And so, now that we’ve unveiled the competitors, here is your printable bracket, in JPEG form…
… or as a PDF: Fug_Madness_bracket_2012
As a reminder, the eligibility period is Oscars to Oscars — so, from the end of last year’s Oscars through this year’s. An outfit doesn’t have to have been featured on the site to be eligible, as long as it was worn during the time period. Obviously, since the outcome of this contest factors into future world peace, the rules are very important. Although actually, whoever wins does have a history of going (semi-) quietly into the night, so…
To answer a few questions: The brackets are just names, not themes; people are seeded based on our opinion of their Year in Fug, and then randomly sorted into one of the four quadrants. Because the fate of the Earth hinges on us being so exacting, we use a deeply scientific method of How Famous Are You + How Bad Were Your Clothes + How Often Did You Go Outside This Year + Did You Come On Strong Late + That One Outfit Made Us So Angry + Yes, Emma Stone, We Love You, But Let’s Be Clear-Eyed About How Bad Some Of Your Outfits Were + We Don’t Care If You’re Performing Or A Kook-Snob Or What + Maybe I Just Don’t Like You. We try to mirror the Major Conference/Mid-Major setup of the actual NCAA Tournament, where it’s rare (but not impossible) that a team that isn’t a big name gets a top seed, and you can win a lower-tier conference and still only come away with a twelve seed because you’re just not a relative powerhouse. There are exceptions — Brangelina was placed very low this year despite their massive fame, because all the other seeds seemed in the right place so it wasn’t worth evicting one of them just to slot The Brange in at, say, an eight. And so forth. This is why we don’t do Selection Saturday podcasts. You would be asleep.
Any more questions? Check out FAQ Madness.
The play-in game will be tomorrow — we are keeping the participants a mystery until then — and Round One of the madness begins on Thursday. Make your picks, gird your loins, and vote your conscience. We hope you have an awesome time.
