The Walking Dead Survival Tournament

Can they really take out a #1 seed?  Do they have to firepower?  Can they survive?  

I was asking myself the same questions when filling out my bracket.  But not the bracket you were thinking of…

I’m talking about TSB’s Walking Dead Survival Tournament.  As you know, TSB has an infatuation with The Walking Dead.  To us, there’s nothing better on television…except for the NCAA Tournament.  So why not combine our two favorite things?  And by the way, the Final Four is in Atlanta.

Here is the criteria for getting selected to the big dance:

1. How important are you to the show now?
2. What kind of influence do/did you have on the group?
3. How many zombies you have killed?
4. How long you have lasted?
5. How many episodes you were in?
6. If you died, how awesome was it?
7. How equipped are you to survive on your own?
8. Potential as time goes on

I went through nearly all the episodes to see if I could come up with 64 relevant characters, but came up about 15 short.  The field was cut to 32.

Here were some cast members that had their bubble burst.

Karen, the mother of  Noah, who plead to Martinez to not make her asthmatic son join Woodbury’s Army.  Honestly, she didn’t have anything else to add to the show.  If she had more quality lines, she could have snuck in with an at-large bid.

The Walker who killed Dale was the only non-living cast member who had as shot to make the field.  His mangling of Dale went down as the single greatest kill in the show’s history.  Even though he took out an eventual 5 seed, he was only 1-4 against the TWD top 32.

Jim was last seen left under a tree after he had been bitten by a walker in season 1.  He was an integral part of the first camp in Atlanta, but went crazy.   He decided that after a dream he had, he needed to start digging holes in the ground.

Otis was the last one out.  It happens.  Yes, he was the sole reason why Shane was able to escape the school in season 2, but he only lasted 3 episodes.  If he somehow made it through the entire season, he could have easily been a top 4 seed.

I was going to name each region, but in a survival tournament, does it really matter?

OK. OK.  Fine.  I’ll name them.  Jeez…

The #1 seeds are Rick, The Governor, Andrea, and Daryl.

Rick – The Prison
The Governor – Woodbury
Andrea – The Farm
Daryl – The CDC

When you look at the bracket, you can see I bunched characters together that had strong ties.  We need some good sweet 16 match ups   And we’ve got em’ here.

With no real upsets to speak of in the first round, there are some great battles in the sweet 16.  In The Prison bracket, #2 Glenn takes on #3 Shane.  If this were match up of brute strength, Shane would walk away with an easy victory.  But Shane is no longer with us for a reason.  When you go nuts, you leave yourself exposed.  And that’s what happened to Shane.  As for Glenn, he has transformed into a leader and a survivor.  He’s done everything possible for this group.  Glenn moves on.

#5 Morgan slipped by #4 T-dog in the first round, but ran into a buzz saw named Daryl in the sweet 16.  #1 seed Daryl, had no time getting past Morgan and his booby traps.  Morgan’s setup was real sweet, but Daryl is a step ahead.  The stealthiness of the crossbow moves Daryl into the elite 8.  He’s shown the ability to shoot the crossbow from a long distance, while using the arrows as a stabbing tool.

After the first round games, the Woodbury bracket was clearly the best region.  And who would have thought that the first major upset would come from there as well!  The Governor has fallen!!!  The #5 seed Tyreese, has taken down “The Gov”!  The song and dance that The Governor has done with all of his potential “victims” has finally caught up to him.  Tyreese is the new badass on the block and there is no stopping him.  I know, he’s only been on the show for a few episodes, but his potential is unlimited.  He’s already been a leader of his own group, and clearly has no problem showing his muscle.  Tyreese moves on.   The other sweet 16 match up was between #2 Michonne and #3 Merle.  We’ve seen this once before.  Merle had tried to kill “Mee-Shown” in the woods earlier in Season 3, but ultimately failed.  So far in Season 3, Michonne has been one of my least favorite characters (I know I am going to get killed for saying that).  I’m sick of her facial expressions and her looking like she needs a suppository.  With that being said, Michonne has proven that she is capable of being a stealth killing machine while surviving out in the wild.  Although she can be a bit of a loose cannon, she’s nowhere near the liability Merle has become.  Survive and advance.  That’s the name of the game.  Michonne advances.

When Carol and Maggie battled it out during the sweet 16, I kept thinking about how much fangirling was going on when Carol was possibly dead in the belly of the prison.  Then I thought of how she’s been since.  And honestly, other than trying to convince Andrea to kill El Gov after letting him play “just the tip”, she’s been virtually worthless.  You’d think that after being found, there would be this big uprising with Carol taking a major role.  Nope.  Just sittin’ back and doin’ nothing.  Meanwhile, Maggie has been to hell and back, all while icing walkers at a very high rate.  Maggie is leaned on as a soldier for the group and a sex symbol for the male audience.  Did you see her on Talking Dead 2 weeks ago?  Oh momma…Sorry Carol, but it’s time to go.  Maggie moves on.

Here is how the bracket looks like after the first two rounds.  Please drop some comments in the box below.  We’d love to hear what you have to say. Click on the PDF below.

TWD Brackets Elite 8

Next week we will break down the Elite 8 and Final Four match ups.

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