March Madness 2022: 63 To Go

by Charlie Plaine, Director of First Edition

2nd March 2022

Ladies, gentlemen, and non-binary friends, it is time - once again - to get ready to rumble! We at the Continuing Committee's Department of First Edition are thrilled to bring back March Madness for the 4th consecutive year. If you haven't played with us before and you aren't a college basketball fan, allow me to explain the game. Each week, we vote on matches, eliminating options until we have a single winner. The game is named for the NCAA College Basketball tournament every year, from which we also stole the bracket structure. In 2019, we voted on the sixty-four (64) most popular cards, where the original Q's Tent emerged victorious over Alternate Universe Door. In 2020, it was a brawl between the most popular personnel cards, with Dr. McCoy winning over Seven of Nine in the final. And last year, we had potential card concepts battle for the chance to become a new virtual card. In that finale, the Fast Rotating Planet from Voyager's "Blink of an Eye" squeaked by Holoprogram: Loyalty Test from DS9's "Inquisition" to win. And I'm happy to report that Fast Rotating Planet is currently in front of our playtesters for a (hopeful) release later this year.

Last year's format was incredibly popular, so we brought it back for 2022. But, we've changed things up in 3 different ways. First, you got to vote on which episodes would feature in the brackets. Your votes chose 3 episodes each from TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise with a 4th episode from Voyager claiming the last spot. And secondly, a subset of you worked together to seed these cards in into their final positions. The final change is covered below and has to do with how the brackets are laid out. Everything else is exactly the same as last year - including turning the winning card into a new virtual card!

How Does This Work?
The game will run for six (6) weeks, so in spite of the name, it will actually be finished in April. Each week, one or more polls go up in which you'll be invited to vote on winning card ideas. For example, in Week 1, there will be 4 polls, each with 8 matches. You can vote in any of the brackets you like. All of the voting is done via Google Forms, and all you need to participate is an email address. You might be asking why you need an email address. Well, that's because we're offering prizes! For each poll in which you vote - up to 10 polls - you'll be entered into a drawing for a First Edition borderless promo. These are amazing cards with art by Lucas Thompson (edgeofhearing) and our fabulous Art Team, and we'll be giving out at least three (3) of them at the end of this game. Each bracket in which you vote is an entry - so vote often to maximize your chances to win!

Each of the 16 chosen episodes has 4 different card concepts spread across the brackets, for a total of 64 cards. All of the episodes came from a list of those that are underrepresented - or not represented at all - in 1E. For the first round, these cards have been divided into 4 different brackets. Each bracket features a combination of cards from the Original Series (TOS), The Next Generation (TNG), Deep Space 9 (DS9), Voyager (VOY), and Enterprise (ENT). The bracket has been seeded such that no cards from the same series face off in the 1st round. After that, depending on the results, it might happen in any subsequent round. This is the third and final change from last year's bracket. You can read all about how the 64 cards were seeded, as well as seeing each card and a link to the appropriate Memory Alpha article, in this year's discussion thread.

Okay, with all of that explanation out of the way, it's time to vote:

Vote in the Alpha Quadrant Bracket

Vote in the Delta Quadrant Bracket

Vote in the Gamma Quadrant Bracket

Vote in the Delta Quadrant Bracket

Remember: you can vote in any or all of the above brackets. And each time you vote, you're entered into a drawing for 1 of at least 3 borderless promos! So good luck and have fun! Voting will be open until NOON Pacific on Monday, March 7th.

Discuss this article in this thread.