10 Other March Madness Tournaments 2015 (part two)
Tuesday, we gave you a roundup of March Madness tournaments that you can participate in online that have nothing to do with basketball. There are quite a few more that might be right up your alley. You can be a part of crowning a new king, queen, or thing through bracket elimination!
1. The Ultimate Action Movie Death Scene
Vote for your favorite movie death scene in another tournament bracket from Uproxx Sports: The Ultimate Death Scene. Personally, I can’t imagine any scene beating the one from Scanners—you know the scene I’m talking about. Or maybe that’s because it traumatized me in a theater when I was of a tender age. Competitors are divided into divisions by decade, from the ‘80s to the ’10s. First round voting will conclude this evening, and second round voting will begin Friday. Check here to find subsequent voting posts.
2. UW Book Madness
The University of Wisconsin invites you to vote in their Book Madness 2015 tournament. Books are classified in eight divisions by genre, subject, or some other category the books fit into. Voting is open now in the first round. May I put in a plug for former mental_floss author Ransom Riggs’ book Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children? It’s in contention in the “Home is Where the Heart is” division. And you might want to cast a vote for flosser John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars in the division titled “The Real Deal,” although it’s up against a tough competitor, The Dairy of Anne Frank.
3. March Book Madness
You might need input from your children to vote in this tournament. March Book Madness is a series of book tournaments focused on young readers. Voting has been going on since March 4 in three brackets: the Picture Book Bracket, the Middle Grade Novel Bracket, and the YA Bracket. The brackets have books from 2014 in one half, and older books on the other half. Third round voting continues through Tuesday, March 24. The final winners in all brackets will be announced the night of April 7th. The bracket above shows the 2014 half of the Middle Grade Novel Bracket.
4. March Money Madness
March Money Madness is a tournament you can participate in, but winners are not selected by votes, but by your skill in predicting stock performance. Rounds begin on Friday, and you must be registered to play before the round begins. You make your predictions on which stock will perform better than its bracket competitor, and the most accurate player wins that round. Will Twitter outperform Gamestop? Will Aeropostale beat Papa John’s? We won’t know until the first round results are announced.
5. Fandom Madness
E! Online presents Fandom Madness, a tournament to decide who has the most rabid fans. The voting is now down to eight contestants to see who advances to the Final Four: We have Tom Hiddleston fans vs. Trekkies, Once Upon a Time vs. Friends, Britney Spears vs. the Doctor Who Whovians, and Beyonce’s fans the Beyhive vs. Sherlock’s Sherlockians. Voting in this round will continue through Sunday, then check here for updates on the winners.
6. MLB Hot Dog Madness
MLB Hot Dog Madness is presented by the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. “The Battle Between the Buns” aims to find out what your favorite ballpark hot dog is. The voting is conducted on Facebook, and today’s matchup is between the Yankees Nathans Dog and the Brewers Klements Bratwurst. See the full bracket here.
7. Beer Madness 2015
Illustration by Toby and Pete for the Washington Post.
The Washington Post is conducting its own tournament of beer. Beer Madness has completed the third round, and only eight beers remain of the original 32. Voting in the next round will begin Monday.
8. Star Wars: This is Madness
For the third year in a row, Star Wars.com presents This is Madness, the Star Wars character tournament. Voting is continuing today in the first round elimination, with two matchups today: Han Solo vs. Lando Calrissian in the Light Side competition, and Emperor Palpatine vs. Darth Maul on the Dark Side. Princess Leia, Yoda, General Grievous, and Jango Fett have already advanced to the second round. The final round will see if Light can conquer the Dark Side, but it all depends on the votes of the fans!
9. Teen Heartthrob Madness
Forever Young Adult had a tournament about teen movies, then teen TV series, and this year they're looking for your vote to select the best teen heartthrob! Voting is open in the Sweet Sixteen Seventeen Bracket, with heavyweights like Leonardo DiCaprio, Jared Leto, Zac Efron, and Devon Sawa in contention. So apparently they are catering to a variety of age groups, none of them mine.
10. The Worst Internet Things
Photograph by Flickr user fisakov.
What is the worst thing on the internet? There are plenty of contenders, from bacon worship to wedding Kickstarters, from new parents on Facebook to atheists who want to argue. Believe it or not, the trope of posting tournament brackets for something other than basketball in March is one of them in this tournament bracket! SB Nation selected 64 awful things for their tournament. As far as I can tell, there’s no voting in this tournament; you can decide for yourself which things are worse than others.
Bonus: Here are some March Madness tournaments we’ve covered in previous years that are happening again this year:
The Morning News Tournament of Books
Dabwaha’s annual Romance Novel Tournament
For more current non-basketball online tournaments, see 11 Other March Madness Tournaments 2015 (part one).