December Madness 2: Digital Boogaloo (Starts 12/1/2014!)

[PSMKay]

I should mention that the current version of the Bracket has been added to the first post in this thread. I'll update it regularly as rounds end/begin with the latest winners.

Also, if you want to put December Madness in your calendars, new rounds will begin on Mondays and Thursdays through Christmas. The semifinals will start on Christmas Day and run for a week to ensure your family has a chance to catch you at voting and consider you odd.

The finals will begin on New Year's Day and will also run for a week.

Maribeth, I think folks were right and AEA Docs got a bad seed this time around. Maybe we can have a losers' runoff at the same time as the finals, bring back the two teams that got the fewest votes for a rematch. Give it at least a shot at some sort of prize, eh?

[PSMKay]

And there's the whistle for the end of round 2! What an exciting match this was!

The apps division was a close race for the first three quarters, with Video Phone and Google Drive within one point of each other the whole way up. Today the odds tipped in favor of Google Drive, which trounced Skype/FaceTime/Hangouts to win it 17-12.

Over in the software division, bookmaker favorite Excel wrote a tidy function to seal Acrobat in a pine box. Despite some solid cheering on the part of the PDF fans, the powerhouse from Redmond cleaned up 23-9.

However, I'd say the most heated battle went down in the fourth quarter over in the Social division. For that we head over to Maribeth with the wrap up.

[Maribeth]

Kay, the Social division had an upset like we've never seen! A strong competitor like Twitter trounced by Tumblr in the first round....not to be predicted, this round. Analysts are crediting Tumblr's victory to a last-minute swell of support by the SMblr community, who came out to support their team. It will be interesting to see how it fares in the next round, where it's matched up against Facebook, who has a wider (though not necessarily more dedicated) base of support.

Over in the Website division, Web Calendar sailed through, beating Doodle 24-3. But can it beat Webmail in the next round? Tune in to see!

[PSMKay]

Coming up in Round 3, the match to watch is in the Social division where Pinterest takes on our very own SMNetwork. SMNet has the home court advantage here, although per the IDMC rules this announcer will be spending the match on the bench.

[Maribeth]

It's been an exciting series here at Backstage Stadium. Youtube knocked out Lifehacker with a solid 23-8 victory. But will it be able to take the winner of our Round 4 Website match, either Offstagejobs or AirBnB?

Over in the Social division, SMNetwork breezes through this round with a shutout 29-0 win. We all expected it, as it's the reason we are all here. How far can this industry-specific social network go in this tournament?

Over to Kay for the App and Software wrap-up.

[PSMKay]

Well, Maribeth, of our two matches in the Software and Apps divisions, we had one definitive victory and one hard-fought battle. Clock wiped its face, hands and several other body parts on Evernote like it was an old gym towel, cleaning up 26-2. Not quite the same shutout you had over in Social, but pretty close. Looks like stage managers are willing to relinquish their stopwatches to digital substitutes after all!

The surprising match was in the Software division, where low turnout had been expected due to the elite nature of the two teams competing. Fan support was strong, but the debate was hectic as to whether orderly databases or frisky photo editing would dominate. Totally contradicting last week's Excel vs. Acrobat match, artsy Photoshop's stylish layers piled on to Filemaker's slow queries to come out on top, 15-10.

Round 4 runs through the end of Sunday. It will wrap up our initial elimination and set us up to enter the Sweet Sixteen next week. Our eight final new teams are entering the courts to start their matches.

[PSMKay]

Wow, that was easy! Some lightweight matches in Round 4. 3 out of 4 pairings were pretty much no contest.

In the apps division, Camera handily trounced newcomer Pushbullet 24-3. It looks like Pushbullet needs a little more practice time to build up a fan following before it can compete with the likes of the heavy hitters in this tournament. Camera will take on Clock in the battle of the stock phone apps next week.

Over in Software, we had another near shutout as Qlab darkened Lightwright's day 29-3, setting it up to take on Photoshop in the sweet sixteen. Can it survive another round or will PS cut & paste it?

Maribeth, you had an at-the-buzzer point in one of your matches. Did it help at all?

[Maribeth]

Sorry to say that it didn't make much of a difference in these matches, Kay- both Offstagejobs and LinkedIn had early leads that carried through the rest of the match.

Over in Websites, Offstagejobs won the tip off and took a straightaway right to the basket. With that kind of momentum, AirBnB didn't stand a chance, and Offstagejobs swept the match 30-1. An aggressive offense kept Offstagejobs on top in this match- but can it defeat Youtube in the next round?

In the Social division, Linkedin swept Hootsuite in a whopping 22-6 victory. But faced with the undefeated SMNetwork, can it stand its ground? Some are questioning the utuility of LinkedIn's networking abilities. Let's see how it faces off against the industry giant.

[Maribeth]

This has been a close match over in the Social division, Kay. Despite Tumblr's strong fan base, Facebook squeaked by with a win. Experts disagree as to the exact reason for their victory, but widespread usage seems to be at the heart of it. Tough game!

