[BCSWowbagger]

Cause they just had a block. Says in OP.

[MidnightLich]

Cause they just had a block. Says in OP.

With only four (4) brackets and five (5) series (six, if you count the movies), someone had to be left out. I figured the previous block (TOS) and next (Movies) made logical sense. But that does put them high on the list the next time we do something like this. (Which might be next year, if this proves popular.)

-crp

[BCSWowbagger]

Okay, gang, you all know that saying the kids have these days: A-VANS!

(Always Vote Against "Non Sequitur".)

While my seeds and Iron Prime's had some remarkable similarities, there are also some stark differences, so now I'm gonna say where I think the canny gambler can beat the power rankings and earn a few slips of latinum:

MOST OVERSEEDED: Nadet/Jamin, Admiral Strickler

MOST UNDERSEEDED: Club Martus, the "Blink of an Eye" planet

RANDOM TRIVIA YOU MAY WANT TO CONSIDER: The E.C.S. Horizon was Travis Mayweather's family ship, sure... but it was also likely the ship that brought The Book to Sigma Iotia II, so it's arguably the stealth TOS card in this bracket. (And it would be fun to see Design try to do something with that.)

MY PERSONAL PICKS IN EACH BRACKET:

Paralyzing Energy: garbage episode, but that is just the coolest special effect, and it was cool even before HD, and the mechanical applications to our game are obvious. I know the actual winner in this bracket is going to be one of the Gatherer cards (and I would be quite happy with a couple of them), but I'm backing my Cinderella Story until it burns out (probably in the first round; I think Chorgan's as good as any #1 seed, so Paralyzing Energy is in serious first-round trouble).

The Dreamer and the Dream: I don't play 2E, so I don't know what the 2E card called this does and I specifically intend not to find out, but it's an incredible moment from an amazing episode of Trek and I would love to force Design to make it into something amazingly 1E. Maybe something that redefines or reshapes or something, I dunno, I'm just dreaming...

Voth City Ship: Purely personal bias here: I pitched a version of this that was a mission which could move like a ship. I'm pretty sure Rules shot down my implementation of it (IRONIC), but I became very attached to the Voth Ship in the process. And, while the episode is pretty good, the ship is the most mechanically interesting part of it for 1E purposes.

Water Polo: Ideally, I would have preferred water polo to enter the game through one of Archer's more direct indulgences in the sport, but water polo is as near and dear to ENT fans as earl gray tea is to TNG fans. I'll take this.

***

...Oh, and, yes, I have updated my bracket on the previous page. It now reflects the official seeds and can therefore be used for the tournament!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fgochcym231op ... .xlsx?dl=0

[MattgomeryScott]

I need Space Vikings in my life, so I'll be voting for Freya so hard you guys.

-crp

She's my Number One pick for Voyager.

All the Best,

Mattgomery Scott.

EDIT: A no-prize for anyone who gets the reference.

[BanditKeith]

I only voted in TNG and DS9 because I only have Opinions about those. As much as I want to see Daren's piano as a card, I had to vote for Cobra Commander.

[Hoss-Drone]

I will be rooting for a final 4 of:

Tng: Beta renner cloud as a Nebula mission

DS9: old lady jadzia or club Marcus or meridian

Voyager: fast rotating planet (I pitched this a lot in 2e back in the day - could be rediculous 1e fun)

Enterprise: Rajiin (booooooobs - for all you fellow honest trailers fans)

[MidnightLich]

We've had a lot of response so far! Not even half a day in, and every poll has over thirty (30) votes! That's amazing. Please use this thread to discuss your votes (if you want) or argue for your favorites. I'm also curious about your voting strategies - did you go for what you thought the game needs? The best potential cards? Or just favorites?

I love you guys. Keep it up. Spread the word to your friends and those that don't visit the site regularly.

