LOTR/Star Wars bracket update

Round One voting has finished. I don't know how to close the polls so it shows the results. I can only totally disable it, so I'll just keep them up.
Anyways, so good vote totals in the first round. Some upsets, some very close matches.
Here are the players who went updefeated- Vader, Han, Leia, Luke, Sam, Gandalf. Good start for the Star Wars favorites. Tough match for #1 seed Aragorn against Nien Numb. Didn't see that coming, but Aragorn prevailed.
Tough go for Christopher Lee, the actor portraying Count Dooku and Saruman- ended up 0-2. Ouch.
Upsets - #14 Wicket over #3 Saruman, #11 Witch King in a one vote victory over #6 Ben "These aren't the droids your looking for" Kenobi. Lesser upsets- #10 Faramir dominating #7 Pippin, #10 Wedge killing Gimli, and #10 Queen Amadala winning in a close match over Boromir.

We got some really great 2nd round matchups. Stay tuned.

Philadelphia/St. Joe's

Lots going on. Many things to report.

I’ll start with the stop. It was pretty unexciting. No media, so interested students. We were at St. Joe’s by the way. People were much nicer than at Villanova. We had a good amount get on the bus too. “The Hawk will never die”

Grade: C-

Now on to the fun stuff. Good to see the Fonz come out to the bus, an old PVS staff member. He didn’t quite make it too long in Montana. There are a good amount of PVS people from the Philly area. One of them, Grubbyg, was in town for school stuff and organized a trip to the Phillies game. I was excited- pretty new stadium, playing the Cubs, good food, good atmosphere, Philly Fanatic- but I was largely disappointed. Phillies fans were pretty weak, nothing like Eagles fans. It was a good game, but no real atmosphere. Boring even. We were in the outfield (no bleachers), pretty good seats. And the food sucked. Good people though, Matt had some good friends. I might question his driving a bit, but he keeps good company. Who really wants to go to Cherry Hill, though?

Fantasy update: Just a couple notes on the Phillies. Shane Victorino looked pretty good, as did Pat Burrell, but I think that was just a one off. Brett Myers got the win, and looked decent, but gave up three solo home runs. That’s cause for concern fantasy owners. Zambrano looked off his game, nothing like opening day, hopefully that’s a sign of things to come. There were a good amount of cute Phillies fans, but overall I’d take Miller Park any day of the week!

Post game: We went out to a bar in Northern Liberties, a part of Philly close to where I previously lived. One of my old co-workers just happened to be playing a show with his band – House of Fire. Check it out if interested. It was good stuff. 7 person band. Live music is something I don’t see much, but always enjoy when I do, especially when you know someone playing. It was a nice Covenant House get together too, seeing more old friends, more people I haven’t seen in over a year. Oh yeah, and the Yuengling was flowing pretty nicely. Can’t hate on that. After bar we hit up Pat’s one of the most famous Cheesesteak spots in Philly. There are the one that are not racist, no signs saying you must order in English It was pretty much great at 3AM. Whiz with baby! I found a few pieces in my teeth the next morning, still tasted great. But kind of gross I guess.

Yeah, so my return to Philly was pretty nice. It was great to see my old boys Nick, Andy, and Dave. I tried to visit my old program, but nobody was there. That’s the way it goes I guess. Good times overall baby, even though JJ totally abhors Philly. Can’t win ‘em all.

Villanova

Well, I got kind of a history with Villanova. See, my volunteer progam last year was sort of sponsored by Villanova. Also, some of the people that made a certain list about me, with all the "bad" things I had done during the year, the list which got me kicked out of my volunteer progam, were from Villanova. So bad blood, a little. But I also know some great people from Villanova, people I shared some great times with and many laughs - Zach, Peter, DiDom, Lindsay- ya'll definitely rep for the big V.
So I did have some sterotypes coming into our stop at Villanova, and it did not disappoint. Lots of stuck up rich people. Lots of stretch pants, lots of polo shirts and white or pink khaki shorts, lots of sorority shirts, lots of big sunglasses. Pretty much all the things I love. (I hope the sarcasm translates over the blog) The rich girls were even immune to my boyish charm, which usually brings 'em in on the college campuses, but I guess my ego could use a few bruises.
We were in a pretty nice spot on campus. It is a very cool campus too. Chelsea Clinton was speaking right around the time we got there.
But, um yeah, for the most part the people were not into us. I'm not asking for everybody to be hugely excited, but at least look at us out of something more than the corner of your eye.
Great weather, though, 75 degrees and sunny. I got a little sunburn.

