The Ultimate Ginter Mini Set Bracket: The Field of 64 is Set! Voting Begins with the Sport Ball Region NOW!

Our field of 64 teams in the "proper" Allen & Ginter mini set tournament bracket is now set.  That means we've already narrowed the possible contenders down from the 91 sets that we started with to 64.  By the time the first true round begins (i.e. the Round of 64) we'll be down to 32.  At this point, we are now on track to mimic the NCAA March Madness brackets that many of you are probably familiar with!

I decided to have a little fun with the brackets and name each "region" based on the top seed within that region (and perhaps taking into account some of the other sets also seeded in that particular region).  To begin our voting today, we are going to look at the top of the bracket which I've decided to call the "Sport Ball" region.

As before, I'll give a brief rundown of each of the various match-ups and then solicit your votes for the winner of each match-up down at the bottom of the post.  

2008 Baseball Icons vs. 2010 World's Biggest

The Sport Ball Region is represented by the #1 seed overall in the tournament:  The 2008 Baseball Icons.  However, the Icons aren't the only baseball themed mini set in the region...could an upset be lurking?  In the play-in voting, the 2010 World's Biggest seemed to gain quite a bit of love from most of the voters...and a win here by the World's Biggest set would definitely bust a lot of brackets in our competition!

2015 Hoist the Black Flag vs. 2016 Laureates of Peace

Both of these sets made their way to the final 64 without needing to go through the play-in round so you know both are well-respected sets.  Quite honestly, I was surprise at the amount of love the 2016 Laureates of Peace got.  For me, it's Pirates over Peace all the way...

2007 Emperors vs. 2012 Musical Masters

The Musical Masters crushed their play-in round competition (a set about bugs) but I don't see the Masters taking down the Emperors.  In this case, surely the Masters are nothing more than jesters for the Emperors, right?

2009 National Heroes vs. 2012 Fashionable Ladies

In the play-in round, the Ladies from 2012 had no trouble moving past the Magnates, Barons, and Tycoons.  I suspect that they are in for a rude awakening now that they've moved on to face the 2009 National Heroes set - a set that seemed to be very popular during the initial seeding vote.

2018 Baseball Superstitions vs. 2013 Codes, Ciphers, and Cryptographs

We've reached the second (of three) different baseball themed mini sets that all happened to end up in the same part of the bracket (hence the name "Sport Ball Region").  Personally, I prefer the Codes set because I like the odd and quirky side of Ginter but I'm expecting the Baseball Superstitions to move on from this particular match-up.  

2008 World's Deadliest Sharks vs. 2008 World Leaders

The Sharks set is quite cool but it is also quite small.  Will that be its downfall when compared to a very solid World Leaders set (that is much larger in size)?  I'm not sure what to expect here!

2011 Step Right Up vs. 2013 Famous Finds

The Step Right Up set fared well in the seeding round by earning the #9 seed overall.  Personally, that was one of the biggest surprises of the seeding round, I had no idea that so many people liked this set!  On the other hand, the 2013 Famous Finds set snuck by the 2016 Subways and Streetcars set in the play-in round (by a vote count of 8 to 6).  

2009 World's Biggest Hoaxes, Hoodwinks, and Bamboozles vs. 2010 Celestial Stars

The final pairing in the Sport Ball Region features our third and final baseball themed mini set.  The 2010 Celestial Stars set combines baseball with astrology...and I'm thinking the horoscope for that set will read "moving on up."  Is there any way the '09 Hoaxes set can pull an upset here?  If so, it'd be a true bamboozling!

That does it for the first region of our bracket.  To keep the voting manageable, I'll do a single region per post for the first round (so there are a total of eight votes to cast)!

To vote, please copy the text below and then delete the set you don't want to win.  This will make it a lot easier for me to quickly tally the winners of each match-up.  I also encourage you to stump for your favorite sets (remember, there is a bracket prediction contest going on here as well)!

• 2008 Baseball Icons vs. 2010 World's Biggest
• 2015 Hoist the Black Flag vs. 2016 Laureates of Peace
• 2007 Emperors vs. 2012 Musical Masters
• 2009 National Heroes vs. 2012 Fashionable Ladies
• 2018 Baseball Superstitions vs. 2013 Codes, Ciphers, and Cryptographs
• 2008 World's Deadliest Sharks vs. 2008 World Leaders
• 2011 Step Right Up vs. 2013 Famous Finds
• 2009 World's Biggest Hoaxes, Hoodwinks, and Bamboozles vs. 2010 Celestial Stars

Copy and paste the above text into the comment section and then simply delete the set you don't want to win each of the match-ups.  That should make voting quick and easy for both you and me!  Remember that comments, votes, and general contest participation will potentially earn you chances to win additional prizes in the contest (along with the bracket challenge of course)!  Vote now!

Want more information about a specific insert set including the full checklist?  Here are my yearly breakdowns all in one spot for you.

• 2007
• 2008
• 2009
• 2010
• 2011
• 2012
• 2013
• 2014
• 2015
• 2016
• 2017
• 2018
• 2019