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The Ultimate Allen & Ginter Mini Set Bracket is Now Live (CONTEST BEGINS TODAY!)

My Ultimate Ginter Mini Set Bracket (or UGMSB for short) is finally all set.  We finished up voting for the 2019 set (congrats to Chugging Along for taking home the top seed in a tie-breaker over New to the Zoo).  With all of the seeding voting completed, it's now time to unveil the actual bracket.

First, a few words on how I created the bracket.  As you know, for the past few weeks I've had a post each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday where all the readers could vote on their favorite mini set from that particular year.  After each voting period closed, I tallied up all of the votes for each set and started to construct a master seeding list.  The way it works is that the set with the most votes for each year got one of the top seeds and then every other mini set was seeded via total number of votes with tie breakers being year (older sets got higher seeds) and then alphabetical order (so a set beginning with a "B" would be seeded higher than a set beginning with a "D" assuming both had the same amount of votes and both were from the same year).  

Doing all of that gave me a list of 93 different mini sets from across the entire Topps Allen & Ginter brand's existence (2006 - 2019).  Here are the 93 seeds, in order from highest to lowest:
2008-BaseballIcons
2009-CreaturesLegendTerror
2007-Flags
2012-MansBestFriend
2017-Constellations
2014-OutlawsBanditsNeerDoWells
2016-FerociousFelines
2018-BaseballSuperstitions
2011-StepRightUp
2013-Peacemakers
2015-BirdsOfPrey
2019-ChuggingAlong
2010-LordsOfOlympus
2008-AncientIcons
2007-Snakes 
2007-Emperors
2009-NationalHeroes
2011-AnimalsinPeril
2013-TheFirstAmericans
2014-LittleLions
2014-WorldsDeadliestPredators
2018-IndigenousHeroes
2019-NewToTheZoo
2009-WorldsBiggestHoaxes
2008-WorldsDeadliestSharks
2010-NationalAnimals
2010-WorldsGreatestWordsmiths
2012-CulinaryCuriosities
2012-PeopleOfTheBible
2013-InquiringMinds
2015-FirstLadies
2015-HoistTheBlackFlag
2016-LaureatesOfPeace
2016-USMayors
2017-WorldsDudes
2018-WorldsHottestPeppers
2019-CollectibleCanines
2008-PioneersOfAviation
2008-TeamOrange
2008-WorldLeaders
2010-CelestialStars
2010-CreaturesLegendJoy
2010-MonstersMesozoic
2010-SailorsOf7Seas
2011-FloraOfWorld
2011-PortraitsPenultimacy
2011-WorldsMysteriousFigures
2012-FashionableLadies
2012-MusicalMasters
2012-WorldsGreatestMilitaryLeaders
2013-AllInADaysWork
2013-HeavyHangsTheHead
2013-PeopleOnBicycles
2014-WhereNatureEnds
2016-Skippers
2016-SubwaysAndStreetcars
2017-BustAMove
2017-HorseInTheRace
2018-FlagsOfLostNations
2018-PostageRequired
2019-InBloom
2019-LostLanguages
2009-ExtinctAnimals
2009-InventionsOftheFuture
2010-WorldsBiggest
2010-WorldsSaltiestSailors
2011-FabulousFaceFlocculence
2011-FortunesForTaking
2011-UninvintedGuests
2012-GiantsOfTheDeep
2012-GuysInHats
2013-CodesCiphersCryptographs
2013-FamousFinds
2014-AthleticEndeavors
2014-IntoTheUnknown
2014-LargerThanLife
2014-UrbanFauna
2015-AHealthyBody
2015-AHealthyMind
2015-AWorldBeneathOurFeet
2015-MagnatesBaronsTycoons
2015-MythologicalMenaces
2016-GreenlandExplorer
2017-MagiciansIllusionists
2017-RequiredReading
2017-SuperStealthMinis
2018-ExoticSports
2018-FolioOfFears
2018-SuperStealthMinis
2019-DreamsOfBlueRibbons
2019-InBloomPlantMeVariation
2019-LookOutBelow
2019-StealthMiniBlowoutCards
With the seeding out of the way, I had to create a bracket.  Luckily, there exists sites online that will make brackets for you very quickly.  One that I use a lot with teaching is a site called Challonge.  I was able to enter all 93 sets into the Challonge bracket maker (and after tweaking a few of the rules), here's what I ended up with!


That's probably hard to read depending on what sort of device you are using to access my blog so here's a link to the Challonge bracket itself.