Grade:D

The rest of the day was cool, though. We started early, as we were on the FOX morning show at 7:00 am. It was cool, did a quick live interview, like 45 seconds, but it went out to all of Philly. It was cool and I hope to do more.
At night, I met up with some of my old Philly co-workers. Good times. Lots of stories and remembering past funny times.

Erie, PA

Back on the bus baby!
First stop this leg was Erie, PA. I have to say I wasn't expecting much, and that fact made the fact that Erie was good even better. Like when you go to a movie that you don't expect to be good, and when it is good, it's great. Ones like that I specifically remember are Mean Girls, The New Guy, and the one with Aston Kutcher and Kevin Costner in the Coast Guard. Yeah, so Erie was a pleasant surprise.
The weather was great. People were super nice. We were at Mercyhurst college by the way. We didn't have that many takers, but the people that came up were pretty interested. Very much a Midwest feel to Mercyhurst. Nice people, cute girls, but no on trying too hard, at least that is my take on it. Plus two TV stations and two newspapers. Me and JJ bring it hardcore, what can I say? And it's Erie, probably not too much else going on. The Erie Times-News below.
Grade: A-

Updates

Bus Tour- I'm back on the bus. Yes. This time it's only for three short weeks. First stop was yesterday in Erie, PA (review coming). This leg I'll be hitting Philly, Washington DC, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Cleveland, Toledo, Columbus, Bloomington, and Evansville.
Hitting up that Rust Belt baby!

Star Wars/LOTR Challenge- First round voting will most likely close Friday evening, with 2nd round matchups being posted on Saturday. Some upsets, some still close. Vote if you have not yet. Tell your friends. Wicket? Really?

NCAA- Kansas is NCAA champ. You probably knew that. Leading after the first round in my work pool, I faded fast with Wisconsin and UCLA in the finals. Man. Our man Smallegan was seen in "One Shining Moment" though, but no Keefe siting. Maybe next year.

Survivor- Things were shook up a bit last week. The whole fans vs. favorites thing is finally dying down. I think Ozzy was smart to get rid of Ami. I mean, why have loyalty to someone you only know because you have been on different seasons of Survivor? Work with the people it makes the most sense working with regardless if they are fans of favorites.
James is still dominating. What a Man-Child!
I'm excited for the merge. Here's how I see it going down.
Ozzy, James, Parvati, and Amanda will stay together.
Alexis, Natalie, and Jason will team together with Eliza kind of leading them and making decisions for them.
Both sides will court Erik, who will stay with Ozzy due to his incredible Man-Crush. This will piss off Jason who will go sometime in the next two. Him and Eliza will be the next to to go. Then James (too strong).
Final Three - Ozzy, Amanda, Erik.

Mordor Barcket

Wow, the Mordor bracket is stacked! Look at these matchups- Balrog/ Galadriel Shelob/Gollum Eowyn/ Grand Moff Tarkin, King Theoden as 6 seed. Man. I mean the World Cup has its "Group of Death" and that must be the case here. Fitting for Mordor I guess.




1.Darth Vader: Baddest of the bad, evilest of the evil. And thanks to 6 movies, you know pretty much everything about his life, so I don't have to say more.

16: Jango Fett: Boba's dad, army of clones made from him. Got his head cut off by Mace Windu.



9. Balrog: Well, this picture really doesn't do justice. Just watch this part of the movie. Definitely in my top 3 in the entire trilogy. Great scene on the bridge. Wow! Apparently Balrog is one of the oldest demons, servant of Sauron's original master. Watch out, he's got some long whips.

8. Galadriel: Pretty powerful elf, bearer of one of the original rings of power. One of those people around for all the action in Middle-Earth. But you don't want to get on her bad side, as seen when she went crazy on Frodo and the ring. "My, what a lovely singing voice you must have."




5. Qui-Gon Jinn: I really like Liam Neeson and Qui-Gon was a good character, a great example of what a Jedi should be. I wish he would've been around longer.

