their intense training included eating lots of eggs and dancing to the rock song "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor.
The duo turned out in matching uniforms that read, "We put the WOW in Bow-Chicka-Bow-Wow!"
Before the game began, they sat in the stands to strategize.
"Last year there was this guy who used the strategy of telling everyone exactly what he was going to do," Beard said, wearing his Terminator-style sunglasses. "Didn't really work out too well."
Tattersall placed second after his scissors were crushed by Bhavisha Dhanak's rock in a climactic best-of-five championship match that hinged on the last throw.
