UPDATED OP: UGC Highlander Brackets Contest! HATS HATS HATS

[Saxxy]

Hi everyone, it's the end of another exciting UGC Highlander season!  There were over fifty teams playing against each other this year, and the BRB,U team is now ranked #8 as we head into the playoffs.  I figured it would be fun to run a little contest within the community to cheer on the boys in blu/red.

For context, the United Gaming Clans is generally considered the lowest-level TF2 league, but they're the only ones running running Highlander TF2 tourneys.  It's perfectly set up for gaming communities like ourselves to enter into, since you need so many people on your team to show up on match night!  (btw Highlander is where each team has 9 players, one for each class).  You can find the UGC main website here, and more importantly, the bracket for the Highlander league is here.

To pick a winning team, I suggest you look at the bracket site on UGC that I just linked to above, and browse through the records of the teams.  You can "probably" assume that seed 1 will beat seed 16, but it may help to look at the relative strengths of the team's season.  Did they coast to the top by playing a bunch of shit teams?  Or have they arrived at the top bloody and bruised?  8 games in a season gives a rather rough separation between the teams, and there's a lot of potential for upsets!

Also I should mention that The Geek Squad, a Highlander team with several BRB,U members and led by AMC, has gone from "not existing" to winning several matches, such as their most recent game against the Team Fortress 2 Wiki team (maybe they should have spent their time scrimming instead of editing articles.  Just sayin')

So, the hat winning part: the community member that produces the best bracket will be able to select one of these hats, courtesy of my backpack :p

Charmer's Chapeau
Defiant Spartan
Big Chief
Sober Stuntman
Hard Counter
Chieftain's Challenge
Soldier's Stash

Since BRB,U HL players have a far greater knowledge of the relative strengths of each team, the competition will be split into two groups: BRB,U HL members, and the greater BRB,U community (GeekS members will be considered part of the greater community, since ya'll haven't had the opportunity to play anyone besides the wonderbolts in the platinum level).  I'll just split this up at the end, don't worry about having to make your predictions in a separate bracket, you can't see other submissions until after the deadline.

note to BRB,U HL members: not only will you be competing in your own pool, but you'll have to beat the house, aka myself, as I will also have my own bracket

Rules!

0. (lol) Register on www.bracketmaker.com, then click the link below to submit your bracket predictions instead of derping around with scanning your bracket that you drew with crayons:

[url=http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=413820]http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=413820

Once you hit the above link, click on the championship link, then on "Predict it!" at the top.  The rest should be straightforward.  Let me know if you're confused, so I can laugh at you help you.

Remember, consult the UGC Highlander brackets page to get more information on each team.

When you register use your forum name!  And use an email address that you can access, since they'll send a temp pw that you can change later.

1. Points are awarded as follows:
round 1 wins: 1 pt
round 2 wins: 2 pts
round 3 wins: 4 pts
round 4 (final round): 8 pts
third place runoff match: not sure, its either 8 or 4 pts, the site takes care of everything

2. Don't post some bullshit about how I should use another bracket site.  Nerd it with deal.

3. The community winner gets to select their hat before the BRB,U HL member winner.  SORRY BROS DON'T KICK ME OFF THE TEAM

4. We're only doing the platinum level.  Cuz the plats got gats

5. Brackets must be submitted by midnight (central, duh) THIS SUNDAY.  Yeah, didn't give you a lot of time to prepare, TOO BAD.  I think you can see other people's brackets once the deadline passes.  You can also post after the deadline, but it won't count :/

6. If the HL member pool or the community pool get less than four submissions then it doesn't happen.  I'm not running a hat charity here.

7. Be fresh.

TL;DR: read it you lazy fucks and win a hat

[Eightball]

bring it on son

Timothy Carll gonna get all the points

[TOH]

that brbu team sucks, how did they get in this, they won't even get past the first round

[k0ala]

that brbu team sucks, how did they get in this, they won't even get past the first round

bunch of pub scrubs

[Saxxy]

Hat prize list is up!  I don't think it's too shabby  8)

Charmer's Chapeau
Defiant Spartan
Big Chief
Sober Stuntman
Hard Counter
Chieftain's Challenge
Soldier's Stash

As of this post we have.... 3 predictions completed!  One is from me.  GET ON IT FOOLS DON'T YOU WANT HATS.

[Saxxy]

BUMP

Four predictions so far!  Also I didn't try very hard in making mine, so I better see some more HL members get in on this  :p

[Saxxy]

Bump that ass up

I updated the OP so that it actually makes some sense now if you're not in the league  :p

[[SiN] Merc]

Feels bad voting your own team off man. 

[Didzo]

Free hats, you say?

[Saxxy]

Free hats, you say?

FREEEEEEEEEEEE

also bump!  Brackets close tonight, ya'll better get in on this ish

[Saxxy]

Okay technically we only got 3 people in the non-HL team pool, but fuck it we'll do it live.

[Saxxy]

Now that the first round is done, dead, and buried, let's look at how everyone's brackets are doing!

K2 is leading the pack, with 7 out of 8 correct predictions!
K0ala shit the bed and only got 3 right, sorry brah.