12. Arwen: To tell you the truth, I'm not really sure what she did in the movies. And she's not that cute. OVERRATED Clap-Clap Clap-clap-clap


13. General Grievous: Weird Robot General with light-saber in Eposide III. Good fighter, but not really sure I totally understand his role in the movie.

4.Frod0: The ring-bearer. A tough job. I mean, Frodo was kind of tender a lot of the time, but in the end, he got the job done. Saved Middle-Earth. Nice




3. Gollum: Gollum/Smegol/Stinker, don't trust this cat. He'll kill. He'll bite of fingers. He'll be your friend. He'll back stab, anything to get his "precious". Just a little tip, he should probably just shave his head already. The comb over just isn't working.

14. Shelob: Huge Spider, Scary.




10. Grand Moff Tarkin: One of the few Imperials to keep Vader in check. Man, he was so evil, but also so cool. He was like the Steve McQueen of evil, real old guys. He blew up a planet. And after him, the Imperial army was pretty weak. Beginning of their downfall.

7. Eowyn: Now this is a woman I can like. You think she is all innocent and cute and then bam, she defying the king and going to battle. You think she's gonna be a liability and them bang, she avengers the king. She killed the Witch King and the Nazgul. Damn. "I am no man!" Yeah, I'm cool wit dat.

6. King Theoden: Has there ever been a more intense transformation in movie history? Well maybe Aladdin to Prince Ali or Robin Williams to Mrs. Doubtfire, but this was pretty intense. Just look at him in Two Towers before Gandalf frees him. Old and decrepit, pretty much lifeless. Then afterwards, the epitome of a king. His get hype speeches before the big battles were great. They made me want to throw on a helmet and grab a sword. A very underrated character.

11. Eomer: One of those Rohan guys with long hair. Good at riding horses. My become the next king , not really sure. Matched up against his uncle I think. Watch out.

15. Bib Fortuna: Jabba's assistant/advisor/doorman I guess. He is a Twi'lek, and from the books I read and some of the dancers in the movies, apparently Twi'leks are very alluring to human, kind of like Asian women to white men. But I don't really see it.

2. Obi-Wan Kenobi: We're going for Episode 2 and 3 Obi-Wan here. The Jedi in this prime. Pre-getting old an leaving to hide, post weird one long strand of hair. Think the only Jedi that survived Order 66. Think the fight against evil Anakin, the one where he makes him a quadriplegic. Yeah, that one.

Hoth Bracket

Hoth Bracket is pretty cold. 8/9 and 7/10 matchups are big.


1.Aragorn: Pretty much the man in every way- fighting, leading, courage, ladies love him, king, friend. Wow. What more can I say?

16. Nien Numb: Weird looking alien pilot who helped Lando bring down the second Death Star.
Obscure Star Wars Trivia: Niem Numb's niece later became a member of Rogue Squadron. (Yeah, I know a lot of useless junk)


9. Boba Fett: The one who got Han Solo. Set up a nice plan with Vader which almost got everybody. Went down to the Sarlac Pit in Return of the Jedi, but look at the whole package. He looks pretty cool and I like bounty hunters.

8. Mace Windu: Samuel L. baby. A wise Jedi. Not really sure how I felt about him until he started fighting. Kicked ass in the Battle Royale in Episode II. And in Revenge of the Sith, he totally was kicking Emperor Palpatine's ass in their fight. Then Anakin came in and you know.





5. Treebeard: Don't get this tree-man-thing angry. The Ents storming of Orthanc was one of my favorite parts of all the movies. Ents are pretty tight man.

12.Darth Maul: Darth Maul had a lot of potential. A lot. He looked cool, had the double lightsaber and all. I even went on a "man-date" to see the movie. But it just didn't work. He was too much and not enough at the same time. He did kill Qui-Gon, though.




13. Grima Wormtongue: Another scary, ugly cat. Worked for Saruman and had King Theoden and Rohan under wraps for a while.

4. The Emperor: Pretty scary. Ugly, powerful, manipulative, able to shoot out lightning bolts from his hands. And all this was definitely added to by episodes 1-3. He pretty much single handedly brought down the entire Republic, using Darth Maul, Count Dooku and Anakin/Vader as pawns and don't forget Order 66. Could use some skin care products, though



3. Saruman:Another badass mother. Head of the wizard council. Has a pretty nice home. Makes his own orcs. Wish I knew more of his history. Things didn't turn out the best for him, but anyone that can rival Gandalf is pretty powerful.