And now, for the fun part:  A CONTEST!

If you click on this link, you should be able to fill out your own bracket (similar to March Madness) and then once the tournament begins you will be able to follow along with your bracket to see how you do in terms of overall predictions.  

The idea is to pick who you think will garner the most votes from the voting community on my blog (people will be allowed to campaign for their favorites in the comments section)!  The plan is to have posts where we vote for different "regions" of the bracket (that way we aren't trying to vote for 30+ match ups all at once).  The winning set from each match up will move ahead in the bracket while the loser will be eliminated for good.  There is no second chance in this bracket!  

The contest:

The contest is simple.  Create your own prediction bracketPlease put your user name in your bracket title and make sure to use a valid email address.  Note:  I'm not 100% certain I can access the emails without doing the paid version on the site so having your user name in the name of your bracket will help me out immensely!   It's my understanding (warning:  I've never actually done one of these brackets this way on the Challonge site) that once I close the bracket and the tournament begins that each player will be able to follow along to see how they are doing scoring wise.  I believe scoring will be similar to most March Madness brackets, that is that you will get more points for correct answers the further the competition progresses (so getting the number 1 set, i.e. the winner, should be very important)!  That'll be easier said than done since there are 93 different sets to choose from.

The Grand Prize:

I'm not 100% certain what the grand prize will be.  At worst, I'll create some sort of tailor made prize package for the winner, that is, the person who earns the most points on their prediction bracket.  I'm also hoping to reach out to Topps to see if they might want to be a sponsor of this contest (and if so, the prize for the whole might be really cool, who knows)?  I wouldn't wait to find out - join now!  I plan to leave entries open until Sunday, June 7.  At that point, I'll close the predictions down and start the voting for the competition (probably the first votes will be on Monday, June 8 if everything goes according to plan)!

Other Ways to Win Prizes:

I do plan to give out a few other prizes as the tournament progresses.  For starters, I'm going to take every person who enters a full prediction bracket and randomize their names to draw a winner.  Thus, you could potentially miss every single pick and still get a prize just for playing along.  I am hoping for a good turnout here!  

Speaking of good turnouts, I will also award a prize to one person who "pimps" this contest on their blog or on their Twitter feed.  Please leave a link below to your "pimping" of my post.  Again, I'll take the names of everyone that does so and then randomize them to get a winner.

Finally, I plan on awarding prizes for random commenters/voters throughout the entire process.  Certain voting days will have a secret prize attached to it which will be given out to a random commenter on that particular post.  Comments can be both votes as well as any sort of discussion/persuading for (or against) specific sets!

Like I said before, all prizes are still pending but I think I can make most people happy.  In the end, this is going to be a lot of work on my part so I'm hoping for a big turnout and lots of fun participation.  If all goes well, this could be the perfect lead-in to the release of 2020 Topps Allen & Ginter!



Comments

  1. great idea, I'll be watching

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  2. Fun stuff. I'll be entering. I don't know how well I'll do at predicting. Already, some of my favorites are ranked way too low and I know people will vote based solely on the theme rather than both the theme AND look of the cards.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I have no idea how the voting will go - many, many different ways to judge the cards (which should make things fun)!

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  3. Selections entered! Everything seemed to function well...although if it shows any incorrect predictions on my part, I assure you that was a glitch in the system! B^)

    Thanks for the contest. Looking forward to the voting. Good luck everyone and enjoy!

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  4. Great work! Looking forward to this!

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    Replies
    1. Pimped the contest over at my blog: https://chavezravining.blogspot.com/2020/06/new-site-design-and-other-important.html

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  5. Challonge looks pretty cool... something I may wind up using in the future.
    I'm looking forward to following along. Thanks for all your work in this~!

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    1. yeah, I use it for all sorts of things in class. You can do round robin as well as a bunch of other settings (double elimination is another I find that I use at times). I've done the predicting thing before this contest but it seems pretty cool (and it appears to be working which is the most important thing for me right now)!

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  6. I'm in! I'll add a pimp to my post on Wednesday!

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    Replies
    1. Pimped! - https://diamond-jesters.blogspot.com/2020/06/repack-haiku-155-paul-wilson.html

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  7. Here's my plug...

    http://sanjosefuji.blogspot.com/2020/06/plug-one-plug-two.html

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  8. Minis!!! and i needed a list of the last few years of mini inserts. and i need to organize my mini inserts. and I need to GET MY FRIKKEN LIFE TOGETHER

    in the meantime I entered the contest

    ReplyDelete

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