Every single one of us correctly predicted the gR win against Team Player (although would we have guessed that TP would pick up two points during the match?), along with BRBU's win over A Tin Team!

K0ala really messed up the pick distribution actually, everyone else also predicted the DesA, GG, and <3 wins.  What the hell man.

The last three wins proved to be a challenge however, as only AMC predicted The Wonderbolts beating ExJedi.  KA's win was also unexpected with only 2 correct picks, and RANCH with 5.

Who knew that putting three invite-level players on the 2nd place team from a couple seasons ago would work... oh wait Caffeine did, too bad he didn't enter into this  :p

Can't wait to see what happens next week!  Can K2 maintain his 1 point edge over the pack?  Will BRBU get any points against the Gun Runners?  Or will our opponents get so fat and complacent from thanksgiving that we'll coast to a 5-0 victory and ruin everyone's bracket?!?!?!

STAY TUNED!  note this is not a radio show you do not need to keep this page constantly open so that you don't miss anything why would you ever think that

[TOH]

I also noticed I'm eliminated. K2 and I picked every match the same except KA/ts, which he correctly took KA and I took ts. So no hat for me.

[Saxxy]

I also noticed I'm eliminated. K2 and I picked every match the same except KA/ts, which he correctly took KA and I took ts. So no hat for me.

gg no re

[CaffeinePowered]

Come out and watch the match tonight as we attempt to knock off the #1 Seeded Gun Runners

[Saxxy]

Update!

K2 and Eightball are now tied for the lead in the "pros n' hos" pool, eleven points each.  In the "not pros, not hos" pool, AMC and Didzo are tied, ten points each.

In case you're wondering, this is what a saxxy post looks like when I have the stomach flu.

ok back to drinking clear fluids and eating bananas and rice  :p

oh and we lost to gun runners blah blah blah we had a great time though and it was a lot closer than the 0-4 score might lead you to believe  :p

also, it was casted!  http://www.twitch.tv/extvesports/b/301224822

[[SiN] Merc]

Update!

K2 and Eightball are now tied for the lead in the "pros n' hos" pool, eleven points each.  In the "not pros, not hos" pool, AMC and Didzo are tied, ten points each.

In case you're wondering, this is what a saxxy post looks like when I have the stomach flu.

ok back to drinking clear fluids and eating bananas and rice  :p

oh and we lost to gun runners blah blah blah we had a great time though and it was a lot closer than the 0-4 score might lead you to believe  :p

also, it was casted!  http://www.twitch.tv/extvesports/b/301224822

I'm not number 1?! HOW CAN THIS BEEEEEE!?

[Saxxy]

Merc link=topic=6099.msg232037#msg232037 date=1322863525]
[quote author=Saxxy link=topic=6099.msg232033#msg232033 date=1322858380]
Update!

K2 and Eightball are now tied for the lead in the "pros n' hos" pool, eleven points each.  In the "not pros, not hos" pool, AMC and Didzo are tied, ten points each.

In case you're wondering, this is what a saxxy post looks like when I have the stomach flu.

ok back to drinking clear fluids and eating bananas and rice  :p

oh and we lost to gun runners blah blah blah we had a great time though and it was a lot closer than the 0-4 score might lead you to believe  :p

also, it was casted!  http://www.twitch.tv/extvesports/b/301224822

I'm not number 1?! HOW CAN THIS BEEEEEE!?
[/quote]

Captain America is always #1 

[[SiN] Merc]

[quote author=[SiN] Merc link=topic=6099.msg232037#msg232037 date=1322863525]
[quote author=Saxxy link=topic=6099.msg232033#msg232033 date=1322858380]
Update!

K2 and Eightball are now tied for the lead in the "pros n' hos" pool, eleven points each.  In the "not pros, not hos" pool, AMC and Didzo are tied, ten points each.

In case you're wondering, this is what a saxxy post looks like when I have the stomach flu.

ok back to drinking clear fluids and eating bananas and rice  :p

oh and we lost to gun runners blah blah blah we had a great time though and it was a lot closer than the 0-4 score might lead you to believe  :p

also, it was casted!  http://www.twitch.tv/extvesports/b/301224822

I'm not number 1?! HOW CAN THIS BEEEEEE!?
[/quote]

Captain America is always #1 
[/quote]
<3

[Saxxy]

Wonderbolts forfeits because their invite players have to play in a 6s game.  This is the third match to not happen between teams that were considered the best in the league.  The first was the preseason match between CLASSIC and hl.tf2 (CLASSIC wasn't planning on playing that season apparently), the second was a bye given to Lonely Hearts because their players were out of town, thereby postponing their matchup against hl.tf2 (which never happened due to hl.tf2 being a loose conglomeration of players held together by marisa which fell apart when she got banned).

So, there was only one actual match this week, Gangsta Gamers vs. Gun Runners.  Gr put up a good fight, but GG's aggression led to some great pushes, and Gr was unable to balance their DM with putting bodies on the cart during their turns on offense.

Finals are next week, Gangsta Gamers vs. The Lonely Hearts!  Also there should be a third-place game, with GG against WB, assuming they'll bother showing up this time.  I guess that's the downside to having invite-level players on your team (although why they didn't reschedule is unknown to me...)