[MidnightLich]

Polls close tomorrow morning! We have had an incredible response with over a hundred entries in each bracket. This is so exciting!

-cro

[Takket]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKpOowrcT1E

Theme music..........

[BCSWowbagger]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKpOowrcT1E

Theme music..........

Oh my goodness, hearing this sends me straight back to childhood.

That's some powerful stuff right there.

[MidnightLich]

Holy cow, folks. We had an average of one hundred and sixteen (116) responses across our four polls, which is almost three times as much engagement as we had last year. That's incredible! I'm so excited to see how things progress over the next few weeks. If you're willing to share, I'd love to know how you found this. And if you didn't participate in years past, why did you decide to do so this year?

The polls are now closed, and I'll be putting together the Round of 32 brackets and the results today and tomorrow. The next round of voting will begin on Wednesday.

-crp

[boromirofborg]

If you're willing to share, I'd love to know how you found this. And if you didn't participate in years past, why did you decide to do so this year?
-crp

I happened to check the front page soon after it went up, and I don't remember if I did other years or not, but I know there's been times when I found out about it after it was over.

[MidnightLich]

Some quick stats as I avoid my actual job by tallying results:

One of the #1 seeds was upset.
Two of the #2 seeds were upset.
At least one episode that had multiple card options has been completely eliminated in the first round.
None of the episodes with multiple card options had all four of their options advance.

-crp

[edgeofhearing]

At least one episode that had multiple card options has been completely eliminated in the first round.

[Maelwys]

Some quick stats as I avoid my actual job by tallying results:

One of the #1 seeds was upset.
Two of the #2 seeds were upset.
At least one episode that had multiple card options has been completely eliminated in the first round.
None of the episodes with multiple card options had all four of their options advance.

More quick stats, since I used my magic admin powers to cheat and read the article ahead of time...
3/4 cards that I'd ranked as "Overseeded" were eliminated, even though they'd been ranked in the top half.
3/4 cards that I'd ranked as "Underseeded" survived, even though they'd been ranked in the bottom half.

So I ranked 75%, not too bad.

[WeyounsLastClone]

For those not too familiar with March Madness, what does #1 seed is upset mean? Or overseeded/underseeded?

I did like to participate, fun to pick between the options! Not sure if I did participate last year. Already forgot if this year I found out through the post on the forum, or directly from the front page.

[AllenGould]

For those not too familiar with March Madness, what does #1 seed is upset mean? Or overseeded/underseeded?

The seed is "someone who thinks they're an expert put the teams in ranked order". So it's an upset when the "underdog" team beats them. (What it really means is that the Experts aren't as smart as they think they are. )

Similar, "overseeded" and "underseeded" are other Smart People saying that such-and-such should have been a different rank, and thus were over or under ranked originally.

The key thing about March Madnesses is that unlike pro sports, they can't/don't do a "regular season" where you end up with a team in first place, second, etc. (Mostly because there's so many schools you just can't get that many games in - a lot of schools never play each other at all!). So, the Smart People basically invent an end-of-season ranking - "oh, this team looks good and played other teams we think were good, so they get a high seed, while that team didn't play teams we think were good so even though they have a better record we'll seed them lower". (It's a lot of politics, basically.)

[WeyounsLastClone]

...

Ah, great, thanks for the clear explanation!

I guess it's tricky being a Smart Person There's always Smarter People who don't agree. And then the Really Smart People who are never asked...

[BCSWowbagger]

(I started this post before the above replies, which are good, but, hey, I've got this whole post written now, so...)

All teams are seeded in the March Madness bracket according to their perceived power level.

#1 seeds are believed to be the very best teams in the tournament, with the strongest chance of going all the way to the finals.

#16 seeds have the lowest seeds, which means they are believed to be the worst teams in the tournament.

In the first 33 years of the modern March Madness bracket, not one single #16 seed ever beat a #1 seed. (It finally happened in 2018, when #16 UMBC beat #1 Virginia, but it has not happened since.)

An "upset" is whenever a team beats a team with a better seed. So if a #9 beats a #8, that's an upset. If a #14 beats a #3, that's a BIG upset. And, as I said, it took 33 years (and 136 games) before a #16 managed to beat a #1.

A team is "overseeded" if the people who made the bracket give a team a seed slot higher than it deserves. A team is "underseeded" if the people who made the bracket give a team a seed slot lower than it deserves. The actual March Madness selection committee works insanely hard to avoid this, but there is always some subjectivity in the decisions -- and, sometimes, pure personal animosity. In 1970, Adolph Rupp (coach of Kentucky) notoriously influenced the selection committee to give hated rival Marquette (coached by the great Al Maguire) a worse seed than Marquette deserved based on its record, leading Marquette to snub the entire March Madness tournament. (They went to the NIT instead, which they won outright.)

