Just a couple of days to go until the fourth (and final?) HobbitCon gets underway in Bonn, Germany. Fans and cast members alike are getting on planes around the world and making their way to the Hotel Maritim – and TORn staffers greendragon and deej are looking forward to being there too! We’ll have t-shirts and buttons for sale, some prizes to giveaway, and we’ll be giving two panels over the weekend:
Saturday 2nd April 2pm in Saal Maritim
A Party of Special Magnificence – Behind the Scenes of The One Last Party
February 2015 in Hollywood – TheOneRing.net and fellow fans gathered with some of the cast and crew from Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth movies, to celebrate this fandom we all love – ‘one last time’… TORn staffers greendragon and deej share tales of fundraising on an epic scale, preparing for this special event, and trying to keep elves, dwarves, hobbits and men – and the occasional dragon – happy! Plus we’ll show some footage from the night itself – and maybe some extra video clips of cast who sent along their support.
Sunday 3rd April 12pm in Saal Maritim
There and Back Again – Looking Back on an Extraordinary Journey
Seventeen years ago, a film maker in New Zealand began his work bringing Middle-earth to the screen; and TheOneRing.net began a mission… quest… thing. In the years which followed, we’ve travelled far and wide, in cyberspace and in the real world; meeting cast and crew; getting magical glimpses behind the scenes; and most importantly, sharing an epic journey with our fellow fans across the globe. Join staffers from TheOneRing.net to share reminiscences about the highs and lows of this Unexpected Journey with a Fellowship of Fans.
Hope you can join us at the panels – and of course come by our table to say hello! We’re really looking forward to seeing everyone there – and of course we’ll report back with photos so everyone can share the fun.
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]
With less than a month to go until HobbitCon in Bonn, Germany, staffers deej and greendragon are busily getting ready to join their fellow fans there! For the first time, TheOneRing.net will have an official presence at the con, where we’ll be delighted to chat with folks, give some panels, and maybe share some merchandise and giveaways!
At the moment, TORn is scheduled to give two talks at HobbitCon:
Saturday 2nd April 2pm in Saal Maritim
A Party of Special Magnificence – Behind the Scenes of The One Last Party
February 2015 in Hollywood – TheOneRing.net and fellow fans gathered with some of the cast and crew from Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth movies, to celebrate this fandom we all love – ‘one last time’… TORn staffers greendragon and deej share tales of fundraising on an epic scale, preparing for this special event, and trying to keep elves, dwarves, hobbits and men – and the occasional dragon – happy! Plus we’ll show some footage from the night itself – and maybe some extra video clips of cast who sent along their support.
Sunday 3rd April 12pm in Saal Maritim
There and Back Again – Looking Back on an Extraordinary Journey
Seventeen years ago, a film maker in New Zealand began his work bringing Middle-earth to the screen; and TheOneRing.net began a mission… quest… thing. In the years which followed, we’ve travelled far and wide, in cyberspace and in the real world; meeting cast and crew; getting magical glimpses behind the scenes; and most importantly, sharing an epic journey with our fellow fans across the globe. Join staffers from TheOneRing.net to share reminiscences about the highs and lows of this Unexpected Journey with a Fellowship of Fans.
The schedule is subject to change, so we’ll update you if need be! Meanwhile we hope to meet lots of fans there. Rumour has it this may be the LAST HobbitCon – so let’s make it a good one! See you in Germany. Bis bald!
How time flies! Exactly a year ago today, February 21st 2015, many of us gathered in Hollywood for The One Last Party. Fans and TheOneRing.net staffers were joined by movie cast and crew members, brought together by a love of Tolkien and of Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth trilogies. Many more fans around the world tuned in to watch TORn’s live stream coverage, led by staffers Quickbeam and Justin. Bruce Hopkins (Gamling) acted as MC for the night, PJ himself sent a special video greeting, and the Professor’s great-grandson Royd Tolkien came all the way from Britain for the celebration. Partygoers danced the night away to the music of Emerald Rose and William Kircher’s group The California Dreamers. It was indeed a night to remember!
Staffer Mithril posted recently about the beautiful Red Book she made, containing the names of all who contributed to the crowdfunding campaign to make The One Last Party happen; this lovely book was sent to Sir Peter as a ‘thank you’ from all of us to whom his movies have meant so much. In another look back to that wonderful night a year ago, here are just a few moments captured from that night, and put together by film maker and TORn friend Dan McBride. Let’s reminisce – and hope that it isn’t really the last such event. We may yet have an excuse, one day, for an unexpected party…
Just a couple of days to go until the fourth (and final?) HobbitCon gets underway in Bonn, Germany. Fans and cast members alike are getting on planes around the world and making their way to the Hotel Maritim – and TORn staffers greendragon and deej are looking forward to being there too! We’ll have t-shirts and buttons for sale, some prizes to giveaway, and we’ll be giving two panels over the weekend:
