There have definitely been classic RPS AI competitions, but I wonder how different the intelligent agents that play this real-time variation would be. I'd love to do an AI contest for this game!
True. It's the more basic of the games out there. However, I'd still say that there are lots of interesting things to learn and practice implementing for RPS. For example, it's about the simplest adversarial environment you can fathom. Also, the human aspect of the game is definitely still there, and it still seeps through the AI written by the humans, of which your own AI can take advantage. :)
I'm not sure whether its timing based or whether you just need to mash buttons like hell? If it is turn based it makes sense, but not much I can do with 300 ms latency as I watch the bar flying by getting redder and redder.
edit: Seems like its just button mashing. Seems hard to keep up the mashing with high latency, as the other person just plain reacts almost half a seconds before you.
Server keeps true state of the game, both players send inputs from which the server calculates the score (new state) which then is pushed back out to the players.
The "help" button explains it pretty well, I thought - in a sense it's "perpetual" Rock Paper Scissors. Q beats W, W beats E, E beats Q. As you hold down one of those keys, if the other guy is holding down a key that beats you, you start losing (and vice versa).
Certainly a viable strategy, although as other commentators have pointed out - it's easily countered by simply holding down only one button and thus forcing opponent to stop mashing and find the correct counter move.