Back on the AO, March Madness referred to the annual Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament, and I’d like to welcome everyone to the 2026 version, the TWENTY-THIRD such event overall, and the sixth one here at GoActuary (we’re up to two hands now, Count Tyrone Rugen excluded)! 
First and foremost, thank you all for your great participation in the past!
Now that we’ve got a handful of seasons under our collective belts here at GoActuary, we’ll take up to the first 64 players in this tourney (which realistically means if you wanna play, you’re in! 
).
Great news for 2026!!
(Yes, we first announced it last year, but it’s still great news!)
Thanks to Serena, if, er… I mean when you win, not only do you get the honor and glory of being an RPS champion (which in itself is pretty awesome!), but you also get an ultra-rare GoActuary RPS Champion badge!! 
Click Here!! 
The method of seeding this year will be based on the order of entering the game - the earlier you say you’re in, the higher your seed (and thus the better chance of getting an opening round bye).
All you need to do is post to this thread that you are interested, and you’re in the game! To be guaranteed a spot in the tournament, you must be one of the first 64 people to post in this thread by Sun, Mar 8th, 6 pm CT. (I could never get the clocks in the RPS arena reset after daylight savings time ended, so I need to start the tournament after DST kicks again in so everything is in sync.)
I’m reserving the #1 seeds for last year’s Final Four contestants (that’s one of the perks!). Those four players are: Defending champion Defending champion soyleche, runner-up Ted_Hoffman, skysn93 and SteveGrondin (but they still gotta sign-up!).
Everything will be the same as in the past.
Brackets will be announced no later than Monday, March 9th, at 10 a.m. CT, thus allowing for the first matches to occur that day. I’d like to get a feel for how big we’ll be this year, so please sign up ASAP.
As far as the tournament set up for this year, we’ll follow last year’s schedule - I liked having all the matches go Best of 7, but if we limp over the 32 player mark, the Round of 64 games will be Best of 5 (otherwise things can really get bogged down). However, if/when we blow that out of the water, we’ll make that round Best of 7 as well… and admit it, that’s what we all want, right? Right! )
Round of 64: Best of 5 games (see above)
Round of 32: Best of 7 games
Sweet Sixteen: Best of 7 games
Elite Eight: Best of 7 games
Semi-finals: Best of 7 games
Finals: Best of 7 games
Be warned - you’d better come ready to play, or a slow start could lead to an early exit!
You must PM me at least one set of throws a day, unless your opponent is unknown. No throws for 2 consecutive business days will be deemed a forfeit of. the. tournament! 
Once again, to say that you are in the tournament, simply post to this thread.
Details on the games themselves will be the same as in prior years:
The format is simple: This will be a simple “winner advances” bracket. You must win the series in each round to advance.
What will happen is for each game the two players will PM me their first 5 throws. I will resolve them, in order, and post the results of the game to the thread. (In the event of a tie - the 5 throws match exactly - both players would email me their next 5 throws for that game).
Example:
PlayerA PMs me: Rock - Scissors - Paper - Paper - Rock
PlayerB PMs me: RSRSP (Yes, we accept abbreviations and shorthand here!)
I will only post the results up until the winning throw, so in this case I will post something to the effect of:
PlayerA defeats PlayerB in Game1, PlayerA leads (1-0)
R-S-P PlayerA
R-S-R PlayerBPlayerA and PlayerB then PM me with their throws for the 2nd game of the match.
Note in the example above it doesn’t matter that PlayerB would’ve won more throws head-to-head; it’s the first non-tie that determines the outcome.
For those of you who still can’t quite see how this works, you can look at any of the prior RPS threads here at GoActuary:
2021: March Madness 2021 (a.k.a the annual Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament)
2022: March Madness 2022 (a.k.a the annual Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament)
2023: March Madness 2023 (a.k.a the annual Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament)
2024: March Madness 2024 (a.k.a the annual Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament)
2025: March Madness 2025 (a.k.a the annual Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament)
… to see how this all plays out - I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it very quickly!
It is my intention to update the game at least 2 times a day (midday and early evening), as long as there’s something to report. I will do my best to keep up with the PMs - each year is a little harried in the early rounds, but we manage to sort it all out, and a good time is had by all (although moreso by the winners, I suppose).
So with that… let the sign-ups begin!!
