New York Comic Con is almost here! Alas, TheOneRing.net won’t be there this year; for a number of reasons, we aren’t able to have our usual booth and party at this NYCC. But don’t despair – it doesn’t mean we’ll never be back! We are hoping to see Ringers take Manhattan again next year – so mark your calendars to moot in the Big Apple 2018.
Meanwhile – for those of you who will be in New York City this coming weekend, there is an event for Middle-earth fans! Our friends at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Monolith Productions are celebrating the Middle-earth: Shadow of War game with a special gathering on Thursday 5th October. Full details can be found here. We’re told there will be food, drinks, giveaways and more! Even if you’re not a gamer, it seems like a great chance to hang out with some fellow Middle-earth fans. Limited capacity so get there early!
And if you are at New York Comic Con this weekend, please do share with us any Tolkien related sightings or fun. Have a great time!
Calling all LEGO fans! Would you like to see the Battle of Minas Tirith as a LEGO Set? Well here’s your chance to let LEGO know. JediPippin has sent us his concept images that he has submitted to LEGO for the Minas Tirith Battle LEGO set to share with you. To get it looked at seriously by LEGO he just needs a minimum of 10,000 votes. So if you think this set looks as cool as we do, cast your vote here to have this concept set for the Battle of Minas Tirith designed by JediPippin put into production.
The mightiest and fairest of all the Elves that remained in Middle-earth – Galadriel.
Over 2000 votes were cast in our final event, and Galadriel took 66% of the vote – a significant victory.
We hope you enjoyed our unique twist on Middle-earth March Madness this year, and as always, we’d love to hear your comments and suggestions below. Do you have a unique way to run this event? Let us hear about it!
A note on how the bracket combatants were determined. TheOneRing.net created a document containing all combatants, sub divided into divisions. We asked staff to cast sixteen votes per division, with the votes having a weight of 1-4. Each staffer cast four 4 votes, four 3 votes, four 2 votes and four 1 votes in each division. We then totaled all the votes from each division to determine their rank, and ultimately placed those into our bracket for seeding.
Congrats to the Villanova Wildcats as they won the ‘real’ March Madness last night. But while that was possibly the most dramatic ending in college basketball history, it pales in comparison to our final of Middle-earth March Madness 2016!
(Drumroll…)
Galadriel vs. Morgoth
Could there be a more epic battle? Beauty and Brains facing the ultimate Baddie with Brawn.
Voting was close for the winners of the Beauty and Brains divisions. Galadriel pulled out of the victory over last year’s Champ by only 50 votes! Unfortunately for Beorn, the other match-up was not quite as close. Morgoth blew-out Beorn, garnering 60% of the votes.
So it all comes down to this. Will we have our first female character champion? Will an ultimate baddie win for the first time? Only time, and your votes, will tell!
Voting is now open below. Voting will remain open until tomorrow night (April 6) at 10pm ET.
While the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament may have set their final last night, we at TheOneRing.net are getting set for our Final Four match-ups!
The winner of the Beauty division, Galadriel, will take on the two-time champion from the Brains division, Gandalf. In the 2012 edition of Middle-earth March Madness, Gandalf defeated Galadriel in the Elite Eight round…can he do it in 2016? If Gandalf wins this year, he will be our first repeat champion and will lead the total championship count with three.
On the other side we have two first time Final Four combatants. Defeating Eowyn by just 9 votes, Beorn wins the Brawn division and moves on to face the ultimate Baddie – Morgoth! As an interesting side note, this is the first time Morgoth has made any type of run in Middle-earth March Madness. He has soundly defeated all combatants in this year’s event, but he is coming up against the top seed from the Brawn division in the form of Beorn. (Speaking of, which ‘form’ will Beorn take in this match-up? We’ll let you decide.) It’s an ultimate battle of two number 1 seeds…let’s see who wins!
There are some big names in these four match-ups that will determine each division winner.
Who is more beautiful? (3) Galadriel or (9) Varda?! How can one choose. This reporter believes Galadriel will pull out the favored victory based on name recognition alone…but is it right?
In the Brains division we have two popular characters head to head…(2) Gandalf vs. (8) Elrond. Seems like a match-up that could go either way.
The Brawn divison as the two top seeds facing off for bragging right. (1) Beorn vs. (2) Eowyn.
And last, but not least, the Baddies division has the top seed, (1) Morgoth, facing fan-favorite (3) Smaug. Should be a match-up for the ages!
Voting is now open and will remain open until April 2nd at 10pm ET. We will calculate the winners at that point and post the next round on April 3rd. Follow after the break for a complete bracket image (download it), and to vote on all of our Round 4 match-ups! [Elite Eight Bracket] [Sweet Sixteen Bracket] [Round 2 Bracket] [Round 1 Bracket]
New York Comic Con is almost here! Alas, TheOneRing.net won’t be there this year; for a number of reasons, we aren’t able to have our usual booth and party at this NYCC. But don’t despair – it doesn’t mean we’ll never be back! We are hoping to see Ringers take Manhattan again next year – so mark your calendars to moot in the Big Apple 2018.
