We’ve reached the Elite Eight in our inaugural Middle-earth March Madness tournament! The match-ups in the second round proved to be quite historic, but none more than the Rankin/Bass Division. The top seed (1)Gandalf, narrowly won by a single vote. Yes, one vote out of 19,405 is all that defeated the great (4)Feanor! Proving once again that even the smallest of things can make a difference. In the other match-up, (6)Smaug lost to (2)Galadriel by only 100 votes in a competition that saw 20,616 total votes! The rest of the divisions were competitive, but did come down to less than 100 votes. (see all results here) Ultimately we’ve ended up with the number 1 and number 2 seeded competitors facing off in the Elite Eight!
(1)Gandalf will take on (2)Galadriel in a battle of characters that will be returning to the screen in the upcoming ‘Hobbit‘ films! In the Ralph Bakshi Division, (1)Bilbo Baggins will test his muster against a crowd-favorite (2)Aragorn. In the Tolkien Family Division, heavily favored heart-throb (1)Legolas will face off against the hardened savior of Middle-earth (2)Frodo Baggins. The Peter Jackson Division’s final competition comes served with a bit of irony. Peter’s division is the only one to have a competitor that was not represented on-screen in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The match-up finds the top-seeded (1)Glorfindel versus a heavy crowd favorite (2)Samwise Gamgee.
Follow after the break to place your vote and see the latest version of the bracket. (download) Voting will remain open until March 30th at Noon ET. You may vote as often as you like, so please share with your friends and family.
Continue reading “Middle-earth March Madness 2012 – Round 3!”
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Join TheOneRing and the Tolkien Society, who started the event, by celebrating Tolkien Reading Day! Held annually since 2003, it is meant to encourage reading and is a great day to dust off a copy of one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s many works and dig in. (It also marks the downfall of Barad-dûr and the passing of Sauron, but that happened long before 2003.) Many schools mark the day with an in-class read, but since this year it falls on a Sunday, parents will be in charge of helping children celebrate but reading to pets, the infirm or yourself is also more than acceptable. Enjoy!
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Round 1 of Middle-earth Madness is over and the results were surprising! Two of the match-ups were separated by approximately 30 votes: (5) Merry narrowly outlasted (4) Eowyn (results) and (4) Gollum barely beat out previous leader (5) Treebeard (results). The only ‘big’ upset in the last round was (6) Smaug taking down (3) Arwen. All of the match-up results can be seen on our ‘Round 1’ page (click here). In Round 2, the Sweet Sixteen, we have some historical competitions. In the Ralph Bakshi Division, the battle for the Ring takes on new meaning when (1) Bilbo faces (4) Gollum. Then we have the battle of manly actors as (3) Thorin Oakensheild takes on (2) Aragorn. In the Rankin/Bass Division, the only remaining Silmarillion character, (4) Feanor, will have his hands full with the top seed (1) Gandalf. And (2) Galadriel could possible feel the extreme wrath of everyone’s favorite Middle-earth dragon (6) Smaug. In the Tolkien Family Division, poor little ole (4) Pippin faces off against the top seed (1) Legolas, fresh off his too-close-for-comfort battle with Elrond. (3) Faramir may have been tempted by the Ring in TTT, but can he overcome the temptation to beat (2) Frodo? And finally, in the Peter Jackson Division. Non-film character (1) Glorfindel takes on yet another Hobbit (5) Merry! And we know (3) Boromir tried to snag the Ring from Frodo, but can he handle the onslaught of (2) Sam? These Round 2 match-ups are going to be close, so vote now, and vote often! This round ends on March 26th 2012 at Noon ET. Continue after the break for the updated bracket (download) and some additional notes!
Continue reading “Middle-earth Madness 2012 – Round 2!”
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Middle-earth Madness officially starts today! We’ve split our field of 32 characters into four divisions: The Rankin/Bass Division, The Ralph Bakshi Division, The Tolkien Family Division, and The Peter Jackson Division.
Voting in Round 1 will remain open until March 21st at Noon ET. At that point, we’ll calculate the winners and post the next round on March 22nd. Follow after the break for a complete bracket image (download it), and to vote on all of our Round 1 match-ups!
Continue reading “Middle-earth Madness 2012 – Round 1”
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Middle-earth Madness and all the fun that implies, is soon to be released to fans of J.R.R. Tolkien everywhere. Readers and moviegoers will be able to vote as we pit character vs. character in a showdown to determine the 2012 Middle-earth character champion.
In the spirit of the U.S.’ NCAA college basketball tournament, known as March Madness, we will create matchups that pit the likes of Gollum vs. Treebeard and Boromir vs. Balin. Unlike the NCAA bracket, ours will be a 32 team showdown. Using voting fan input and finally our own selection committee.
And, because there are hundreds of great characters across the Middle-earth catalog, we know not everybody’s favorite character can fit in a field of 32 and just like in the NCAA tournament, some deserving characters may not get in. (Unlike the basketball tournament however, all of the characters are fictional and none will have his or her feelings hurt and they all have “next year” to be a contender.) So, we hope you will join us for our voting and enjoy Middle-earth Madness! The Bracket will be revealed soon!
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We’ve gotten a lot of great reaction to yesterday’s reveal of our Today in Middle-earth Calendar and want to share a quick update for those of you looking to add it to your feed or Apple’s iCal. For iCal, simply click on this link and the calendar will be automatically added to your iCal application (from there you can share it on your iPHone, etc). When we make updates to the calendar they should automatically populate your calendar as well. If you are looking for a XML feed of this calendar, click here. [XML Feed] [iCal Download] [TIME Calendar]
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