🏀 Middle-earth March Madness Round 2 — The Company of 16
Results from Round 1 and revealing the matchups in Round 2
The dust has settled from the first round of our Tolkien Tournament and of the original 32 contestants, 16 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 went down to the wire and required a special overtime vote!
Here’s a reminder of our schedule for this tournament:
Round 2 (The Company of 16): Tuesday, 3/12
Round 3 (The Fellowship of 8): Monday, 3/18
Round 4 (The Final Four): Thursday, 3/21
Middle-earth Madness Championship & Tolkien Reading Day: Monday, 3/25
So let’s see who advanced and who went home defeated in Round 1!
“Middle-earth March Madness” — Round 2
Heroes of The Hobbit
The top four seeds — Gandalf, Bilbo, Elrond and Thorin — each made quick work of their opponents in this bracket. No upsets to be found here, and none of the matches were particularly close. Gandalf in particular dominated poor Radagast 93 to 7 (but Radagast pretty much sat out the events of the War of the Ring, so it’s safe to assume he wasn’t all that keen on this tournament either).
Gandalf moves on to take on Thorin, who dispatched Thranduil 77 to 23 and gave the Elves all the more reason to hate him and the other Dwarves.
Bilbo did what even Smaug himself could not and defeated Bard the Bowman (80 to 20) and advances to take on Elrond, who sent Beorn back to his hall with little effort (67 to 33).
Heroes of The Lord of the Rings
While the Heroes of The Hobbit bracket held no surprises for us in Round 1, the Heroes of The Lord of the Rings served up the biggest upset of the tournament! But then again Éowyn is no stranger to surprising victories over imposing foes! She upset the number 1 seeded Galadriel 53 to 47. Galadriel will diminish, and go into the west, and remain Galadriel.
The remaining matchups saw Aragorn crowned victor over noble Faramir (82 to 18), Frodo succeed in tossing Gimli from the bracket 68 to 32 (don’t tell the elf), and Sam defeat Legolas with the ease of plucking an unwanted weed from the garden (80 to 20).
Now humble Sam seeks to avenge the Lady of the Golden Wood as he takes on Éowyn and Aragorn takes on Frodo in perhaps one of the most difficult matchups of the tournament so far. He would have gone with Frodo to the end, into the very fires of Mordor, but who will go to the end of the tournament?
Villains of The Hobbit
Chaos reigned in this portion of the bracket, with only Smaug advancing out of all the top-seeded villains. Azog got dominated by the Three Trolls 40 to 60 and his son Bolg couldn’t avoid getting tangled up in the webs of the Giant Spiders of Mirkwood, losing 16 to 84.
In the most hotly contested outcome of the tournament so far, the Goblin King and the Wargs and Riders ended regulation tied at 50 each. With the results too close to call, I had to send out a follow-up poll yesterday when they went into overtime.
But while their initial contest was neck and neck, the Wargs and Riders shifted into another gear in overtime and pulled out to an immediate lead that they never relinquished as they cruised to an easy win against the Goblin King (39-61 as of the writing of this newsletter).
Having pulverized the Stone Giants 92 to 8, Smaug moves on to face the Giant Spiders of Mirkwood. Will anyone stand in his way? Or will he desolate the entire field and emerge relatively unscathed from this region?
Vying for their chance to take on the top-seeded dragon next, the Three Trolls take on the Wargs and Riders.
Villains of The Lord of the Rings
In our final region, the Villains of The Lord of the Rings — while not quite as chaotic as their fellow Villains from The Hobbit — had a surprise or two of their own for the second round.
As expected, Sauron made quick work of Gríma (85 to 15), no doubt insulted at such a pathetic opponent. And the Witch-king sent Shelob back to her foul den without too much trouble (66 to 34).
In the most lopsided result of the bracket so far, Durin’s Bane obliterated Lurtz the Uruk-hai 95 to 5, proving that a servant of Morgoth is not to be trifled with by a servant of Saruman.
Speaking of Saruman, he fell to his surprisingly resilient opponent in a close but definitive outcome. Perhaps offended by being ranked so low by the selection committee or sensing Saruman’s desire for the Precious, Gollum dispatched the nasty, cruel White Wizard 53 to 47.
Now Sauron faces his most loyal lieutenant. Prophecy says “not by the hand of man shall he fall,” but if The Rings of Power taught us anything it’s that Sauron is not just a normal Middle-earth dude. Meanwhile, Gollum attempts to take down his second Maia opponent (of three, potentially!) standing between him and the championship: the Balrog of Moria.
Who will advance and who will fall in this Round? See you next week when the Company of 16 narrows to the Fellowship of the 8!
Round 3 — The Fellowship of the 8
There and Back Again
Wherein I share highlights from previous years of Jokien with Tolkien
A year ago I wrote what is still my favorite essay I’ve written for this newsletter, an examination of grief in my own life and in Tolkien’s conclusion to The Return of the King.
Appendices
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Unexpectedly emotional about voting in the Aragorn vs. Frodo match up. 😅
Just found this newsletter, seems like a lot of fun and good memories.