14. Wicket: Yub-Yub muthafucker



11. Witch King of Angmar (aka head dark rider):Pretty raw and scary, not sure how he got his ring or how he became the lead Dark Rider, but if he had a wallet I'm sure it would have BMF on it. But he was defeated by a hobbit and a woman.

6. Old Ben Kenobi: The old Jedi. Lots of famous lines. Taught Luke about the Force. Sacrificed himself at the end came back blue.


7. Boromir: Just like his brother, he was a much better character in the books. He had much more depth and honor. But in the movie his death scene was pretty raw. Get 'em Sean Bean.

10. Queen Amadala: I'm sure how I feel about her. She's hot in the picture. She gave birth to Jedi twins. She was kind of a good queen in the first movie. She fought pretty well in the second. But overall, she was kind of a damsel in distress


15. Dr. Evazan: "He doesn't like you. I don't like you either. We're wanted men. I have a death sentence, on 12 systems." Luke "Ok, I'll be careful" "You'll be dead!" And then Obi-Wan comes in and kills him, or at least cuts his arm off. Jacked up.
Obscure Star Wars Trivia: name in original script and movie credits was just 'Grubby Human'

2. Yoda: I didn't go with old yoda and older yoda, cuz 40 years to a 900 year old alien isn't much (900 years old you be look so good you will not, hm) and he was pretty awesome in all the movies he was in. I mean, I did not expect his crazy lightsaber skills in episode II, but his whole character in Empire Strikes back was pretty nice too.

Seeds

Here's the rest of the seeds for the Start Wars/LOTR Tournament. More in depth scouting reports will follow.

Hoth
1.Aragorn
2. Yoda
3. Saruman
4.Emperor
5.Treebeard
6.Old Ben Kenobi
7.Boromir
8.Mace Windu
9. Boba Fett
10. Queen Amadala
11. Witch King of Agmar (aka lead Dark Rider)
12. Darth Maul
13.Grima Wormtongue
14.Wicket
15.Nien Numb
16.Dr. Evazan


Mordor
1.Darth Vader
2.Obi-Wan
3.Gollum
4.Frodo
5.Qui-Gon Jinn
6.King Theoden
7.Eowyn
8.Galadriel
9.Balrog
10.Grand Moff Tarkin
11.Eomer
12.Arwen
13.General Grievous
14. Shelob
15.Bib Fortuna
16.Jango Fett

Shire Bracket

Gandalf gets to stay in the relative friendly confinds of the Shire. Will that help him out? We shall see. Very top heavy bracket


1. Gandalf: White or Grey, dead or alive, Gandalf is pretty amazing. He is a warrior, a general, a wizard, a mentor. Yes. And he beat the Balrog.

16. Uncle Owen: Won the play-in-game with Aunt Veru. Enjoy it while it lasts. Uncle Owen was pretty much a grump, not letting Luke join the Academy, lying to him about his parents and not letting him go to the Toshi Station to pick up some power converters.

9. Jabba the Hutt: Fat and Powerful. Just look at his crazy posse.

8. R2-D2: Just a little robot who can't talk or walk really, but saved the day for Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewie multiple times.


5. Elrond: Pretty much the main man, or main elf. He was there when Isildur struck down Sauron. He is wise and smart and just has everything on lockdown.

12. Denethor: Pretty much an ass and a bad leader, but he did go out in a blaze of glory.


13. C-3PO: Gay robot.

4. Princess Leia: Quite the feminist at times- taking control on the Death Star and on Endor. But she did make out with her brother. Hmm?



3. Legolas: Pretty baller with that bow and arrow. And he's an elf, so he's good at pretty much everything. Probably the coolest action scenes in the movies.

14. Hoth Yeti: Hoth Yeti, least screen time for any of the tournament contestants.


11. Lobot: Another one for the hardcore Star Wars fan. Lobot was Lando's assistant at Cloud City. I don't know why, but I like him. I also remember the Doritos holographic disc of Lobot. Pretty much all it did was open his eyes. I mean he is connected to the computers and all.

