And now it's time to crown the champion of the Chicagoist Tournament Challenge! more ›

Chicagoist writers hold both top spots, but two reader entries also have their eyes on the prize. more ›

We've got almost 70 entries already, but we expect to see well over 100 entries by the time games tip off on Thursday. more ›

March Madness is here! And that means it's time for Chicagoist's annual Tournament Challenge, where we give you a chance to compete against your fellow Chicagoist readers and staffers in our NCAA Tournament pool. It's free to play, and there's still a prize for the winning reader—plus bragging rights that are way more impressive than just winning your office pool. more ›

While we had to wait and see whether Butler could complete its Cinderella run or whether UConn could close out an incredible postseason streak, the winner of the 2011 Chicago Tournament Challenge was never in doubt as not one competitor had either Butler or UConn winning the NCAA Championship. Now that UConn has cut down the nets, we can officially declare our winner. more ›

Well, the weekend's play sure didn't play out as expected. By the time the Final Four was decided yesterday, all of the one and two seeds were sent home. Top seed Duke exited on Thursday and overall number one Ohio St. was eliminated on Friday in the Sweet Sixteen rounds. Two seeds Florida and North Carolina, as well as one seed Kansas were bounced in the Elite Eight. Meanwhile, Butler surprises by making the Final Four again and Virginia Commonwealth, an eleven seed who had to play into the field of 64, joins them. UConn and Kentucky round out the Final Four. Needless to say, the chaos has wrecked everybody's brackets! Of the six million entries in ESPN's Tournament Challenge, only two correctly picked the Final Four. more ›

With the first weekend's slate of NCAA basketball tournament games complete, the Sweet Sixteen is set. We saw local teams like Illinois and Notre Dame bow out, as well as top-seeded Pitt. Meanwhile, a quarter of the Sweet Sixteen is filled with double digit seeds -- including three in the Southwest region. more ›

While we were unable to get President Barack Obama to join our Chicagoist Tournament Challenge (did you?), the hoops loving commander-in-chief did reveal his bracket picks to ESPN in a segment taped with Andy Katz. His complete bracket can be viewed here. more ›

You've still got time to enter Chicagoist's Tournament Challenge. Fill out your bracket and compete against Chicagoist staff and readers for the chance to celebrate your own shining moment. We've got almost 60 entries already, and in past years we've had over 100 compete. There is a prize for the winner! more ›

March Madness is here! The conference tournaments concluded yesterday and now the NCAA Tournament's field of 68 (yes, 68) is set. So it's time once again for Chicagoist's Tournament Challenge. Fill out your bracket and compete against Chicagoist staff and readers for the chance to celebrate your own shining moment. But winning's not easy. The past couple of years, we've had over 100 entries in our pool, and last year's winner, K. Oser, finished in the 99.9th percentile of all ESPN Tournament Challenge entries. Our staff experts didn't do quite so well. I finished 35th while former editor-in-chief Marcus Gilmer placed 51st. more ›

On Monday night, we wanted Butler Bulldogs put up an incredible fight against the Duke Blue Devils, with Duke escaping with a 61-59 victory to claim the NCAA Men's Basketball title and capping one of the craziest, most entertaining tournaments ever. Taking the title in the Chicagoist Tournament Challenge is K. Oser's "crow930us" entry. His bracket accumulated 1,310 points, placing in the 99.9th percentile of all entries in the ESPN Tournament Challenge. Congrats! Contact me at benjy(at)chicagoist(dot)com to claim your prize. more ›

We're now down to the Final Four teams in the NCAA Tournament -- Duke, West Virginia, Michigan St. and Butler. The craziness continued to wreck havoc with everybody's brackets, as Duke alone survived to the Final Four from the one seeds and two five seeds found their way into the semi-finals. In the Chicagoist Tournament Challenge, K. Osar's crow930us 1 entry stands in first place with 830 points and a 99.7th percentile rank of all ESPN.com entries. He's picked Duke to win it all, so he's in good shape to take home the prize we'll award next Tuesday. As for us, I've climbed back into respectability by jumping from 80th to 19th, while Marcus' Better Than Benjy entry is, in fact, 20 spots below me [Ed's Note: Stupid Duke]. more ›

By Sunday night, many of us had turned our attention from the hardwood to the health care reform, which was only appropriate given that many of our NCAA brakcets are on life support. A weekend that saw more upsets since 1991 - including number one seed Kansas fall to Northern Iowa - meant that many of us have brackets that are quite ugly. But many of you are doing better than we are. Marcus is currently in a tie for 30th place and I'm currently sitting in 80th place in the Chicagoist Tournament Challenge, out of 112 active entries. After getting burned by picking too many upsets in tournaments past, we went conservative this year... and now the likes of Northern Iowa and Cornell decide to pick off the big guys. Like many, we also thought Kansas would hoist the trophy at tourney's end, so we can't even make a comeback in the big point rounds. more ›

If you're anything like us, you've filled out at least a half dozen brackets since NCAA selection committee set the field of 65 for this year's tournament as you try to find just the right mix of sure things and upsets to win bragging rights over colleagues and amaze your friends. more ›