Obviously, in our case, we don't have thousands of sports nerds calculating seed values, just Iron Prime making his best guesses, so it's not a surprise that we have some overseeds and some underseeds on this bracket.

If a team with a bad seed (#12, 13, 14, 15, or 16, generally) manages to win a single upset, that happens, but it's usually a fluke, and the bad seed gets knocked out in the next round. However, if a bad seed wins in the second round, too, then it becomes a "Cinderella story," and people start taking them seriously. By the Elite Eight (Round 4), everyone still alive in the tournament has proved their mettle, and nobody cares about seeds anymore.

I hope that helps! I was raised to care passionately about the college basketball tournament brackets, and I want to share that passion with others.

[WeyounsLastClone]

And also thanks @BCSWowbagger !

Interesting! I actually was in the US 3 years ago for a few months, including March, and was wondering what some of the fuzz was about (seemed to be quite the thing at the office then...), but this makes it much more understandable.

Now I'm looking for the results even more!

(When I went through the picks initially, for some reason I thought the pairings were randomized for every voter)

[MidnightLich]

The brackets are going up tonight at the tick, but I thought I'd give you a preview by posting the results from Round 1. Here's how it shook out:

The Next Generation Bracket

• Ssestar (1) held off a late game rally from the Portable Piano to win, 73-49.
• Fountain Sentry (8) stayed strong to defeat Ligon II, 74-48.
• Gamma Hromi II (12) triumphed over Dirgo in a 77-45 upset.
• Jason Vigo (4) eked out a win in a nail biter against the Beta Renner Cloud, 62-60.
• Similarly, Chorgon's ship (6) held on to narrowly defeat Gatherer Raid, also 62-60.
• Chorgan (3) almost choked against Paralyzing Energy (14), but held out to win 66-56.
• The Soliton Wave (10) swept up the Nenebeck with an 81-41 rout.
• In a tie for the highest scoring victory, Badar N'D'D trounced Lambda Paz, 95-27.

Deep Space Nine Bracket

• Old Man Jake (1) might be old, but he held on against Meridian (16) to win, 79-49.
• Lt. Chandler (9) played dirty and upset Melanie (8) with a final score of 66-53.
• Sloan (5), in spite of his new uniform, couldn't pass the Holoprogram: Loyalty Test in a 72-45 finish.
• Old Man Bashir (4) shook the rust off to trounce Arrested in Irons, 85-34.
• In a big upset, the U.S.S. Honshu (11) took out Dukat's Hallucinations, 77-42.
• Age triumphs over range as Old Lady Jadzia (3) easily handles Subspace Transmitter, 84-35.
• The Dreamer and the Dream had a better story than Sirah O'Brien, upsetting 74-45 for the win.
• Club Martus (15) stunned all of Cardassia by taking out Crazy Dukat in a squeaker, 61-58.

Voyager Bracket

• Fan favorite Rain Robinson (1) easily held Discovery of Humans at bay in an 86-27 win.
• The U.S.S. Yellowstone (9) upset Quarren Labor Shortage to win 66-47.
• Recruit Labor Force (12) got vengeance for "Workforce," upsetting Cosimo 73-40.
• The best viking shieldmaiden, Freya (13), took out Admiral Strickler (4) with ease, 79-34.
• In the other highest scoring victory, Forra Gegen (6) proved his theory against Dr. Kadan (11) with a 95-18 win.
• Holoprogram: Forest of Forever fluttered to a win against Libby, 76-37.
• The Voth ship dominated Minister Odala with an open mind and team play, 73-40.
• In a huge upset, Fast Rotating Planet (15) showed Worker Janeway (2) who's boss, 83-30.

Enterprise Bracket

• In a stunner, Subspace Quinn Erikson (1) fell to the quiet charm of Carbon Creek (16), 69-41.
• The Vulcan Survey Ship (9) simply played a better game than the Stuck Water Polo Ball (8) to win, 71-39.
• Rajiin (5) looked amazing in her easy win against Tarquin's Planet (12), 75 to 35.
• Nadet (4) took a small early lead against T'Mir's Purse (13) and held on to win, 58-52.
• Terra Nova (11) might just be the Cinderella story, taking out Tarquin (6) in a 71-39 domination.
• Jamin (3), like his mother, held onto an early lead to knock out Dakala, 58-52.
• The ECS Horizon (7) spoke clearly against He Speaks in Shale (10) to win handily, 86-24.
• T'Mir (2) proved even second foremothers have game, taking out the Telepathic Enhancer with a 77-33 victory.

How did your picks do? Which was the biggest upset in your mind? Which card won that shouldn't have?

-crp

[Boffo97]

Wow, that participation. The lowest vote total I'm seeing there offhand is a couple of 58-52 races, which is still 110 (!) votes.

Congrats!