Seeds are sort of like rankings, but not strictly so. the committee that puts together the field of teams in the NCAA tournament breaks them into 4 groups, and then ranks the teams within the groups from 1-16 (actually, I suspect they rank them first, then put them in groups, but anyway). This is meant to give the higher-ranked teams an advantage in the early rounds and keep as many favored teams in as long as possible. So, for example, #1 plays #16, #2 plays #15, etc. Being #8 or #9 is usually seen as a real curse, as you as assured of playing a team that is roughly your equal. Teams with low seeds that advance are considered Cinderellas, meaning nobody expected they'd be invited to the ball, yet here they are and winning the prince, so to speak. In basketball, seeding is done based on records, division championships, and overall ranking at the end of the season. In this tournament, slimandslam used total #of performances to seed the shows into his brackets.
ETA: bandit beat me to the punch.
Updated On: 3/27/08 at 05:59 PM
Bumped to reflect the (incipient) posting of results for Round 3, games 3, 4, 5, and 6:
Game 3: Miss Saigon defeated Titanic, 60-34. Game 4: Parade defeated Putting It Together, 65-2. Game 5: Ragtime defeated Rent, 89-50. Game 6: Kiss of the Spider Woman defeated Crazy for You, 34-17.
A few notes: I said "incipient" because, unlike most nights, I did the bump post first and will update the initial post later. Apologies for any confusion, which will probably last maybe ten minutes, if that.
Because of my day off, I won't post any results tomorrow night (Saturday, 3/29), and I therefore won't bump this thread. I will, however, post two new games.
bandit964 said: I was searching for some themes for next year, and on ibdb.com it was so hard to find a category with a number close to 64. the 90s was a nice one. Bravo to you. Thanks for the compliment. Yes, "Broadway Musicals of the '90s" was the category this year, among other reasons, because the initial pool was so close to 64. However, especially in the early rounds, this actually was a little problematic, and was less than fully analogous to the NCAA basketball tournament.
In the NCAAs, the 64 basketball teams are selected from an overall pool of over 300 eligible college basketball programs, so (with the exception of a fluky conference-tournament winner or two) there aren't any teams in the basketball tournament that are unambiguously cruddy. By contrast, a fair number of the entrants in this here BWW March Madness thingy would probably be fairly described as substandard Broadway musicals. Granted, most of the really weak entries got eliminated in the first round and weren't going to win anyway, but it still filled the first round with blowouts. Picking 64 entrants for the next tournament from a larger, stronger field should make the tournament more interesting from round 1 onwards.
Bumped to reflect the posting of results for Round 3, games 7 and 8:
Game 7: Passion defeated The Who's Tommy, 36-34. Game 8: Falsettos defeated Jekyll & Hyde, 39-15.
The four games comprising the quarterfinals are now all active (or will be in a few minutes, if you're reading this immediately after posting).
The semifinals are currently scheduled to begin the evening of April 2nd, with votes due by 11:00pm EDT on April 4th. The final game should be posted on April 5th, with votes due by the conclusion of the NCAA men's basketball championship game on Monday, April 7th.
The people have spoken. As the winner of BWW March Madness 2008, I can confidently say that BWW habitués’ favorite Broadway musical of the nineties is…
Ragtime!
It was fairly convincing. In their six-matchup march to the championship, Ragtime not only won each game, but won each game with at least 64% of the vote. The score in the final-game win over Miss Saigon was 86-32.
I’d like to thank all of you who participated. I’m especially thankful to those of you who felt that the whole March Madness thing was overcrowding the boards and generally annoying... and who voted anyway. Thanks also to those who took the time to suggest improvements and provide encouragement.
It was a good deal of fun. Time permitting, let’s do it again next March. (But not before.)
YAY to "Ragtime!" I'm so happy that such a deserving musical won. I really thought some of the shows with, uh, bigger fanbases were going to do it, so I was pleasantly surprised.
"Ragtime" is love.
Thank you again for all of your hard work and dedication. You made March fun! Ignore anyone who says otherwise. I'm looking forward to next year! ^_^ Updated On: 4/9/08 at 05:45 AM
"TO LOVE ANOTHER PERSON IS TO SEE THE FACE OF GOD"- LES MISERABLES---
"THERE'S A SPECIAL KIND OF PEOPLE KNOWN AS SHOW PEOPLE... WE'RE BORN EVERY NIGHT AT HALF HOUR CALL!"--- CURTAINS
Even though you said that a month ago, I have that song in my head now.
He's a faker, and you've been taken in by his con. And in doing so, you are enabling him. He is doing more damage to aspergers than papa's words ever could. -Chane/Liverpool on me having asperger syndrome.
Thanks slimandslam and Yea for Ragtime! It's funny I followed the 'Broadway March Madness' and not the 'other' March Madness, basketball I believe?
The other day I was wondering what now closed show from the 90s and 2000s would be the next to be revived. Ragtime just may be it. Updated On: 4/9/08 at 12:50 PM
I was only able to vote a few times based on what I saw in the 90's, but I agree, it was fun. When I couldn't vote, I still read the threads. I remember there being a negative thread about this and I will say that seeing all of the threads for this didn't bother me at all. Good job!