Welcome to Season II of SoSG March Madness! This is what you signed up for. Yes, one full year has passed since Neeebs was crowned champion in the 2009 tourney, beating a game but overmatched (and absent) cigarcow. Who, if anyone, will knock off Neeebs and be crowned 2010 champ?
Here's this year's bracket:
(click image to enlarge)
Note: there is one spot still open! Comment here if you want it! BWrightson has claimed the last spot, so registration is full.
The rules of the tourney will be essentially identical to last year's, but let's review:
The committee has divided the participants into 4 regionals, and the first four readers to sign up - rbnlaw, Fred's Brim, Josh S, and QuadSevens - are awarded the #1 seeds in each. The rest of the bracket is filled out based on the sequence of subsequent sign-ups*.
Much like the actual NCAA tourney, each round of SoSG March Madness consists of head-to-head matchups which themselves consist of two halves. And each matchup is essentially a competition to see which competitor can comment the fastest. Here's how it'll work:
- For each round's games, at an unspecified time, we will post something with a headline similar to: "Opening Round, 1st Half: Comment-time!"
- The round and half indicated in the headline will of course vary, but the trigger word "Comment-time!" is your indication that you must, at all costs, post a comment immediately** upon seeing the post.
- For each game's '1st half', we will take the time difference, in hours and minutes, between the time each of the two competitors in each head-to-head matchup commented. Although all competitors will be commenting in the same thread, each competitor will only be competing against their specific matchup adversary.
- At some subsequent time, also unspecified, there will appear a "Comment-time!" post for the 2nd half of that round (i.e., "Opening Round, 2nd Half: Comment-time!").
- The competitor who commented second in the 1st half will then have to beat his opponent by more than that amount in the 2nd half. If he fails to do so, he is eliminated and his opponent moves on. If he succeeds, his opponent is eliminated and he moves on.
- Therefore, even if you see your opponent has already beaten you to the punch, you still must comment immediately upon seeing the Comment-time post.
- So, for example, let's say at 1:23pm on Wednesday, we post the Opening Round 1st Half Comment-time post. Let's also say QuadSevens comments at 2:23pm, and Fite Club doesn't get around to commenting until 4:32pm. So Quad wins the 1st half of that game by 2 hrs, 9 mins.
- Then, if we post the Opening Round 2nd Half Comment-time post at 8:45am the next day, Fite Club would have to beat Quad to the commenting by 2 hrs 10 mins or more, or he'd be eliminated and Quad would move on to the next round.
Those are the basics. A few more notes:
- It's possible halves or even rounds will overlap if some competitors really lag in commenting. However, I reserve the right to end a (half-)round at any time (I will allow plenty of time for commenting). Nonetheless, until I do, the previous comment-time posts still remain 'live' and can still be commented on.
- If neither competitor ever comments in either half of a game, they both lose.
- All 'Comment-time' posts will be posted between 8:00am PT and 10:00pm PT. So you can sleep easy.
- The clock does not move during the overnight 'dead time' between 10:00pm to 8:00am. Thus, if one competitor posts at 9:30pm one night and his opponent comments at 8:15am the next morning, it is considered only 45 minutes between comments.
- Any comments posted during the dead time count and are considered to have been posted at 8:00am the next morning.
- While we obviously won't reveal the exact date/time that the Comment-Time posts will appear, here are some general guidelines:
- Opening Round: Between March 17 and 19 (inclusive)
- Sweet 16 Round: Between March 22 and 24
- Elite Eight Round: Between March 24 and 26
- Final Four Round: Between March 29 and March 31
- Finals Round: Between March 31 and April 2
- Thus, the first 'Comment-time' post will occur no earlier than 8am this Wednesday morning (if nobody additional signs up to play, rbnlaw and Fred's Brim will have automatic bye's into the Sweet Sixteen Round).
- The content of your comment doesn't matter, just the time you commented (feel free to comment multiple times - only the timestamp on your first comment will matter).
- Those not participating in a given round are still welcome to comment.
- To the two Gregs: again, if one of you could temporarily change your username to something other than Greg, it'd be much appreciated (as to Greg 2's expressed concern: this does not impact any links/routing to any other blogs you may have).
So that's it. Please let us know if you have any questions. Otherwise, rest up over the next 48 hours before the games begin as early as maybe Wednesday but possibly as late as Friday!
*I almost rigged it so the two Gregs would have to face off in the 1st round.
**Twitter will be de-activated during the contest to ensure nobody has an unfair advantage
