Banners Bracket Challenge: Award Show

Hello and welcome to the First Annual Banners on the Parkway Bracket Challenge Award Show! This year, Banners on the Parkway hosted our first ever Bracket Challenge with the aid of our corporate sponsor, Yahoo. Entries from sort of far and sort of wide sort of poured in until our field of 32 was set. With points awarded on a scale set to marginally reward correct picks late in the tournament without marginalizing first round gains, it was going to be quite the race.

First off, congratulations to the host of people who correctly picked the national champion. When Louisville cut down the nets, Josh, Your Brother Dwayne, Sash19, Me, Tardy Turtle, and Cris all got to end our bracket with a circle instead of yet another dreaded x. Along those lines, special awards also go to CBrakcet (not for his spelling) and Brian's Boss Bracket for correctly picking two of the Final Four teams. If you are adept at reading between the lines, you'll realize that probably means no one else got more than one. That would be correct.

But enough about how bad we all area at picking Final Four teams, let's get to the winners! Things came down to a group of four at the top by the end of the tournament. Josh and Your Brother Dwayne rode massive first round scores through to the end, Sash19 was two off in the first round but rallied late to drag himself back into contention. Finally, CBrakcet drilled the second round and also was tournament leader in Final Four teams to get into consideration. The winner came from that group of four. Envelope, please!

Josh, Sash, and Dwayne all got the Louisville pick correct, but it only mattered for two of them. First, polite applause for Sash, a regular Twitter contributor, for placing on the podium in the bronze position. That leaves only Dwayne or Josh as our winner. And, without much further ado, I am proud to announce it was... both of them! That's right, across seven different scored rounds, Josh's Mind-Blowing Bracket and Your Brother Dwayne were exactly tied! They weren't just tied at the end either, they were tied after every single round.

So, congratulations Josh and Your Brother Dwayne (who is actually our brother Bryan). Check your email for one from Banners on the Parkway on how to claim your $10 gift card. Well done, all, and we hope to see you back next year.

To see the final standings, be sure to check the Yahoo group page.