The Sword and Laser discussion
March Madness 2022 - Information Thread
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In case you want to lookup past March Madness books, here are some Goodreads book lists..2016 https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
2017 https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
2018 https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
2019 https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
2020 https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
2021 https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
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2016: https://swordandlaser.fandom.com/wiki...
2017: https://swordandlaser.fandom.com/wiki...
2018: https://swordandlaser.fandom.com/wiki...
2019: https://swordandlaser.fandom.com/wiki...
2020: https://swordandlaser.fandom.com/wiki...
2021: https://swordandlaser.fandom.com/wiki...
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(If you hurry you can make a prediction bracket before the tournament starts in about 2 hours).
Here is the breakdown of round 1 with links to all the polls: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
You can still create a prediction bracket. Or at least, I just did.
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He may keep it open until just before Round 1 voting ends.
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That prediction bracket was fun! I assumed that I'm not getting my way with many of the votes, but I am rooting for my prediction Rivers of London!
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I, also known as "I knew the results of round 1 and I don't count 😉", apologize for this joke...
Rob wrote: "Round 2 has begun!"For Round 2 I seem to be able to see everyone's votes down the right hand side of each poll. I'm pretty sure that's not meant to happen.
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For Round 2 I seem to be able to see everyone's votes down the right hand side of each poll. I'm pretty sure that's not meant to happen."
I just noticed that myself and fixed it.
Rob wrote: "I just noticed that myself and fixed it."Thank you!
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Tournament Finals Breakdown
Thank you for all your hard work Rob!
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William wrote: "Thank you for all your hard work Rob!"Seconded. You’re the magic elf who makes the cobbler look good for the villagers.
Oh, hey guys! Hope I’m not late to the annual Rob Appreciation Society meet up. Are there snacks?
Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth wrote: "Oh, hey guys! Hope I’m not late to the annual Rob Appreciation Society meet up. Are there snacks?"Snacks and drinks with plenty of Old Bay seasoning.
What is the Sword & Laser March Madness tournament you ask?
Each year we take nominations from our members for the Sci-Fi and Fantasy books they think the group should read and narrow it down to 16. We create two brackets, one for each genre. That means there are 8 Sword picks, and 8 Laser picks.
The 16 books are selected by our benevolent leaders based on your suggestions in the nomination thread and a super secret criteria of their own making for seeding etc.
Once the brackets are set we have 4 rounds of voting. Rounds 1-3 will take us from 8 Sword books and 8 Laser books down to 1 of each that will go head to head for our to be our pick for April.
This single elimination style tournament is inspired by some sporting event that takes place every year during the month of March. Does your nomination have what it takes to win 4 straight head-to-head matchups and become our April book pick? Let the madness begin!
This thread will serve as the main information center for the tournament and I'll be creating separate threads for each round.
Bracket: https://challonge.com/swordandlaser2022
Nominations thread
Round 1 thread
Round 2 thread
Round 3 thread
Finals thread
Schedule & Details
Here is the schedule for this year's tournament:
Nominations: February 7th-February 21st 8PM ET
Round of 16: February 23rd-March 1st 11:59 PM ET
Round of 8: March 2nd-8th 11:59 PM ET
Round of 4: March 9th-15th 11:59 PM ET
Final Round: March 16th-22nd 11:59PM ET
Nomination FAQ
(view spoiler)[
How Many books can I nominate? One. You cannot nominate one book and second another. You cannot nominate both a Fantasy book and a Sci-Fi book. Just ONE book total. If you mention more than one, I'm going to pick one. Likely the first one you mention. Please be CLEAR about your nomination.
Can we nominate any book we want? The only criteria is that it's a Fantasy or Sci-Fi book we haven't read. That said, it's preferable that you also nominate a book by an author we haven't read as well. Those nominations will likely have a better chance of making the final bracket.
We also have a rule to prevent author's from nominating their own books. In addition we'd like to prevent people from nominating their friend's book etc. If I see you doing this, I will first warn you to pick another book, and later simply ignore your nomination all together.
This year we have a new rule that prevents authors from nominating their own books. In addition we'd like to prevent people from nominating their friend's book etc. If I see you doing this, I will first warn you to pick another book, and later simply ignore your nomination all together.
Can I change My Nomination? Yes, but if you do so, please specify which book you are changing it from, as I'm doing this by hand.
How many books will be selected? 16 (8 Fantasy, 8 Sci-Fi)
When do nominations close? Monday, February 21st 8:00 PM EST. This will give Tom & Veronica some time to make the final bracket.
Which books will be selected? Whichever books Tom & Veronica want. They will simply use the nominations in this thread for suggestions.
How will the books be seeded? This is entirely up to Tom & Veronica. They may take into account how many people have nominated a book, but there is no guarantee.
The book I want was already nominated. You can second a nomination made by someone else, and I'll count how many people have nominated that book and sort accordingly.
No one else is nominating my book, should I change my vote to something more popular? In my opinion, you're better off just nominating a book you're interested in us reading than hoping to game the nomination system by changing your vote. Most years some of the books in the final bracket had only a single nomination, while several books with multiple nominations didn't make it. Multiple nominations may help it get noticed or in the seeding, but really all of that is up to Tom & Veronica.
How are the Nominations Sorted? The numbering is based on number of nominations, followed by when they moved up the list (i.e. based on post order). This number will likely not reflect the actual seeding as that will be entirely up to Tom & Veronica.
My nomination is missing/wrong! Sorry about that. I'm doing this by hand. Please post again and yell at me for missing, or not grouping it with another nomination for the same book, or marking you down for the wrong book, etc. If you're not clear about your nomination (or you nominate 2) I may add the "wrong" book. Please be sure you're clear, and I can fix it.
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