The March to Madness Tournament 2020: Recap

With the inaugural March to Madness Tournament in the books, it’s time to dissect the results and see how the intrepid investigators of Arkham fared!

Acknowledgment

But first, we want to extend an enormous THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the tournament. Whether you filled out a bracket, voted on the various rounds, were part of the extensive discussion on Discord and social media, or you participated in any other way, thanks for making this so much fun for the community. This event got way more traction and generated more engagement than we expected, and we’re going to make things even bigger and better next year as a result.

We’d love to hear from you about your favorite tournament memories and experiences. Feel free to drop us a line on Discord, Facebook, or via email (mythosbusterspod@gmail.com) if you’ve got a story you’d like to share!

And now, onward to the recap!

Tournament Setup And Rules For The 2020 Edition

As a reminder, we included the 34 widely released investigators, so no Dexter Drake and no starter pack investigators (we’ve got a spot reserved for them for next year!).

The tournament involved a prediction phase where people filled out brackets to guess who they though would win each round and advance further in the tournament.

If you’d like to see how Mythos Busters filled out their brackets and who they thought would win, check out this pre-tournament video of them making their predictions. To see more about bracket leaderboards and the winning brackets, view our bracket recap page.

The tournament itself and voting in each round took place between April 22, 2020, and May 12, 2020. There was a play-in round involving four investigators, and then five more rounds that culminated in a champion being crowned.

There were no set voting criteria. The guidance we originally gave was: “There’s no real rhyme or reason for picking a winner, so use whatever criteria you want. The most important thing to do is to have fun with your predictions and your vote.”

Under this system, it was a free-for-all where some rounds went well for fan favorites, while others clearly skewed more toward strong solo investigators.

The Information And Arkham-Related Humor You Crave

Below, we outline how the matches turned out, but do more than just list the winners. Color commentary, in the form of humorous match rundowns, is provided by Bowzo. Many thanks to Bowzo for their contributions here and for keeping the conversation lively with their match previews in the #quarantine-con Discord channel.

We also show the “scores” of each game. Note that the “scores” show the percentage of votes that each investigator received in a round. We decided to use that method because it normalized things and accounted for the variance in the number of votes that were cast in each round.

Additionally, there are notes from the tournament commissioner if anything noteworthy took place during the match.

But that’s enough preamble from us – let’s dive into the replay footage and see how each round went!

If you want actual replay footage, check out our recap video where Scott, Sean, and special guest Casey (Discord handle Mister Trench) went over the results and revealed the champion live on stream. You can also check out a final version of the bracket with result percentages here.

Play-In Round

In the play-in round we had two fun match ups of four cult favorites.

Jim vs. Carolyn

First up, we saw two horror-healing heroes go head-to-head to see who would make it into the big leagues. Carolyn’s pacifist approach couldn’t quite get the job done and she ultimately lost to Jim’s mellow music therapy. “No! You can’t just heal mental anguish with simple tunes!” Carolyn protested, but Jim’s only response was “haha skully trumpet go dooooot!”

Result: Jim (54.1) beat Carolyn (45.9)

Lola vs. Mateo

With a small, but vocal, fan base, Lola Hayes seemed like she might be able to finally get past Act 1. But, after an utterly classless showing by Ms. Hayes, Father Mateo managed to turn this potential failure into an automatic success and easily moved into the next round!

Results: Father Mateo (74.5) beat Lola (25.5)

Round One

Northwest Division

Jim vs. Ursula

Fresh off his victory in the play-in, Jim Culver’s next tune was his swansong, as Ursula Downs was able to move into a connecting round after this test ended.

Result: Ursula (78.7) beat Jim (21.3)

Patrice vs. Calvin

In this early matchup, having no prior damage or horror meant Calvin couldn’t seem to make any progress. And so, Patrice swept her way into the next round faster than a Paganini Caprice. [Editor’s note: A caprice is a musical piece that is very fast, and Paganini is a famous violinist and composer.] But don’t worry, Calvin, now you’ve got a bit of trauma for next year!

Result: Patrice (71.3) beat Calvin (28.7)

Zoey vs. Roland

Zoey Samaras was up against Roland Banks in a bout between our first Guardians. While Roland spent his time trying to get a clue, Zoey showed us that she believes that a Federal cover-up is truly wicked, and so smote as she saw fit.

Result: Zoey (65.7) beat Roland (35.3)

Finn vs. Minh

Minh found Finn hard to pin, and Finn’s thin win over Minh dimmed the din of Minh fans everywhere, as they cried “what a sin!” and “#Justice4Minh!”. But Minh took it on the chin, and Finn, with a tin of gin tied around his shin, moved on through the division.

