March Madness 2021

**March Madness 2021** was a virtual March Madness tournament held on the Blank Check twitter account. The event provided the yearly opportunity for Blankies to vote on a director to be covered. The tournament was riddled with controversy, but John Carpenter—number 1 seed of the Ben Hosley region—was eventually declared the winner.

## Summary

It's the 2021 March Madness event!

In the tweet announcing the bracket, the bracket was summarized as "Griffin vs David vs Ben vs Karen Han vs Emily Yoshida vs Emily St. James vs Richard Lawson vs Alex Ross Perry vs JD Amato vs Jamelle Bouie vs Katey Rich vs Ecks vs Sever."  The left side of the bracket was chosen by Griffin (yellow) and Ben (purple), with the right side by David (red) and the long list of beloved guests (green). This is also the first year voting will not proceed in alternating left right, top to bottom fashion. The bracket voting order will be Griffin, David, Ben, Guests and top to bottom within each bracket.

The 2021 bracket is seeded, determined by the perceived popularity among Blankies, how fun the series would be, and the personal preferences of the hosts.

Concurrently in March, Blank Check: Special Features will run a corresponding tournament to determine an upcoming franchise to cover on the Patreon. There are also daily discussions of the matchups on twitter and on the blankies subreddit.

### March Madness Rules

* polls post on Twitter @blankcheckpod at or around 10am Eastern / 7am Pacific / 3pm GMT (shoutout British English)
* polls are open for 24 hours, new poll daily through 3/31/2021
* winner = covered in autumn 2021
* Don't @ blankcheckpod about missing directors. These are the choices this year!
* PLAY NICE!

### Milestones and Ephemera

* This will likely be the last March Madness tournament held on twitter!
* MM losers are often the subject of future series, like Jane Campion, David's number 4 seed who was eliminated in the third round. A miniseries focusing on her filmography, sweatily titled The Podcastiano, began in January 2022. Similarly, both Danny Boyle and Buster Keaton went on to receive 2023 miniseries after each losing in round 2.

## Tournament

### Semifinals

Final Four

twitter -- 12,986 total votes -- reddit

twitter -- 40,483 total votes -- reddit

## Stats

 Round 2
 Round 3
 Round 4
 Round 5

## Controversy

There was a fair amount of controversy in the 2021 tournament, particularly the use of bots to skew the polls. The use of bots was suspected as early as the first match-up in the David region, Weir v. Kusama. There was no conclusive evidence in that case, as the Kusama hive was more prominent than Weir-heads. In the Jonze v. Dickerson match, there was compelling evidence brought forward by blankies on the reddit that bots were used to throw the poll in Dickerson's favor.  In the last minutes of the final match, over 3000 votes came in for Verbinski without any prominent retweets or other traffic.

The podcast ultimately decided to crown John Carpenter the winner.  It was a very hard-fought campaign for Karen Han, who has been campaigning for Verbinski since the inception of the tournament. Perhaps the boys will pause from considering coconuts to consider Gore.

On the March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 3 episode, ChipBot claimed responsibility for all the bot shenanigans. However as a result of all the controversy, the 2022 March Madness tournament will likely not take place on twitter dot com.

## Featured Episodes

The March Madness 2021 recap episodes appeared on Blank Check: Special Features.

 SF92
 SF94

## References

1. ↑  @blankcheckpod. March Madness Announcement. Twitter. Retrieved on February 25, 2021. “🚨 IT'S OUR 2021 MARCH MADNESS BRACKET 🚨: It's @GriffLightning vs @davidlsims vs @benhosley vs @karenyhan vs @emilyyoshida vs @emilyvdw vs @rilaws vs #AlexRossPerry vs #JDAmato vs @jbouie vs @kateyrich vs Ecks vs Sever. It's a BALLISTIC BATTLE ROYALE OF BLANKIE FAVORITES:”
2. ↑ @blankcheckpod on Twitter: "Mocked up this schedule: We'll generally be going GRIFF > DAVID > BEN > GUESTS". Retrieved February 26, 2021.
3. ↑ @blankcheckpod on Twitter: "Our seeding positions were picked based on:
1) The perceived strength of the filmmakers' fan bases among the BC community
2) The potential for a fun series
3) Personal preference! You know @davidlsims would put thee Master and Commander himself as seed #1". Retrieved February 26, 2021.
4. ↑ u/mi-16evil. 2021 Blank Check March Madness Archive. reddit. Retrieved on March 4, 2021.
5. ↑ @blankcheckpod, *A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM @karenyhan*. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
6. ↑ @blankcheckpod, *A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM @emilyvdw.* Retrieved March 4, 2021.
7. ↑ @blankcheckpod, *With a gracious nod to his competitor, a note from JD*. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
8. ↑ @blankcheckpod, *For Tati hive - a final message from JD Amato*. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
9. ↑ @blankcheckpod,  *A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM Trolls impresario @rilaws*. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
10. ↑ @blankcheckpod, *A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM ALEX ROSS PERRY*. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
11. ↑ u/AlexRossPerry, *STUMPING FOR STONE! BY ME, ALEX.*, reddit. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
12. ↑ @blankcheckpod, *A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM @jbouie*. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
13. ↑ @blankcheckpod, *A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM @emilyyoshida*. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
14. ↑ @blankcheckpod, *A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM @kateyrich*. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
15. ↑ Blank Check Podcast. 38 votes gave Malick the win. @blankcheckpod Twitter. Retrieved on March 18, 2021.
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 @blankcheckpod, *Hey Blankies, we had some very compelling evidence of bots being used in this matchup. Not cool. In the spirit of \*fun\* - because this thing is supposed to be FUN - we’re not picking a winner here. Both will go on to face John Carpenter in a three-way battle for Ben Supremacy.* Retrieved March 24, 2021.
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 u/Dankmemehater. Hey Blankies, we had some very compelling evidence.... reddit. Retrieved on March 24, 2021.
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 @blankcheckpod, *Sorry to the Gore Hive, but this is our podcast, and ultimately it's our decision. We're declaring John Carpenter the winner.* Retrieved April 1, 2021.
19. ↑ u/throwaway7777777793, *March Madness just got botted again*, reddit. Retrieved April 1, 2021.
20. ↑ @blankcheckpod, *GUYS - the vote got botted with like 5 minutes to go.* Retrieved April 1, 2021.
21. ↑ @blankcheckpod, *There's a chrome extension that allows you to see exact vote totals in twitter polls. In the last minutes of the match, Gore gained 3000+ votes without any retweets of the poll from significant accounts.* Retrieved April 1, 2021.