Mar 15, 2018

***Brackets are due by NOON PST on Sunday, March 18th***

You may fill out the template below or follow the directions on this Google Doc. Make sure you go to your Google Drive homepage and get a sharable link for when you send it to me, otherwise I won't be able to view it.

Join the @KanyeMadness usergroup to be alerted when a batch of polls go up.

Spoiler: TLDR

1. Fill out a bracket with your user name typed/written on it by Sunday, March 18th at 9AM PST and PM it to me. Don't just send me a list of match-ups.
2. When filling out a bracket, you are trying to predict how section.80 will vote, not necessarily picking your favorite songs. image bracket | google doc bracket
3. You may still vote even if you don't fill out a bracket.
4. You score points for each match-up you correctly predict. The amount of points you get for a correct pick doubles each round.
5. Don't a be a d-ck and make alliances with people to vote a certain way to try and rig the results. If you do, you'll be banned from the game and the forum for as long as we see fit
6. The winner (and perhaps a second and third place winner as well) will receive an Amazon gift card (amount TBD). If you would like to contribute to the prize money, s---t me a PM.

The fine print:
As anyone paying attention to rap twitter knows, there's currently a "Kanye Madness" bracket making the rounds inspired by March Madness, which a college basketball tournament in the United States for anyone unaware. I honestly have no idea if anyone outside of the US pays attention to that s---. But just in case: the tournament involves 64 teams going head-to-head single-elimination style, and it's popular for groups of people at work/school/etc. to make a betting pool where they fill out their own bracket and try to predict who is going to win each match up.

Carrington Harrison, the creator of the original bracket, did a great job with it, but when we discussed it as a staff, we found some glaring omissions (Gone, All Day, Hold My Liquor, etc.) and some songs that had no chance of making it past round one (Crack Music, Big Brother), so @Loyalty was kind enough to recreate the bracket with some tweaks. I kept thinking we should change up some of the match-ups because, for example, how the h--- am I supposed to choose between "Runaway" and "Blood on the Leaves?" But the sign of a good bracket is that nearly every choice is a tough one. Of course, there are still some songs missing that we all wanted in (Coldest Winter, Cold, FML, and Christian Dior Denim Flow to name a few), but that's simply a testament to the strength of Kanye's output. @JFK half-jokingly suggested we do 128 songs, and honestly, we probably could have filled it up, but we decided to keep it succinct in the spirit of March Madness and also leave out Good Friday and Cruel Summer songs because quite a few of those are barely Kanye songs and are more label/posse cuts.




How it works:
1. When filling out your bracket, you are trying to predict how sectioneighty will vote, not necessarily choosing your favorite songs. For example, "Everything I Am" is a top five Kanye song for me, but I might put "Love Lockdown" down as winning that match-up on my bracket because I think it might be overall more popular among users here. I suppose there is a margin of error in that, if I put "Love Lockdown" on my bracket even if I like "Everything I Am" more, I would probably end up voting for a "Love Lockdown" in the actual poll to further my chances of winning instead of being honest and voting for the song I actually like more...but there's no way to really enforce that and hopefully there will be enough people voting who aren't participating that it won't matter.

2. Fill out a bracket and PM it to me (please type/write your username on the image you send so it's easy for me to keep track of them). You can use paint to type the names in, or print it and write it by hand and take a picture and send it to me, or use photoshop to copy and paste each square to move them along each round. Doesn't matter as long as it's legible and has your name on it. Don't share them until after sign-ups are closed, and I will post everyone's brackets in a dedicated thread afterward. Brackets are due by 9AM PST on Sunday, March 18th, after which I will be posting the first match-ups.

Alternatively, fill out the bracket in this google doc. The directions are on the first tab (make sure you go to your Google Drive homepage and get a sharable link when you send it to me)

3. I will post a thread for each match-up in a round every few days (I'll divide the first round or two by division so we're not doing 32 polls in one day) depending on how fast people vote.

4. You score the following number of points for each match-up you correctly predict in each round:
Round one: 1 point
Round two: 2 points
Round three: 4 points
Round four: 8 points
Semi-final: 16 points
Final: 32 points

Please keep track of your own points throughout, though I will obviously be checking the winner(s) to make sure their points are accurate.

5. Please don't be an a------ and try to rig the polls by teaming up with people or forming voting alliances or anything. This is just supposed to be fun.

6. The winner will receive a code for an Amazon Gift Card! Amount TBD depending on how much money we can scrounge up.

Any questions?

 

Mar 15, 2018

Get in here @BestMembers

 

Mar 18, 2018

@KanyeMadness
@KanyeSXN

First polls are up. I won't tag kanye sxn for this again I promise.

 

Mar 16, 2018

yes definitely. brackets are due in 2 days!

also @Big Cuntry you should post it on r/kanye if you haven't already

 

Mar 15, 2018

@Charlie Work @Groovy Tony @joeyp363 @El Plus Member @nunofherdeiro @Mraczewsky @SHUDEYE

Also join the usergroup here yall to be alerted when polls go up (I will just tag for one batch of polls so you don't get 32 notifications don't worry).

 

Mar 26, 2018

@KanyeMadness

Moving on to the first round of the sweet 16...extremely close match up between Hey Mama and DIAND.

 

Mar 23, 2018

@KanyeMadness next polls up!

 

Mar 21, 2018

@KanyeMadness

Last batch of Round 1 is up. All new threads are stickied in this section.

It is also your last chance to vote for the North West region polls for round one as they close in a few hours!

 

Mar 15, 2018

Yup, fill out what you think is gonna win on your bracket. In theory on the poll you'd vote for your favorite, but I can't stop people from voting based upon their bracket. The hope is enough people who didnt do brackets will be voting that there won't be bias.

Of course this way of doing things might be a failure, but I wanted to award someone's prize for accurate predictions rather than just picking their favorite songs and getting lucky, you know? Regardless of how this goes I'll probably wanna try this again and tweak it with another artist down the line.