Update: Voting for the Elite Eight is now closed. Results will be posted on Facebook shortly.
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Welcome to the Elite Eight! I know voting is a lot this week, so thanks for hanging in there!
Please vote for your favorites below. You have 24 hours to get in your votes before the Final Four takes place tomorrow. There is a short recap below.
In the Sweet Sixteen match-ups, Swine City won by the a narrow margin of 6% with more than 5000 votes cast. Even closer, however, was Bad Tom taking the lead with only two votes (599 to 597) at 7:59 when the polls closed this morning. There are three (9) seeds remaining, with the highest seed being a 6, if you’re wondering how completely random the seeding process was. (There have been questions and some confusion about that, so for a complete background and game rules, click here.) Don’t sleep on the new and neighborhood breweries—”though they be but small, they are fierce!”
Results from Round One – Westside, OTR, and Eastside regions, plus the Round of 32 and Sweet Sixteen.
Full schedule
First Round: March 15–21
Second Round: March 26
Sweet Sixteen: March 27
Elite Eight: March 28
Final Four: March 29
Championship: April 2
Comments
I wouldn’t trust these poll numbers – at all. We have hundreds of people voting and our percentages are going down. Should not be unlimited votes, should be restricted by IP address.
Beers that get HORRIBLE reviews are crushing their competition in this “poll” – Ridiculous.
You are welcome to your opinion, but unlimited voting does not mean there has been any wrongdoing. I am grateful for breweries spreading the word about their friendly competition in what is supposed to be a fun feature on the website.
Fixed =/= fun. As someone who’s done the tours on numerous occasions, it’s a bit disheartening to see what’s going on.
So you’re disheartened by breweries sharing posts and spreading the word to their fans? Who are then using their time to vote for their favorite brewery? Interesting. In the past I’ve kept voting limited (blocked by IP address AND cookies) and people created bots to beat the system. On this platform, the only way to keep it fair is to keep it open and unlimited to everyone. Everyone has the same opportunity to share posts on any and all social media outlets to get the word out about voting. There is no “fix” and nothing is “going on” as you seem to suggest. I am very excited for and impressed by the breweries who have had a really high reach thanks to their social media prowess. If anything, it’s a great exercise for small businesses to better learn how to implement social media into their marketing campaigns. This is also meant to be a great way to publicize ALL breweries in Cincinnati.
If I see that any brewery has an unfair advantage (which is really hard to prove, honestly), I will be sure to reach out accordingly.
Cheers!