Result: Finn (58.5) beat Minh (41.5)

Commissioner’s Note: Finn vs. Minh was very close, roughly 50-50, until the final 6-ish hours of the round when Finn pulled ahead.

Southwest Division

Mateo vs. Luke

In the match between believer and dreamer, we saw Mateo seal his own fate. After using up his once-per-tournament ability, he wasn’t able to get the job done, and Luke started his Wondrous Journey through the tournament with his first victory.

Result: Luke (79.3) beat Mateo (20.7)

Commissioner’s Note: This was the third largest margin of victory in the tournament.

Silas vs. Rita

Rita gave it the old college try, but got bogged down by Mr. Marsh in the first round, as Silas faced nothing but calm waters and smooth sailing in our first round battle between Survivors.

Result: Silas (67.1) beat Rita (32.9)

Sefina vs. Marie

Marie tried her hardest against Sefina, but the only spell that happened for her was the spelling of her own doom. Her Mystifying Song couldn’t prevent her opponent from advancing with winning numbers so high that we almost thought Winifred was in this match!

Result: Sefina (79.7) beat Marie (20.3)

Commissioner’s Note: This was the second largest margin of victory in the tournament.

Mark vs. Akachi

The clash of the Carcosa colleagues promised a tight battle, and while Akachi tried to lead a strong charge, Mark clutched his photograph, remembered that he had Something Worth Fighting For, and came out on top.

Result: Mark (67.1) beat Akachi (32.9)

Northeast Division

Wendy vs. Tommy

Tommy and Wendy’s first round bout was marred by Tommy’s insistence on taking Wendy’s teddy bear, Mr. Pawterson, from her since it “makes more sense, it’s money and bullets for me,” Once both sides settled down, Wendy waylaid Tommy like the rookie he is.

Result: Wendy (71.8) beat Tommy (28.2)

Rex vs. Leo
Rex and Leo had a tight back and forth in their matchup, but Leo wasn’t able to scrounge up enough allies to push him to the finish line, allowing Rex to report a clean victory and move into the second round.

Result: Rex (52.5) beat Leo (47.5)

Commissioner’s Note: Rex vs. Leo was unexpectedly tight. They traded leads throughout the whole thing, and then Rex pulled ahead to win in the closing hours.

Jenny vs. Yorick

Yorick and Jenny went toe-to-toe in the swingiest matchup yet. In classic Rogue fashion, as Yorick was about to finally bury her, Jenny pulled out a by-the-skin-of-her-teeth victory in the final hour. Alas, Poor Yorick! We knew him, Jenny, a fellow of infinite assets, of most excellent fancy. [Editor’s note: C’mon, you KNEW we were going to make that joke if/when Yorick lost. Also, see Hamlet, Act 5 Scene 1.]

Result: Jenny (52.8) beat Yorick (47.2)

Commissioner’s Note: This match had multiple large lead swings. Jenny was trailing going into the final hours, and then charged into the lead for the win.

Agnes vs. Joe

Joe followed his hunches in this first round matchup against Agnes Baker, but, as usual, he just kind of completely forgot they were there and he ended up losing soundly to the original Mystic investigator.

Result: Agnes (70.7) beat Joe (29.3)

Southeast Division

Mandy vs. Skids

“Skids” O’Toole tried his hand in this early round match against Mandy Thompson. Despite Skids’ ace in the hole and what he thought was a sure gamble, it was ultimately Mandy who had three aces of her own and cashed in to the next round.

Result: Mandy (81.7) beat Skids (18.3)

Commissioner’s Note: This was the largest margin of victory in the entire tournament.

Diana vs. Preston

In our Silver Twilight match up we saw our reformed cultist, Diana Stanley, take on wealthy patron, Preston Fairmont. And thus another rich white man got taken down by cancel culture.

Result: Diana (70.7) beat Preston (29.3)

Tony vs. Ashcan

Tony and Pete duked it out in a not-so-bountiful bout for Mr. Morgan when Pete’s loyal hound proved to be a better hunter than the greenest green ‘gator in the tournament.

Result: Ashcan (69.3) beat Tony (30.7)

Daisy vs. Norman

Daisy took on Norman in this early Miskatonic matchup, and this was one result Norman couldn’t foresee. Daisy had this one in the (tote)bag from the beginning and left our disgraced professor seeing stars.

Result: Daisy (74.1) beat Norman (25.9)

Round Two