Quick thoughts/facts on the bracket:
- Loyalty to the Poconos was huge, as it was on half of the ballots and had nearly double the weighted points of any other location.
- Pittsburgh continues its historic run of being a 1 seed without ever being chosen, with Austin probably the second most selected city that we have not actually drafted in.
- Burlington is a shocking #1, and there may have been collusion on the part of Weissbard, Esco, and Reap (Nick had it as his 5th choice but I assume he ignored any attempts at collusion).
- Outside of the top few picks there was not a lot of overlap on the ballots, leading to one-off choices like Lake Tahoe (Esco), Staten Island (Z), Los Angeles (Mejia), and Des Moines (Belfer) getting 5 seeds. Those submissions will definitely need to be defended during the discussion phase.
- I don't think the Poconos will be seriously challenged in their region, so they are the clear leader in the clubhouse.
- Austin tends to get equal amounts of support and hate, so between that and real challengers in Asheville and Minneapolis (on 3 ballots), I don't have a sense of what happens in that region.
- Jackson Hole is objectively a hilarious potential outcome, but I don't see it being a real contender, so Pittsburgh seems to have an easy Final Four path as well.
- The bottom left region is my personal favorite, with multiple cities that could go on a run and take down the Poconos in the Final Four.
