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<div>The time has arrived for March BBS Madness 2017! This year's tournament features a showdown between H!Ps two non-flagship powerhouses, Berryz Koubou and C-ute. It will actually be two tournaments in one: you'll be determining the BBS's favorite Berryz and C-ute singles, which will then face each other in the Final Round. </div>
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<div>As with last years MM tournament, you may use whatever criteria you want to determine your vote. Remember, this is about the entire single, not just the lead songs. You can take PVs, outfits, cover art, makeup, Tsunku grunts, etc. into consideration here. Except for the Play-in round (see below), voting for all matches will run three days, after which voting will be closed.</div>
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<div>In case you weren't here for last year's tournament and no nothing about the NCAA basketball tournament, here's a quick summary of what will be going down: This is a single elimination tournament, with four 16-single Regions. Each region will have multiple head-to-head match-ups, and it will work best if you vote in each of them. Singles were seeded 1-36, of which 32 will represent in the tournament. I have set the regions up by placing the odd numbers in one region, and the even numbers in the other, then re-numbering them 1-16. Winners of each round move on to the next, until only two singles remain in the Final Round. </div>
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<div>C-ute singles will face off in the East and West Regions</div>
<div>Berryz singles will face off in the North and South Regions </div>
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<div>East faces West, and North faces South in the Final Four.</div>
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<div>I know, it's not really Berryz vs C-ute until the Final round, but I didn't want a situation where the Final (or, god forbid, the Final Four) featured singles from the same group.</div>
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<div>Seedings</div>
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<div>I did not seed the songs this year, as I'm not an authority on either group -- a long-time BBS member with deep knowledge and love for both groups did the seedings. I will not reveal who this member is, unless they choose to indentify theirself. Maybe you can guess who it is. If you've been here for any length of time, it should be obvious, lol. I trust their judgement here implicitly, though, so their seedings are final. The seeds are important because all ties go to the higher seed. No exceptions. No bitching. No refunds.</div>
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<div>The Bracket</div>
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<div>I'll post the bracket once the Play-in matches have been decided. What are Play-in matches? The bottom eight singles will face each other for the right to get crushed by the top four seeds. The pairings in this round will be set the same way as in the regular tournament, with one exception: the winner of each Play-in match will inherit the higher seeds position for the main tournament. (If a 36 beats a 29, it becomes 29.) This is only for the Play-in round!</div>
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<div>I'll be posting the Play-in matches shortly. Once they are complete, I'll upload the full tournament bracket, as well as the First Round matches. Play-in round voting will be open until 12-noon (PDT) Sunday. After that, it's on to the Large Sock Hop!</div>
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<div>Here's the 1st round Bracket (click to embiggen):</div>
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