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]
Hold the presses! The Sweet Sixteen has been set, but not without a bit of controversy. For the first time in the storied history of Middle-earth March Madness, we’ve had a tie – yes, a TIE!
In the Beauties bracket, the Cinderella story (16) Feanor tied with (9) Varda when voting ended at 10pm ET today. To solve this tie-breaker, we decided to randomly pick one to win…no no, we wouldn’t do that. Instead, we did something a bit more logical. We took the total votes from round 1 and 2 and combined them for each contestant. The general idea being, if one contestant got more overall votes in those first two rounds, they should win. After the tally, (9) Varda made it through to face (5) Melian. Should be an interesting match-up!
However, one could argue that is not the most interesting match-up of the Beauty Bracket…we have (3) Galadriel facing a fan favorite (10) Legolas!
In the Brains bracket (8) Elrond managed to slip by the number one seed Tom Bombadil and will face (4) Luthien. Two of the top seeds, (3) Faramir and (2) Gandalf will face off in the other match-up.
Both the Brawn and Baddies brackets are advancing all the top seeds into the Sweet Sixteen.
In the Brawn bracket we have (1) Beorn facing (4) Eomer, while (3) Boromir will face (2) Eowyn. Will we have a sibling battle in the Elite Eight??
The Baddies contestants read like a who’s who of bad-arse Middle-earth antagonists. We’ve got (1) Morgoth facing (4) Sauron, and (3) Smaug facing (2) The Balrog of Moria. I only wish we had a couple hundred million dollars and the special effects wizards at WETA to visualize these match-ups for us!
Voting is now open and will remain open until March 30th at 10pm ET. We will calculate the winners at that point and post the next round on March 31st. Follow after the break for a complete bracket image (download it), and to vote on all of our Round 3 match-ups! [Sweet Sixteen Bracket] [Round 2 Bracket] [Round 1 Bracket]
We have some incredibly close contests as we choose our Middle-earth Sweet Sixteen. In the Brains bracket, can (5)Treebeard overcome (4)Luthien, or does (7)Aragorn have a strategy to come from behind and win over (2)Gandalf? (10)Gimli and (2)Eowyn are locked in a tight battle – who will prevail in the Brawn bracket? What about the Beauties (10)Legolas and (2)Arwen? Can anyone defeat (1)Morgoth in Baddies?
Voting ends March 26 at 10 PM ET, so pick your winners now! Here’s a link to the poll: Round 2 voting.
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.
Middle-earth March Madness Round 2 is here! With 1000+ votes for each match-up, some of our first round match-ups came down to just 5 votes!
In the Beauty Bracket, and with the biggest upset of the tournament so far, (1) Goldberry was beaten by the (16) Feanor! In the Brains Bracket, (6) Gwaihir managed to hold off (11) Turgon. In the Brawn Bracket, the battle of the dwarves was won by (11) Gimli when he took down (7) Dwalin. And in the Baddies Bracket, (3) Smaug decimated (14) Lurtz.
Round 2 has its share of interesting match-ups – what are your favorites?
Voting in Round 2 will remain open until March 26th at 10pm ET. At that point, we’ll calculate the winners and post the next round on March 27th. Follow after the break for a complete bracket image (download it), and to vote on all of our Round 2 match-ups! [Round 2 Bracket] [Round 1 Bracket]
Welcome to The Great Hall of Poets, our regular monthly feature showcasing the talent of Middle-earth fans. Each month we will feature a small selection of the poems submitted, but we hope you will read all of the poems that we have received here in our Great Hall of Poets.
So come and join us by the hearth and enjoy!
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.netOne poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.
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!
Welcome to The Great Hall of Poets, our regular monthly feature showcasing the talent of Middle-earth fans. Each month we will feature a small selection of the poems submitted, but we hope you will read all of the poems that we have received here in our