March Madness 2022

**March Madness 2022** was a virtual March Madness single-elimination tournament. The event provides the yearly opportunity for Blankies to vote on a director to be covered. The winning director was Stanley Kubrick and the resulting miniseries, Pods Wide Cast, began in August 2022.

## Summary

On February 22 it was announced via a video on the Blank Check Twitter that the theme would be the 20th Century, with no more than one film per director made after 2000.  Due to the hijinks of March Madness 2021, the tournament will be held on the new website, blankcheckpod.com. A corresponding franchise tournament took place on the Patreon.

### March Madness Rules

* Voting is active every day starting at 10:00 AM ET (3pm GMT) on blankcheckpod.com
* Don't @ blankcheckpod about missing directors. These are the choices this year!
* PLAY NICE!

### Milestones and Ephemera

* 1970s Altman is making his fourth appearance on the main feed bracket, tying him with Martin Brest for most appearances as a March Madness contender.
* Buster Keaton and Preston Sturges are making their third appearance. Keaton was retired after losing and was given his own miniseries in May 2023.
* The Archers, David Lean, Don Bluth, Jacques Tati, John Cassavetes, Mel Brooks, and Steven Spielberg (pre-Oscar) are all making their second appearance. Both Bluth and Spielberg are making their first appearance since the inaugural 2018 tournament.
* Barbra Streisand was given her own series in 2024 despite losing in her only match.
* Blankie Eoin tweeted daily visual roundups of the previous day's matches (not all in one place, but worth seeking out): Twitter roundups by @theeoin. Other stats round-ups precede the rounds they rounded up!

## Tournament

### First Round Matchups

Several Blankies on reddit provided some stats breakdowns for Round 1:

* Blank Check March Madness Round 1: Some Stats by u/trianglegooseparty
* Bracket Elo ratings! Stats galore! by u/antlersantlers

### Second Round Matchups

Several Blankies on reddit provided some stats breakdowns for Round 2:

* MARCH MADNESS ROUND 2: A Buncha Numbers by u/trianglegooseparty
* Round 2 stats and Elo ratings predictions! by u/antlersantlers

### Semifinals

Final Four

results -- 9,414 total votes -- reddit

results -- 14,128 total votes -- reddit

## Stats

 Round 2
 Round 3
 Round 4
 Round 5

## Featured Episodes

The March Madness 2022 recap episodes appeared on Blank Check: Special Features. There was a main feed announcement released, due to the updated nature of this year's tournament.

Since the 20th Century is owned by Chip Smith, all March Madness recap episodes were recorded on the moon with Chip's commentary.

## References

1. ↑ Blank Check Podcast. We're a week out from March 1st, right?. @blankcheckpod on Twitter. Retrieved on February 23, 2022.
2. ↑ u/trianglegooseparty. Blank Check March Madness Round 1: Some Stats. reddit. Retrieved on March 27, 2022.
3. ↑ u/antlersantlers. Bracket Elo ratings! Stats galore!. reddit. Retrieved on March 27, 2022.
4. ↑ u/trianglegooseparty. MARCH MADNESS ROUND 2: A Buncha Numbers. reddit. Retrieved on March 27, 2022.
5. ↑ u/antlersantlers. Round 2 stats and Elo ratings predictions!. reddit. Retrieved on March 27, 2022.