-crp

[winterflames]

Can someone point me to an article somewhere that explains what on earth "seeds" are in a bracket context? I have been callously ignoring it for 20 years and was hoping I could continue, but I am having problems following much of this thread without this knowledge.

[MidnightLich]

Here's the wikipedia article on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_(sports)

A seed is a "pre-ranking" of a team before the bracket starts. It's an estimate, in the opinion of the people doing the seeding, of how well that team is going to do. If you're a #1 seed, it means you're likely to do really well; if you're a #16 seed, it's believed that you are unlikely to do well.

At least in the style of bracket we're using, seeds are initially matched to ensure the greatest number of good games. Partly this is done by spacing out the higher ranked seeds. For example, the #1 seed is typically matched against the #16 seed. (In fact, all initial seedings sum up to 17.) On the other side of the bracket, #2 plays #15. This means that, if both #1 and #2 win their games, they will meet in the finals of that bracket. That's ideal for both marketing and having quality games throughout. Of course, upsets are a thing, so it's not guaranteed.

Elsewhere in the first round, there are much closer matches: #8 faces off against #9, for example. All of this is designed to create lots of conversation and try and have interesting matches throughout the entire bracket.

-crp

[Maelwys]

Can someone point me to an article somewhere that explains what on earth "seeds" are in a bracket context? I have been callously ignoring it for 20 years and was hoping I could continue, but I am having problems following much of this thread without this knowledge.

Seeds are a way to compare the expected strength of each contender. In sports, the "seed" position is usually based on the ranking throughout the regular season (so the team that finished 1st in the regular season is the 1st seed in the playoffs, they're the most expected to win). The seeds are also usually paired against each other so that the higher you "seed", the easier your path is to the championship (the 1st seed plays against the 16th seed in first round, which is usually expected to be a very easy game for them to win).
In the context of these brackets, the seeds were determined somewhat arbitrarily (since there is no clear way to rank how they're expected to perform in a public response poll), so they don't really have much meaning in and of themselves.

[AllenGould]

But mostly so that your popular teams don't meet too early - gotta save those big matches for the finals!

[jadziadax8]

Is there a reason that TOS was left out of this?

It's not like there aren't target-rich episodes to choose from...

I only had four brackets, so I chose to exclude The Original Series and the Movies, because they just had a ton of new cards and are about to have a ton of new cards, respectively.

[LORE]

Go, go, Club Martus! We need more ways to gamble in 1E! Having Lore sit around the Dabo table of my opponent's station and punch every waiter in the face just isn't good enough!

[BCSWowbagger]

What's the most overseeded card and the most underseeded card in each bracket? Go.

[Maelwys]

What's the most overseeded card and the most underseeded card in each bracket? Go.

Overseeded -
TNG: Ssetar/Badar N'D'D. Not sure how these got 1/2 seed. They might be an interesting pair of personnel with Nemesis icons and opposing abilities, but since there can be only one winner, that doesn't work. I can't think of much interesting that one of them alone could do.
DS9: Dukat's Hallucination. I had trouble picking one here, most of the top 8 are pretty solid card ideas to me, this was the only one that really didn't seem to fit up near the top.
VOY: Admiral Strickler. 4th seed for yet another Federation DipHoLe admiral? Nope, too many of those already, don't need this one.
ENT: Water Polo Stuck. This one landed in the middle... but even that feels too high. I just have no ideas or inspiration based on this image, no clue what I'd do with it as a card. Should be down near the bottom somewhat.

Underseeded -
TNG: Neela's Piano. 16th seed, for an equipment that could let us do cool things with the Music skill? Nope, give me this now!
DS9: Club Martus. A new site with new gambling options, and it's only in 15th seed? Somebody must hate Nors.
VOY: Freya. Fun new hologram personnel. I don't expect her to win, but definitely should deserve single-digit seeding.
ENT: Terra Nova. A new mission with some potential for interesting gametext. Probably not a winner, but should get a higher seed than 11th.