So we had successfully figured out what the greatest comic book movie was at our first Bracket and matched up the best Hero and Villain to an ultimate showdown in the second one but suddenly we now had volunteers that wanted, nay, were demanding to be involved in the decision making process of what names got onto the actual bracket.

I sent out an email blast to everyone that asked to be involved and six answered back. Alex, Jackie, Laz, Linda, Oscar, Robert & myself. It was perfect. An odd amount is good to help prevent ties and this group ranged from #NerdLite to #NerdCore. Sure we had no idea how this was going to work or exactly how long it would take but The Committee was formed and the first official piece of business that needed to be dealt with was picking the next topic.

After an email blast and running thread, The Committee decided on #TheBigBadsBracket, which was to see what the greatest movie bad guy was but I still had to think of how I was gonna make The Committee work structurally. I figure the best way is to think of The Brackets as democracy at its truest form. If the night of The Brackets was election night then the Committee’s job was the primary. Yeah, The Committee are the elected officials that nominate those they deem worthy to run and amongst themselves they would whittle down the possibilities to the finalists. So I independently made my list of 56 nominees (to remain impartial) and sent out another email blast to The Committee to send in theirs. Once all the nominee lists came in I cross referenced the lists for duplicate nominees and those were moved on to the final list, which I would later find out was usually well over the 56 nominee limit. The final list was then sent BACK to The Committee for them to vote up or down the remaining nominees by assigning each a number value from 1 to 20 and send the voted list back to home base to be tallied. The numbers would then be crunched, the nominees would be ranked according to score and the top 56 would make it into the  bracket. The nominees are then matched up highest against lowest (1 again 56, 2 against 55 and so on) until you’re out of match up and placed in a secret pattern on the bracket for election night. Simple enough, right?

The night of #TheBigBadsBracket went off without a hitch and featured fan favorites such as Darth Vadar (Star Wars Saga), Tommy Devito (Goodfellas) & Ivan Drago (Rocky IV). As always the attendees (or Citizens as later came to be called) we in full force with legitimate arguments and drinking hats. Again friendships were made and lines were crossed but all was forgiven in search for the greater goal at hand, who is the best bad guy.

This particular bracket was a bloodbath though. Turns out the easiest way to get nerds into a blind fury that would lead into a drunken stupor is to get them defending their favorite villains in movies. I mean this crowd was taking this stuff SERIOUS and their votes were leading to levels of intoxicated that we hadn’t reached before. Three Citizens even passed out during the voting process. That’s not even a joke. They were legitimately asleep.

In the end #TheBigBadsBracket when into the wee small hours of the morning and ended with The Joker (The Dark Knight) wining the final faceoff against Keyser Soze (The Usual Suspects). When the citizens left the same sentiment was shared by all, “You HAVE to do this again.” and as I sat in my empty apartment with the sun piercing through the window I realized that with The Committee now in place, The Brackets had successfully become a democracy.

Be sure to come back next week for the fourth and final instalment in The Brackets origin story where we will discuss the several topics we undertook in the original run of the game, what happened to The Committee and why The Brackets eventually disappeared from existence. Till next time Citizens.