Loyal readers of Transformer Generation Dad, I am sending out a call to service. In the coming month, I will need your assistance more than ever before. We are about to undertake a massive event that will absolutely depend on reader feedback to be successful.
The month of March makes me think of one thing: March Madness…and drinking while listening to Irish rock on the 17th. Okay, two things, March make me think of two things. The most significant and lasting of these is March Madness (though I’ve had a few hangovers that might put up a good argument). The NCAA men’s basketball tournament provides entertainment for sports fans and prognosticators around the globe.
As talk of the tournament has begun to heat up over the past few weeks, I decided that creating a tournament of my own would be fun. No, it wouldn’t be a 3-on-3 round robin played on the hoop attached to my garage, although I’m game for trying that this summer if anyone is interested. I was thinking of match-ups between things that the readers of this blog would take seriously. It would be a tournament of all things geeky, or nerdy if you so choose.
With this dream in my head, I began compiling lists. At first I thought I might have difficulty selecting sixty-four different items to begin a tournament with. But shortly I found myself with more than enough and appropriate categories began to make themselves clear as divisions. In fact, there was so much material to work with that, just like the real tournament, some notable and arguably worthy contenders had to be left out.
Allow me to say now that I am neither deeming this tournament the definitive list of all things geek, nor deeming myself the definitive geek (or Dungeon Master, if you prefer). I am just a man trying to make my way in the universe (two points if you get the movies reference, five for the character) and I just happen to be the one who decided to create this particular tournament, so I (and a few close personal consultants) get the final say. Difficult decisions had to be made, decisions that will haunt me for the rest of my life, but I’ll be damned if we didn’t keep moving forward.
Any super-geeks out there may refrain from flooding my email inbox with complaints and criticism regarding what has been left out and disagreements with the seeding. Aw, who am I kidding? Go ahead and send me emails. It will actually be flattering to know people out there are reading this stuff. Just please refrain from tracking me down and showing up on my doorstep to argue your case in person. While I would also find this flattering, the disturbing nature of it would leave me unable to appreciate it fully.
In the end, sitting in my “war room,” the participants were agreed upon, the seeding was tinkered with and the tournament was finalized, including a play-in game. The four major brackets are to be as follows:
- Movies
- Video Games
- Toys and Games
- TV and Books
(Note: the pairing of books and television in a combined bracket made me cringe, but the numbers on it made sense, so just go with it.)
You have hereby had fair warning, loyal readers. Come March 1st, the Geek Tournament will be underway. The matchups will be legendary. The results will be fast and furious with each group of games being posted and available for voting for only a few short days. Voting can take place here or on Transformer Generation Dad’s Facebook page, or both if you prefer the Chicago method to voting. I also plan on posting a downloadable bracket that you can print out and write in by hand (you old fuddy-duddy).
In fact, should you complete a bracket and send it to me in some manner (only email, that’s the only acceptable manner) the top few contestants shall receive Transformer Generation Dad t-shirts! Yes, free t-shirts! I know!
So, prepare yourselves for Geek Madness! Nerd Madness? Mad Geekness? Geek Nerdness? Okay, the title has yet to be worked out, but be ready for March 1st when it all begins. Tell your friends and your acquaintances and even people you don’t particularly care for to check back here early and often throughout the month of March. It’s going to be fun.
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So excited that I can't even think straight! It appears to be too late for me to lobby the Selection Committee, but I will anyway. If Karate Kid get left out of the Movie bracket, there will be some mad breaking of items in my house. Not sure where Computer Games fit in to Video Games but I would love to see You Don't Know Jack in there, if only because I probably spent more time playing that than I did with people of the opposite sex. (Plus it randomly generated my current moniker.) Finally, I really want to see Risk and MacGuyver do well in their respective brackets.
ReplyDeleteThank you! See people, that's exactly the type of attitude I'm looking for! But please sit down for the following notice: I regret to inform you that both You Don't Know Jack and MacGuyver were serious candidates that had to be left out of this year's tournament. It was a difficult decision and both were items on my list that had to be trimmed. The Karate Kid is a different story and I must tell you (please don't hate me) that it never really received consideration. I'll pause now while you find something of relatively low value that will be satisfying enough to smash...finished? Ok, then here's the good news. Risk will be enjoying homecourt advantage in the first found. Yay! Also, next year, we will have to make arrangements for you to be on the selection committee. In fact, I'm already picturing a night of drinking, merrymaking and seed selections that will quickly become more important to me than the tournament itself.
ReplyDelete