The Sword and Laser discussion
March Madness 2024 - Information Thread
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Looks like nominations are now closed. Wondering if Fifty Shades of Grey by Jasper Fjorde (nominated by Misti, Lorna, and Deborah) will make the shortlist.
I don't think there's Fifty of those Shades. Simply irresistible, *whack*...
If you keep track of your books here on Goodreads, here is a list of this year's March Madness sixteen picks...https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
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I made my predections earlier this week but didn't name it. Loser. Does anyone know how to get it back?
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You can only rename it if you logged in first.
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Make a bracket here: https://challonge.com/anqrgjo2
Get the round 1 breakdown and vote here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
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The matchups and links to vote are here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Round 1 results: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
This year we had 51 bracket predictions (https://challonge.com/anqrgjo2/predic...)
Currently we have 3 brackets tied with 7/8 points (no perfect brackets remain) leading the way after round 1:
No Underdogs by PaulKPL
Don't Panic! by unknown
elizabeth's feelpinions by elzbethmrgn
All 3 have predicted HHGTG as the eventual winner.
Will they be able to hold out until the end, or will someone who missed a few more in round 1 come from behind as the points become harder to come by?!
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Round 3 Matchups: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Round 2 results: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Bracket check-in
https://challonge.com/anqrgjo2/predic...
Cordelia's Honor is busting brackets with their narrow win over The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Our top 3 brackets now are:
- Untitled - by Anonymous predicting: none - (I guess they forgot to choose a winner. oops)
- Because Bujold is Awesome - by Anonymous predicting Cordelia's Honor
- Silliest sounding book wins (and I’m okay with that!) - by Ruth(tilltab) predicting Dungeon Crawler Carl
So very different looking brackets. Who will have our winning bracket?
There are a handful of other brackets tied at 10 points, but all of the predicted a winner that have been eliminated.
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Finals Matchup: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Round 3 results: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Bracket check-in
https://challonge.com/anqrgjo2/predic...
Our top 3 brackets now are:
- Untitled - by Anonymous predicting: none - (I guess they forgot to choose a winner. oops)
- Because Bujold is Awesome - by Anonymous predicting Cordelia's Honor
- EWEoF - by Anonymous predicting Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
If the first bracket had predicted a winner they would have had a shot at winning since they accurately predicted the finals. However they are maxed out on points so the winning bracket comes down which of 2nd and 3rd place brackets gets the winner correct!
Please vote for Cordelia's Honor because Bujold is awesome (and so I can WIN!) :-)
Mod
Here is a breakdown of this year's tournament.
Thanks to everyone who participated!
Special shoutout to Randy who correctly got the winner in our bracket challonge: https://challonge.com/tournaments/141...
The Sword and Laser
Books mentioned in this topic
Cordelia's Honor (other topics)Cordelia's Honor (other topics)
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (other topics)
Dungeon Crawler Carl (other topics)
Cordelia's Honor (other topics)
More...
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/anqrgjo2
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 5th-18th 7pm ET
Round of 16: February 20th-26th 11:59 PM ET
Round of 8: February 27th - March 4th 11:59 PM ET
Round of 4: March 5th-11th 11:59 PM ET
Final Round: March 12th-18th 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.
What if I make a mistake in my nomination? No problem. Just please make another post correcting your mistake. Do no delete or edit your original post as I may miss the change. Thanks.
How many books will be selected? 16 (8 Fantasy, 8 Sci-Fi)
When do nominations close? Sunday, February 18th 7:00 PM EST. This will give me some time to do the final roll-up of the nominations and 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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