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 bracket.  Please 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!