Pavlov (Win-Stay, Lose-Shift)

Where it comes from

Also known as Win-Stay Lose-Shift or Simpleton. A learning rule rather than a moral one, and a strong performer in noisy tournaments.

How it plays

Pavlov does not have a position on co-operation at all. It has a feedback loop: whatever it did last time, if the outcome was good it does it again, and if the outcome was bad it does the other thing. That is the entire rule, and it is enough to find mutual co-operation with most opponents without ever intending to.

Its strength is recovery. Because it responds to outcomes rather than to the opponent's last move specifically, it can climb out of a mutual punishment cycle that would trap a strict copier, which is why it does well in tournaments with noise in them. It repairs relationships automatically, without needing forgiveness to be written into it.

Its weakness is that it can be led. An opponent willing to keep punishing it will keep making it switch, and a sufficiently patient exploiter can steer it rather than simply beat it. Pavlov is reacting to consequences, and consequences can be manufactured.

As a football side it looks like a team constantly changing its mind and is in fact a team applying one rule with total consistency. A patient spell that produced something gets repeated. One that got punished gets abandoned inside the same half, with no attachment and no press conference about identity.

In this league

Bellford County of Bellford play Pavlov. That you do not need a philosophy, only the discipline to drop what is not working. They have not played yet this season.