Battle of the Brackets: The Elite Eight Is Set

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There we have it. Our Elite Eight is set with Vulture's Drama Derby taking on Fug Madness, and underdogs Foreign Policy and Forbes battling for the final two spots in our Final Four.  And sadly that means bidding farewell to those who didn't make it out of the first round-- so thanks for playing Garden and Gun, MTV, Grantland and Slate. 

Today's winners join Jezebel, io9, the NCAA College Basketball Bracket and Muppet Madness in the Elite Eight.  And just as a reminder, voting on those pairings started on Thursday and will continue until 8 p.m. (EDT) Sunday evening--so get out there and vote. Currently, Jezebel's Sex vs. Chocholate is wiping the floor with its corporate cousin's io9's Worst SciFi Film, while the Muppets could just pull off the biggest upset so far, upending the O.G. of all brackets.

And here are today's matchups (voting will close on Monday, March 26 at 8 p.m. EDT):

Matchup #3 

#2 Vulture's Drama Derby vs. #3 Fug Girls' Fug Madness  

Despite a valiant effort from the sixth-seeded Garden & Gun bracket of Southern Food, the Fug Girls' Fug Madness rode the sartorial missteps of Lindsay Lohan and her ilk to the Elite Eight. The Garden & Fug matchup garnered the most attention from our voters, but around 60 percent of those went Fug Madness's way.  Vulture's Drama Derby was relatively untested in the first round putting away Slate's Mascot blog by grabbing nearly 67 percent of the vote.

Though both competitions took the previous rounds by large margins, make no mistake, we're looking at two very different brackets here. Vulture's Drama Derby had predictable final four with the The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Mad Men and The Wire squaring off, with The Wire and The Sopranos battling it our for Drama Derby supremacy.  And it seems like Vulture's fans actually aren't fans of the outcomes--the matchup between Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Mad Men was rife with fans upset with the decision and playwright Stephen Karam's review. It's worth nothing that the fans' bracket has a completely different set of final four contenders, with Six Feet Under and Buffy taking The Sopranos and Mad Men's spots

Fug Madness has narrowed down its competitors to the final 16. Though Lindsay Lohan has underwhelmed in seemingly all other aspects of her career, she's making a strong showing in the Fug Girls' bracket, storming through the Bjork regional and currently running up score on Lady Gaga.  And there's also a brutal pop music battle on the horizon as the 14-seeded Ke$ha is on the verge of upsetting the second-seeded Jessie J (you know, the girl who sounds like Katy Perry on a Katy Perry-esque song, Domino). 

As it's for the rest of our tournament, you decide who gets that third spot in our Final Four. 

You Say:

Matchup # 4

#6 Foreign Policy's Dictators vs. Democrats vs. #7 Forbes' Jargon Madness

This section of the bracket was made for underdogs. In the previous round, Foreign Policy took out the very-popular MTV Music Madness.  It wasn't even close as Foreign Policy grabbed nearly 74 percent of the vote.  Fellow underdog Forbes' Jargon Madness squeaked by Grantland's competition to find the best Wire character, even though Grantland was riding the momentum of an Obama-sparked debate. 

Unapologetic and at times downright funny (look us in the eye and tell us a Merkel/Lagarde scrum doesn't strike some kind of wonky funny bone), Foreign Policy has overseen Benjamin Netanyahu take out President Obama in the second round, and witnessed the late entry of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei continue his magical run to the quarterfinals.  "Following up on his surprise substitution for Ahmadinejad into Round 1, the Ayatollah Rock'n'Rolla steam-rolled through this one leaving the Burmese leader sulking back to Naypyidaw with his tail between his legs," writes the team at Foreign Policy.

Over at Forbes, you won't find words like Naypyidaw. And though the competition is over, what they lack in excitement they more than make up for in ubiquity and conversation starters. Though the competition closed in January, we still haven't figured out what it is that bugs us when we receive an e-mail containing the words "reach out" or "drinking the Kool-Aid" (cliches? weird images of hands?) and we guessing that this bracket's popularity hinges on the fact that you don't know (but are happy to discuss) either.  

So which bracket will it be?  Dying to figure out If Merkel comes out on top?  Or are you just dying at the thought of how abominable the expression, "lots of moving parts" is?

You Say:

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.