Over in Websites, Webmail blew the competition away. Web calendar was no match! Webmail is one of the strongest teams in the competition- it wouldn't surprise me to see this team in the finals.

Experts are torn over who will advance to the Elite 8! Cast your predictions here.

[PSMKay]

Well Maribeth, we both had one very tight match and one near rout in this opening round of the division semifinals. And I have to say, your match between Facebook and Tumblr was one of the most exciting we've seen around here since the Multitool-Photocopier showdown of 2012. Major credit to both teams for a fair fight. I'm sure SMBlr has gained some new fans and followers from this matchup - here's hoping to their ongoing success. Facebook needs to get a black eye every now and then, IMHO.

Over in the software division, it looked like Word was trying to write a winning game plan, but Clippy just couldn't pull out the right template this time around. Word and Excel ran a very close match, never opening a point spread of more than three votes. However, Excel took an early lead and never lost it through the entire match. At the sound of the horn, Excel was up 16-14.

Meanwhile, the SMs' love for SMS came through loud and clear in the Text Message/Google Drive debate. Despite all our love for the powers of team sharing and cloud storage, the short, sweet and immediate text message ran circles around Google Drive's massive defensive line. For those of you SMS fans out there: WTG SMS FTW 20-7, GTFO Google! LOL.

The December Madness fans have placed a strong checkmark on the side of boxes and metrics. They'll have two more opportunities this week to see if their alignment remains consistent, as the forces of structured order (Clock and Qlab) take the court against the elements of artistic spirit (Photoshop and Camera).

[PSMKay]

Well, as I write there's still 2 minutes on the clock, but the Software and Apps matches for this round are pretty much decided. Not even a Hail Mary could turn the tide now.

The Software and Apps matches this past round were pretty much no contest on both fronts. Despite some confessions of indecision in both games, the victors were ahead from the start and the point spreads were enormous.

In what we're calling a "bad photo op" match up, Clock vanquished Camera 23-3, and Qlab took out Photoshop 21-3. Image may be everything in the rest of the world, but for stage managers there are more important concerns. The SMs have made it plain that being aware of and in control of the passage of time is more important than archiving moments as they pass.

And now over to Maribeth for Social and Websites.

[Maribeth]

SMNetwork blows away the competition over in the Social arena! LinkedIn had some good plays, but the SMNetwork team was altogether stronger on the field. Fans came out for both teams, but in the end, it was SMNetwork who had the last word in this match.

Offstagejobs did not have quite as easy time this round- it really had to work against the popular Youtube team. Our experts credit the job-hunting talents on this Offstagejobs team for its hard-fought victory. This was a close game and Offstagejobs will have their work cut out for them in the next round to maintain their standing against a strong team like Webmail.

The next round is where the heavyweights meet their match- SMNetwork vs Facebook, and Offstagejobs vs Webmail in the division finals!

[PSMKay]

Well kids, it's Christmas in most of the world, and it's the end of the December Madness Divisions as we know them.

Today we enter the semi-finals. Only three matches remain between the last contestants and victory. Two of those matches begin today.

We have said farewell to some favorites in this past round. In fact, all industry-specific tools have been eliminated at this point in favor of mass-market products that stage managers have made their own.

In the Apps Division final Clock couldn't keep up with Text Messaging, narrowly missing the pennant by 4 votes. This was SMS's toughest battle to date, but it came out ahead, 16-12. Social network monster Facebook ravaged yet another online stage management community, eliminating SMNetwork 16-10. The Tumblr folks needn't feel too bad about their performance in the Division semis - if SMNet can't win on its home turf, Tumblr didn't stand a chance either. Meanwhile over in the Software division, Excel handily beat out Qlab 20-9, proving that Microsoft actually *has* done something good for the arts after all. Finally, SMs made it very clear that doing their jobs is more important than finding new ones as Webmail triumphs over Offstagejobs.com 23-3 to take home the pennant for the Websites Division.

This week you will have a full 7 days to decide which tools will move on to the finals.

We'll know on New Year's Day!

[PSMKay]

The finals have begun! The semifinals were a catastrophe of sloppy defense on the parts of Facebook and Text Messaging, who lost their respective matches against Excel and Webmail with atrociously large point spreads. (Excel 31 - Facebook 0, Webmail 21 - Texting 4)

This is the big one, folks. No point in dallying around here. Go vote!

[PSMKay]

And that's the whistle, folks! After 5 weeks of voting and intense competition, December Madness 2 is over!

The winner, at 21 votes to 10 against, in a surprise upset is...

WEBMAIL!

Webmail has been the quiet winner throughout the entire tournament. No discussion, no debate, no close matches. Although Excel had its strong proponents and survived battles against some very tough competition, stage managers voted in favor of communication instead of organization as the critical element of the job.

Thanks to all of you for voting and participating. This was definitely a quieter event than the first go around and I'm not sure if we'll do it again, but it's been fun nonetheless and an interesting snapshot of your views on technology and the job.