6. Merry: Another hobbit. This one was a bit more hardcore, not afraid to fight and even take on the Witch King.

10. Faramir: Kind of weak in the movies, but better in the books, smarter too. Kind of sucks to have to be compared to his bro and the whole thing about his father wishing he had died instead was kind of rough. The suicide mission of Minis Morgol was pretty cool and he ended up with Eowyn in the end.

7. Pippen: "Fool of a Took", inclined to making mistakes as seen in the waking of the Balrog in Moria and looking into the Palantir. But he made up for it by saving Faramir, or at least getting Gandalf to save Faramir.

15. Biggs Darklighter: Luke's boyhood friend and wingmate in the first death star run. Dead, but nice 'stache.

2. Chewbacca: Yeah, the Wookie. Everyone's Favorite Star Wars alien.

Endor Bracket

Here we go, the start of the tourney. Luke and Han in the same bracket. Wow. Some good matchups - Count Dooku/Lando, Bilbo/Admiral Akbar, Sauron/Isildur rematch. Check em all out.


1. Han Solo: Bad-ass smuggler turned Rebel Alliance hero. Slick beyond measure. I really don't need to say much more about him.

16. Mon Mothma: She was the leader of the Rebel Alliance seen briefly in Return of the Jedi. She also provides an answer to the question "Were there lesbians a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away?"

9. Lando: Another badass turned hero. Lando turned Han, Leia, and Chewie over to Darth Vader, but then helped them escape and was the leader of the assault on the 2nd Death Star.

Best Smile in the Galaxy

8. Count Dooku: Sith Jedi who took Anakin and Obi-Wan to task in Episode II. He's a pretty powerful Jedi, with the blue lightning bolts coming out of the hands thing going on. His fight with Yoda was one of the coolest in either trilogy.

5. Sauron: The evil of all evils in Lord of the Rings. This is a tough one because he was so evil and caused so much destruction and war multiple times, but he didn't really have a physical form in the movie. I mean the Eye is scary, but how scary.? To give you a better idea, here are some of his alliases: Gorthaur the Cruel, Sauron the Deceiver, the Lord of the Earth, the Enemy, the Master, the Dark Power, the Dark Lord, the Lord of Mordor, the Dark Lord of Mordor, the Power of the Black Land, the Black Master, the Black One, the Lord of Barad-dur, the Lord of the Dark Tower, the Shadow, the Great Eye, the Red Eye, the Eye of Barad-dur, the Lidless Eye, the Evil Eye, the Unnamed, the Nameless. Yeah.

12. Isildur: LOTR king from the old age, the one who defeated Sauron (REMATCH) cutting the ring from his hand with the broken sword, but did not destroy the ring while he had the chance.

13. Greedo: Gotta watch out for the blaster under the table.

4. Anakin Skywalker: As you can see, I'm not going with the pod-racing-little-boy-Anakin or the crazy-red-eyes-wanting-to-kill-Obi-wan-Anakin. I'm going more for the just-slaughtered-the Sandpeople-not-just-the-men-but-the-women-and-the-children-too-Anakin.


3. Sam: Sam pretty much did all the work getting the ring to Mount Doom. He literally carried Frodo. Samwise the Brave. Followed him into the river eventhough he couldn't swim and came back to Frodo after he sided with Gollum. "A promise Mr. Frodo, a promise"

14. Jar-Jar Binks: I'm not even gonna put up a picture of this cat.


6. Bilbo Baggins: The Hobbit who started it all.

11. Admiral Akbar: Pretty freakish, but led the Battle of Endor. Could help playing on home turf. "All Forest"

10. Wedge Antilles: Here is one for the hardcore fan. For those of you that don't know, Wedge is a Rebel Pilot that was in all three movies! He survived the first Death Star, Hoth, and the Second Death Star. The only man to survive both Death Star runs. While Luke was off playing with Daddy, Wedge hit the shot that allowed Lando to take down the Second Death Star. Wedge is my darkhorse here, kind of like Davidson. He just has that everyman quality. He is also responsible for one of the most famous lines in the movie, when first approaching the Death Star: "Look at the size of that thing." (That's what she said)

7. Gimli: He doesn't like to be grabbed by his beard or be tossed.


15. Bail Organa: Jimmy Smits. (that guy in the background seems to have a thyroid problem)

2. Luke: Wait who was he? Oh yeah, the one who always saved the day.