Disclaimer: This post doesn’t include any information about SEO. If you are looking for SEO related content, please read the normal search related posts on this blog.

UPDATE: I clarified below that it is the winners of the 4 rounds that won, not just people who chose the winning weapon.

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Monday morning SEOmoz sent an e-mail to all PRO members asking them if they would be willing to beta test our awesomely big and useful tool. I only had enough resources to run the test with 300 people so I tried to come up with a solution to narrow down the list that was both fun and fair. If the e-mail recipients were interested, they were asked to fill out a form with their name, SEOmoz account e-mail, website and their choice of either rock, paper or scissors (RPS). We had about 1000 people fill out the form (Thank You!) and I ran the data through a nifty simulator I hacked together.

The entries were interestingly unequal:


To run the simulator, I put all the entries in a spreadsheet and sorted them by weapon of choice.  I then removed anyone who either did not include a weapon or chose a non-applicable item (Atomic Bomb, Shark with Laser, Dynamite, Sushi, Rand, etc.). Next, I randomized the list, cut it in half and faced everyone against another player.


I then abused the formula line by adding the rules of game.

=IF(AND(C2="Paper",G2="Paper"), "Tie",
    IF(AND(C2="Rock",G2="Rock"), "Tie",
        IF(AND(C2="Scissors",G2="Scissors"), "Tie",
            IF(AND(C2="Paper",G2="Rock"), "Left",
                IF(AND(C2="Scissors",G2="Paper"), "Left",
                    IF(AND(C2="Rock",G2="Scissors"), "Left",
                        IF(AND(C2="Rock",G2="Paper"), "Right",
                            IF(AND(C2="Paper",G2="Scissors"), "Right",
                                IF(AND(C2="Scissors",G2="Rock"), "Right", "WTF?"
                                    )))))))))

Afterward, I removed the losers, re-randomized the list, cut it in half and lined up every player with an opponent. It took 4 rounds.

Although there was a clear majority weapon victory, it is the winners of the four rounds that will become beta testers, most of which chose paper.


The winners will be alerted via e-mail in the coming days. Thanks to everyone who played!

P.S. Sometimes, I do actual work here at the moz. I have a 'real' post coming out later this week. ;-)