Some people, she said, are very, very serious. Others are very, very not.
“I am definitely goofy,” Locke said.
The 22-year-old University of Montana business student captured the championship of the first Missoula Ro-Sham-Bo tournament Saturday night at Westside Lanes and Fun Center.
Her reward is a trip for two to Las Vegas, where on May 13 Locke will compete against more than 300 other champions from across the nation for a first prize of a not-so-silly $50,000.
ESPN will air an hourlong special on the United States of America Rock Paper Scissors League finals sometime this summer.
Locke's victory in Missoula was the result of months of rigorous training and endless strategy sessions.
Yeah, right.
“I'm actually a bartender at Westside Lanes, and I've known about the contest since the first weekend,” she said. “I watched a couple of tournaments, and I played when I was a little girl.”
“She was just a natural at it,” maintained Brian Peterson, specialty brand manager at Zip Beverage, the local sponsor.
Peterson helped referee the tournament and the 26 qualifying tourneys at bars around Missoula over the past 10 weeks. He said the first-time event was immensely popular. More than 100 people entered the qualifier at Sean Kelly's.
Westside Lanes was pulled out of a hat to host the finals and drew what manager Robyn Barker called a “huge” crowd.
“I was shocked,” she said.
It's probably no surprise that USARPS has a Web site. And on that site the founder sings the praises of a “sport” that, let's face it, requires no athletic ability and a modicum of skill.
“Rock, Paper, Scissors is something that's taking the nation by storm right now,” Matti Leshem says in an newspaper article from the Salem (Mass.) News.
When Dave McGill, a 30-year-old bartender from Omaha, Neb., played the winning hand at last year's national tournament in Vegas, promoters called it “the paper heard 'round the world.”
Another Web site, of the World RPS Society, addresses tactics and rules, as well as such issues as: Why does paper cover rock? Answer: It dates back to an ancient Chinese tradition in which the emperor would indicate his denial of a petition by placing a sheaf of paper over a rock, which came to signify defeat.
“Ro-Sham-Bo is incredibly easy to do, and whether they be sober or not sober, which was the case a couple of times, everyone had fun,” Peterson said of the Missoula tourney.
National sponsor Bud Lite provided a rule booklet, but in essence it was the same game Locke played with her six brothers growing up in Big Timber.
Contestants went face-to-face on a “playing floor” in front of the karaoke stage at Westside Lanes.
Each player pumped a fist three times - “to get in sync,” Peterson explained - then “shot” a closed fist (rock), an open palm (paper) or two fingers (scissors). Rock beat scissors, scissors beat paper, paper beat rock.
About 40 qualifiers showed up for the single-elimination tournament, which was structured like an NCAA basketball bracket. The first player in a bout to win two best-of-three sets moved on.
“Hannah happened to work her way through, and right toward the end nobody even came close to beating her,” Peterson said. “She just dominated.”
Beer was involved, but with the help of her boyfriend, Brian Harris, Locke recalled losing just two sets all night.
“I can't say I had any strategy,” Locke said. “I was in a good mood. I remember going up, throwing Rock, Paper, Scissors, then coming back to my table and goofing off with my friends.”
Locke said she'd heard that something like 75 percent of the time, men start off throwing rock.
“But after the initial throw that's all out the window,” she said.
Her last competition was Kristina Wahlberg, a psychology student at UM.
“The final match was a monstrosity of a show,” said Wahlberg. “It was quick. She beat me in two rounds. She basically just dominated.”
Wahlberg's strategy was to throw scissors every time. Locke caught on and threw a rock to smash it.
Now it's on to Las Vegas, where the second annual national championship will be held at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.
“When I told my mom, she said, ‘Well, I'm glad you accomplished that. I'll tell everybody that my daughter is a champion (at) Rock, Paper, Scissors,' ” Locke said with a laugh.
Harris will accompany Locke on the four-day, three-night junket. She said she's been to Vegas once before - on a family trip to visit grandparents when she was 17.
“It'll be cool now that I'm of age and can go with my boyfriend and goof off, all-expenses paid,” she said.
And now that there's $50,000 at stake, she'll want to do some training, right?
“I'll probably do it all the way down on the plane. And I've got some friends who'll probably practice with me. I do have friends,” she said. “But, yeah, it's definitely not basketball where I'm going to practice my layups.”
But she figures she will take things a little more seriously this time.
“I could definitely use the 50 grand,” she said. “When I go down there, I might actually care if I win.
“You know, I never thought the hours of Rock, Paper, Scissors in the back of my mom's car were going to pay off. But I guess they did.”
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