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Oomba is Officially Amazing
[September 17, 2014]

Oomba is Officially Amazing


INDIANAPOLIS --(Business Wire)--

Nearly three thousand attendees of Gen Con 2014 participated in the first public tournament run using Oomba's Tournament Management System™. That was just enough to beat the world record for largest Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament according to Guinness World Records whose trademark is "Officially Amazing". The final tally was 2,950 participants beating the prior record of 2,826.

To accomplish the goal, Oomba dispatched 25 of its co-founders to Gen Con - including the programmers themselves - armed with iPads and Androids running the Oomba app. Each had to sign up more than 100 players, helping them create an Oomba account, upload a headshot, and join the tournament, which was managed on the cloud using Oomba's software.

Players were matched in best two of three contests with losers receiving Oomba "official attempt" t-shirts and winners being sent to Oomba's two-story booth in tournament hall where rounds 3 -12 were streamed live to the Internet on OombaTV. Each player received increasingly valuable prizes based on whichever round they were eliminated within ranging from Oomba pins to an Apple (News - Alert) MacBook Air etched with the Oomba, Gen Con, and GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS logos for the one player, Walter Wills, who made it through round 12 without ever losing.

Several hobby game celebrities participated including Bob and Angus, the "spokes-sheep" of Mayfair Game's Settlers of Catan game; Cory Jones, creator of Hex; and numerous costumed players dressed as characters from both video games and role-playing games.



To fit the culture, the contest used the RPS-variation, Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock, invented by Sam Kass and Karen Bryla that was featured on the hit CBS comedy, "The Big Bang (News - Alert) Theory". This variation adds Lizard and Spock as additional options to reduce the frequency of ties. One fun anecdote was a player named Yang Lee who threw nothing but "Spocks" and remarkably made it to round seven before someone threw Paper, which "disproves" Spock, and Lizard, which "poisons" Spock, to finally knock him out.

"Being a part of all this, and helping Oomba and all the participants here break the world record was a blast," said tournament champion Walter Wills. "The event was a lot of fun, and it is obvious that Oomba understands the huge demand for new ways to run large tournaments like this one. It was cool to be part of their launch, but even better that I won."


Mr. Wills was not the only competitor leaving with a valuable prize. His opponent in the finale, David Philpott, received an Apple iPad Air similarly etched. Other top finalists received a 15th Anniversary All-Wood Settlers of Catan game set, Cryptozoic games, duffle and tablet bags, coffee mugs, and key chains.

"I could not be happier about this amazing result, and am thankful to everyone who was a part of this huge undertaking," said Michael Williams, CEO and founder of Oomba, Inc. "Having Oomba's first-ever tournament be a world record-setting one is something we will never forget. It was a lot of work, but how cool is that?"

Oomba's social network is currently in private Beta testing. Those interested in checking out the multi-faceted digital platform can visit the Oomba website for details on how to sign up and to watch full coverage of the monumental world-record breaking RPS tourney available on Oomba.tv.

About Oomba, Inc.

Oomba, Inc. is a specialized social media company bringing elegant organization to sports and games. Based in Irvine, California, the company was founded by Michael Williams, CEO, founder of Planetwide Games and Tremor Entertainment. Aiding Williams in the creative development of Oomba is co-founder and visionary, Nolan Bushnell, founder of both Atari and Chuck E. Cheese restaurants. www.oomba.com


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