With the NCAA Tournament's brackets announced on Sunday evening to set the field of 65, it's time to make your picks for the sixth annual Chicagoist Tournament Challenge! Think you know more about college basketball than Chicagoist's writers and fellow readers? Prove it! Don't know that much about college basketball? So, what... it's usually that one who picked teams based on their mascots that wins anyway! more ›

Last night's NCAA Championship game wasn't much of a battle, with North Carolina jumping out to an early lead and never looking back. Holding a 55-34 halftime lead, the Tar Heals coasted through the second half to defeat the Michigan St. Spartans 89-72 at Ford Field in Detroit to win the school's fifth title. more ›

The past couple of days, everybody has been busy analyzing their NCAA Tournament pool picks when they should have instead been working. Even a financial meltdown and two wars can't keep our Hoopster-in-Chief from finding time to fill in his bracket, too. No way he's letting Rahm beat him! Barack Obama predicted a Final Four of Louisville, North Carolina, Memphis and Pittsburgh -- choosing three #1 seeds and one #2 seed. Pretty pragmatic picks, if we do say so. Most people view UConn as the most vulnerable of the top seeds. more ›

If you're anything like us, you printed out a half dozen brackets last night after the NCAA selection committee set the field of 65 for this year's tournament as you begin to hone in on just the right mix of sure things and upsets to win bragging rights over friends and co-workers. more ›

College basketball's conference tournaments are in full swing this week, meaning that March Madness is soon upon us! The official brackets for this year's NCAA Tournament will be released Sunday evening, after the last conference champs are determined. more ›

With Kansas' victory, we now have a winner in the Chicagoist Tournament Challenge. Out of 90 entrants, l.meuller's el #1 entry took top prize! He compiled 1260 points, which placed him in the 97.9th percentile. Chicagoist is quite impressed... especially considering that we just squeaked into the fourth quintile overall and 70th in our own damn pool. more ›

It's been quite a couple weeks of coming clean for our senator and presidential hopeful. Barack Obama sat down with both local dailies to clear the air about his connection to Tony Rezko last week, and gave a speech to addressing his preacher and race this week. more ›

To enter, click this link to go directly to the group, or go to ESPN's Tournament Challenge, register or log in, and search for Chicagoist. The password is: chicagoist. One entry per person in the Chicagoist pool, please. more ›

The NCAA Basketball Tournament is right around the corner! After conference tournaments conclude this weekend, the official brackets for this year's March Madness will be released Sunday evening. more ›

The NBA's annual draft took place Thursday night, and the Bulls added three new faces to the roster. With the ninth pick--which the Bulls had via the Knicks due to the Eddy Curry trade--they selected Joakim Noah from Florida. If nothing else, he certainly made the biggest fashion statement of the night with his seersucker suit, bow tie and crazy hair. Picking Noah was certainly consistent with GM John Paxson's style of going after players... more ›

Schadenfreude put media professionals and bloggers on stage at their near-monthly Rent Party Friday night for an Alternative Media Slam/ Free For All / Put Down Insult Tournament. The Schad organized this inaugural competition out of respect for our work and because they wanted to see four local institutions sling muck at each other. And sling we did. Before we get into who called who what and who’s momma was being disrespected, let's be... more ›

As the weather has gotten a bit warmer, we've noticed there are more and more things going on. This weekend we've decided to do some nerdy things before we sit at a bar for the Final Four and embellish to our friends how we were so good at basketball in High School but, had to give it up due to . The knee is healing nicely, thanks. We thought we would make it to Facet's... more ›

If you're anything like Chicagoist, you spent Sunday evening poring over the brackets for the NCAA Basketball Tournament. And if you're anything like Chicagoist, you'll repeat this ritual daily until your picks must be turned in for your office pool later this week. Sixty-five teams will fight for a trip to the Final Four. All have hopes and dreams, but only four teams will make it to Atlanta, and only one team will cut down... more ›

The NCAA Tournament never turns out like we think it will, and this year's tournament had even more unepected twist and turns than a typical year. From the numerous upsets, to all the top seeds missing the Final Four, to George Mason making the Final Four, to the large margins of victory in the the Final Four and Championship games. Last night, Florida defeated UCLA 73-57 to claim the NCAA basketball title. With the conclusion... more ›

A busy weekend of sports once again reminded Chicagoist why we are so drawn to watching and investing ourselves in what some consider just games. We got to experience the whole gammut of emotions along with the participants over the course of just a few days. From incredible highs of achieving things nobody thought possible to the sadness of experiencing careers and lives cut short in pursuit of ones' dreams. We began the weekend by... more ›

The people of Chicago have spoken. And apparently, we think a few rounds of Dance Dance Revolution is perfect for getting our swerve on. We saw this press release over at ABC7 listing some of the winners of AOL City Guide Chicago’s “City’s Best 2006” poll. While we quibbled with some of the choices (Home Run Inn for Best Pizza?), the choice of ESPN Zone as the “best spot for first dates” floored us. Sure,... more ›