I want to start with a big thank you to everyone who takes time out of your week to read these silly blogs and vote in our tournaments. I really do look forward to this every single year and hope you do too. Enough with the my blabbering, let’s get to the good stuff!
Our Championship Round came down to two 1 seeds that I think most of us could have picked to run the gauntlet at the outset of our voting. It was quite the journey for our two finalists but they persevered to make it to the finale.
This particular year was probably the least surprising of the past few for sure. We lost one of our 1 seeds in the Round of 32 but the other three made it all the way to the Final 4. While last year’s average seed of our Elite 8 was almost 9, this year it was under 5. We only had one double digit seed make it to the Sweet 16.
After three straight years that we had run though an entire bracket without having any team catch the ever elusive 100-0 final score, we got a grand total of one this year – 2 seed Oscar Meyer’s “I’d Love To Be an Oscar Meyer Weiner” over 15 seed Bumble Bee Tuna. We did have 6 match-ups come within one vote (with finalist Toys ‘R’ Us getting within 1 vote of total domination three times in a row) but no one was able to pull it off.
Time to find out how the Championship Round fared. Remember all “scores” are in percentages.
Championship
We’ll start with a little recap of how our two jingles worked their way to the ‘Ship.
The left side of our bracket was won by what I would have classified as overall 1 seed Toys ‘R’ Us’ “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up”. The Companies Region had one of our most dominant runs I’ve ever seen by 1 seed Toys ‘R’ Us’ “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up”. The Round of 64 started off with a 97-3 win over 16 seed Stanley Steemer who only got 1 vote. The Round of 32 saw a 96-4 win against 8 seed State Farm who got another 1 vote. I thought the Sweet 16 would be tighter but 4 seed Chia also could only garner 1 vote as well with Toys ‘R’ Us moving on 95-5. They got their biggest test in the Regional Final against a dominant Cinderella 11 seed Nair’s “Who Wears Short Shorts?”, ultimately taking the region 74-26. they made the Championship by taking out a massive 2 seed in Chili’s “I Want My Baby Back…Ribs” by a final of 74-26.
Our right side was also taken by a massively strong 1 seed in Folgers’ “The Best Part of Waking Up”. Our Drinks Region 1 seed started off the tournament by getting all but 1 vote, knocking off 16 seed “By Mennan” 97-3. The Round of 32 saw them take out a fun 9 seed “Wanta Fanta” by a final of 83-17. It looked like they would be tested in the Sweet 16 against 5 seed Band-Aid but they sailed on to the Regional Final winning 86-14. The Elite 8 was one I was quite unsure of but the 1 seed moved on to the Final 4, taking out upstart 6 seed Bud Light’s “Real Men of Genius” by a final of 68-32. Folgers moved on to the Final by taking out a favorite 1 seed Kit Kat’s “Give Me a Break” by 2 votes, 54-46.
I’m telling y’all, I had no idea how to vote in this final. On the one hand, “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” is probably the jingle of my childhood. On the other hand, “The Best Part of Waking Up” is an absolute classic. I couldn’t decide and was very interested to see if you all could make up your minds. It was definitely closer than the real life Championship as Toys ‘R’ got their biggest test of the tournament but ultimately takes it all by a final of 60-40. “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” got off to an early lead and while it was close the entire time, they never trailed. What a great run from Geoffrey the Giraffe!
“I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” joins our former champions The Beatles, The Sandlot, Breakfast Tacos & Burritos, The Fresh Price of Bel-Air, Whataburger, Elf, and “Friend Like Me”.
Thank you all once again for taking time to vote in this tournament. I hope this thing was as fun for you as it was for me. We’ll do it again next March! As usual, I’ve got some ideas bouncing around in the old noggin for themes but I’m always looking for ideas for next year’s bracket. If you have any suggestions, feel free to get in touch with me on Facebook or Twitter.
After knocking 64 of the best, most perfect jingles down to a final Champion, our completed bracket looks like this:
One last time for the road, let’s enjoy our favorite jingle of all time – “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up”
The Clumsy Optimist 