🏀 2025 Middle-earth March Madness Round 2 — The Company of 16
Results from Round 1 set the matchups for Round 2
The dust has settled from the clash of characters in the first round of our Tolkien Tournament and 16 of our original contestants are moving on to Round 2.
Like the members of Thorin’s Company, these characters took various paths to “The Company of 16.” Many handily defeated their opponents, some prevailed in close contests, a handful won unexpected upsets over higher-ranked opponents, and one even was decided by almost a 50-50 split!
Here’s a reminder of our schedule for this tournament:
Round 2 (The Company of 16): Today, 3/18
Round 3 (The Fellowship of 8): Friday, 3/21
Round 4 (The Final Four): Thursday, 3/27
Middle-earth Madness Championship: Tuesday, 4/1
So let’s see who advanced and who went home defeated in Round 1!
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“Middle-earth March Madness” — The Company of 16
The Lord of the Rings
There were no upsets in the matchups in this region of the bracket: (1) Arwen, (2) Faramir, (3) Éowyn, and (4) Treebeard each advanced. None of the matchups were even particularly close, either!
Arwen took down (8) Bill the Pony, who has left the competition but will surely find his way safely home, with a margin of 54 to 45. As incongruous as an elf fighting an ent may be, she goes on to face Treebeard, who had an almost identical 53 to 46 victory against his little friend and definitely not-Orc (5) Pippin.
Our other matchup in this region sees Faramir square off against Éowyn: that’s right, they were meant to find each other and have once again here in our bracket. Éowyn dominated (6) Farmer Maggot 82 to 17 with the most convincing win in the bracket (tied with Galadriel’s performance, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves). Will Faramir, who took down (7) Tom Bombadil 63 to 361 be able to best her?
The Silmarillion
Both (1) Beren and (2) Luthien cruised to respective wins against (8) Túrin, who may have doomed from the start by Morgoth’s curse, and (7) Glorfindel (who we all know will be back). (4) High King Fingolfin prevailed against (5) Finrod Felagund, and will go on to face Beren this week, but in the last matchup we had our first upset! And what an upset it was!
(6) Huan, Hound of Valinor, bested the great (3) Fëanor himself! His reward? Proceeding to a contest with Luthien, who he aided so eagerly and ably in the Quest for the Silmaril.
The Rings of Power
Just like in our Lord of the Rings region, The Rings of Power saw all the top seeds advance. (1) Galadriel bested (8) Nori 78 to 22, tying Éowyn for the first round’s largest margin of victory. (2) Celebrimbor prevailed against (7) Arondir 68 to 32, (3) Elendil took down (6) Disa 73 to 27, and (4) Elrond sent his close friend (5) Durin packing 68 to 32.
Celebrimbor now takes on Elendil in a showdown between Eregion and Númenor, while Galadriel and Elrond’s friendship will be put to the test as they go head to head.
The War of the Rohirrim
Our final region contained both the most upsets (2 of 4 of last round’s matchups) and also the closest of all the contests so far!
(1) Héra and (2) Helm both dominated, defeating (8) Lief and (7) Olwyn 80–20 and 75–25 respectively.
But the sons of Helm would not be denied: both overcome their underdog status in perhaps the biggest surprises of the tournament so far! (6) Hama took down (3) Fréleaf 53 to 47 and (5) Haleth took down (4) Wulf 51–49! Which means that Helm and all three of his children swept the rest of the War of the Rohirrim characters and move on from the first round.
Helm now faces his eldest child, Hama, while his other two children, Héra and Haleth, square off for the chance to face the winner.
Who will advance and who will fall in this Round? Find out this Friday when the Company of 16 narrows to the Fellowship of the 8!
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Let’s be honest though, Tom was probably not even sure there was a contest going on and is happy to stay with sweet Goldberry.
Eowyn v. Faramir is so unfair 🤣 I was hard pressed on that one!
Looking forward to how this poll rolls out.
Aw I wanted Bill the Pony...