2023 Off Tackle Empire Bracket Challenge Winners: Men’s and Women’s Editions

For most of us...

...well, let’s pretend this never happened.

The 2023 Off Tackle Empire Bracket Challenge results are in, and we’ve got two—calling them winners doesn’t feel right, but least losers? That works for me.

Men’s Tournament Challenge

In a draw in which basically everyone was lost from the early stages of the Dance, when Kansas, Arizona, and, of course, Purdue bowed out early, user zmaximus managed to correctly predict that the UConn Huskies would make the national championship!

Of course, they had them losing to Purdue, but whatever.

Congrats to zmaximus and their wonderfully-named bracket Marchtothesea which, with 730 points, finished above 96.3% of all entries.

Of writers in the Men’s Challenge, Thumpasaurus finished in third with 620 points, ahead of 91.1% of all entries. I was not the worst of the OTE writers, and that will be the only question I take on the matter.

Women’s Tournament Challenge

Much more drama here, with the presence of both South Carolina and Iowa in the Final Four grabbing all but one of the fourteen completed brackets on the women’s side.

The eventual winner didn’t have Iowa taking the title, though! DesWarin—who I really hope is just using the German genitive case even though they’re missing the “s” on the end—had LSU in the Final Four. That was enough to vault them over The Pickinator, who despite getting the entire non-Iowa Final Four right, missed on the Hawkeyes past the Sweet Sixteen. The aptly-named Tom Picks the Hawks had Iowa over Sakerlina but missed the other side of the bracket, leaving the opening for DesWarin.

Claim Your Reward!

As always, the winners can write a Fanpost of their own design and, as long as it meets minimal editorial standards, we will front-page it! Feel free to contact me (minnesotawildcat at gmail dot com) with questions.

Thanks to everyone who participated. Basketball!