This puzzle’s title and flavor text clue the game Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock. Each of the pairs of words yields a distinct matchup of two of the five hand symbols in the game.
Origami (Paper) vs. Kirigami (Scissors)
Essay (Paper) vs. Logic (Spock)
Printer (Paper) vs. Monitor (Lizard)
Herpetologist (Lizard) vs. Pediatrician (Spock)
Pair (Scissors) vs. Evil Twin (Spock)
Pinking (Scissors) vs. Green Anole (Lizard)
Stone (Rock) vs. Shears (Scissors)
Dwayne Johnson (Rock) vs. Leonard Nimoy (Spock)
Masonry (Rock) vs. Construction (Paper)
Golem (Rock) vs. Godzilla (Lizard)
We are aided in solving this step by realizing that the pairs are always given in order of the game’s title, though it is not required to notice this to solve the puzzle. The next step is observing that each of the words in parentheses is five letters long, which means it can be matched up with the title as well. For example, the winner of the first pairing is Scissors, which is the third hand symbol in the name Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock. Therefore, we take the third letter of FIRST, which is R. Likewise, Paper is the winner of the second matchup, which gives the E from HEART.
If we complete this pattern for all the winners, we get the phrase READ LOSERS. Repeating this process with the losing throws gives the answer IT IS ZIRCON. It is certainly possible to solve the puzzle by skipping the winning moves and going directly to the losers, but the intended method does both.