🏀 2026 Middle-earth March Madness Begins

Who will reign supreme as the one champion to rule them all?

Mar 17, 2026

This month sees the return of the annual March Madness tournament in college basketball here in the USA. 68 teams from across the country play for the chance to become the champion. It’s a wild ride of emotion, excitement, and entertainment as legends are forged and history is made.

For the past two years I’ve run “Middle-earth March Madness” and have had so much fun each time that I’m continuing the tradition this year! The first tournament in 2025 focused on the Heroes and Villains from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, with Samwise Gamgee crowned champion when the dust settled!

In 2026, characters from The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, The Rings of Power, and War of the Rohirrim faced off against each other. With Sam taking a well-deserved rest, Éowyn did what no man (or elf, dwarf, or hobbit for that matter) could do and conquered that year’s bracket!

For this year, I’m switching it up a bit. Instead of single characters, I’ve decided to go with famous (or infamous) duos from throughout Tolkien’s legendarium. These are the pairs that you can’t just seem to separate from each other, no matter how much you might want to in some cases! So read on to see who is squaring off against each other and also to vote on which pairs should advance to the next round!

3rd Annual Jokien with Tolkien “Middle-earth Madness” Tournament

In our tournament this year the four regions are Partners, Unlikely Friendships, Destined Duos, and Brothers (both biological and brothers in arms). Each region has eight starting duos, which I have seeded from 1 to 8 using a highly scientific methodology (i.e. what felt right to me)1 to rank them. I then placed them in the above bracket, which sets up the first round of matchups.

Here’s how the tournament will work: the winners of each round will be determined by your votes. The winners of each matchup will advance to the next round, where they will take on the next opponent in the bracket standing between them and the championship.

How should you vote? Strongest character? Favorite? “Most likely to succeed”? I’ll give a little guidance here: don’t just take relative power into consideration here. After all, “such is of the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”
This year especially, don’t consider just the power/effectiveness of the pair, but how iconic the pairing is and how much they help each other to do what they could not do alone.

Here’s the schedule of when to expect future rounds:

The Round of 32 begins today, 3/17
The Company of 16 will be this Friday, 3/20
On Tolkien Reading Day, Tuesday 3/25, I am planning to announce another giveaway!
The Fellowship of the of 8 will happen on Thursday, 3/26
The Four of Power will take place on Thursday, 4/2
The Championship matchup will occur on Monday, 4/6
The WINNER will be officially announced Thursday, 4/9

Voting will last three days each round and at the end of it all, we’ll have our third Champion of Middle-earth Madness!

A note before we begin:
I’m sure you’ll either disagree with where I’ve “ranked” a duo above or be upset a certain pair wasn’t included. I’m sorry! But there simply isn’t room for every pairing and I’ve tried to rank them both in a way that reflects their importance and—at times—uses some creative license to set up some interesting matchups

So it begins.

Partners

The Partners region is filled with those who helped each other achieve great deeds. Frodo and Sam, whose quest was to destroy the One Ring, begin by taking on the pair who got all the Ring making started in the forges of Eregion: Celebrimbor and Annatar. Bilbo and Gandalf face off with Sauron and Saruman, who may be too busy scheming against each other to bother with the Wizard and his Hobbit companion. Gollum and Sméagol: is there any closer pair among the rest of the field? They have their work cut out for them as they take on Saruman and Wormtongue, as to Thorin and Bilbo, who unluckily have drawn the Goth Lord and More Goth Lord themselves, Morgoth and Sauron.

Unlikely Friendships

These pairings cross some sort of line that makes them unlikely or surprising: ancient hatreds, different species, or something else tried to keep them apart, but against the odds here they are! We begin with Lúthien and Huan, the most beautiful of all of Ilúvatar’s children and the greatest wolfhound to ever live, drawn together by Beren’s quest for the Silmaril. They face off against Elrond and Durin, whose friendship in Rings of Power helped bind Elves and Dwarves closer together for a time. Another (and perhaps the) Elf/Dwarf pairing in Legolas and Gimli square off versus Pippin and his Minas Tirith companion Beregond. Elendil and Gil-galad of the Last Alliance find Sam and Bill the Pony standing in their way, while Túrin Turambar and Beleg take on their kin Beren and Finrod Felagund.

Brothers (or Brothers in Arms)

These Brothers (or brothers in arms) contains comrades from armies and orders throughout Middle-earth. Boromir and Faramir kick things off taking on some Orcs from Mordor, Shagrat and Gorbag, who have dreams of a life beyond the rule of Sauron. Founders of Rivendel and Númenor Elrond and Elros Half-elven take on the Blue Wizards, Alatar and Pallando, who hope to have more luck here than they seem to have had on their mission to the East to fight Sauron. Maedhros and Maglor turn their attention from the quest to recover their father Fëanor’s Silmarils just long enough to take on Aragorn and Éomer. Finally, Cousins Merry and Pippin hope to sneak past Elrond’s sons Elladan and Elrohir.

Destined Duos

Our final category is those united by love, destiny, fate, or other cosmic forces. Beren and Lúthien, perhaps Tolkien’s greatest love story, face off against the two great trees of Valinor, Telperion and Laurelin. Aragorn and Arwen take on Rings of Power’s Galadriel and Halbrand. Sauron and the One Ring to Rule them all face off against the one whom he perceived would be his chief adversary and obstacle in Middle-earth2 …and her trophy husband. And Eärendil and Elwing, or the Star and the Bird, take on Tom and Goldberry.

Thanks for voting! See you for the next round this Friday, where I’ll reveal the winners of this round and we’ll vote on the next round!

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