2023: Upsets dominated the NCAA tournament as none of the tops seeds moved beyond the Sweet Sixteen, trashing many a bracket. Even more jarring was the failure of any two or three seeds to make it to the Final Four. The win was taken by Connecticut, a team seeded fourth, and a team selected by a bold new strategy. Lesley Pope, making her selections during a power outage, blinded by the darkness, made selections purely at random, a strategy that resulted in that fourth seeded team being selected as the overall champion. Bracketology experts everywhere are suddenly scrambling to revamp their selection criteria. The Brandy Award was snagged by Jeff Baum, who actually had several entries vying for the coveted booby prize, and somehow also finishing in the money at the other end, taking fifth place overall.
2022: With COVID finally in the rear-view mirror, the EQE March Madness tournament got back on track only to see upset after upset to the point that participants started to worry more about the Brandy Award than finishing atop the standings. Kirk Nosho sort of lived up to his surname, picking only two Elite Eight teams correctly yet coming away with the overall 2022 Championship. The winning total, 147 points, ended up being the fourth lowest winning score in tournament history. Much more impressive was Tom Roche’s achievement, winning the Brandy Award for the third time, marking a new level ineptitude in the ability to identify winning teams…..or maybe he simply enjoys getting an annual free entry.
2021: While COVID continued to threaten both the NCAA tournament and the EQE March Madness tournament, each found a way to put together some semblance of a real competition. While the entire tournament was staged in a “bubble” (in this case the bubble was represented by the state of Indiana) the EQE March Madness Tournament forged on, although participants were required to don their face masks when making their picks. Long time participant Brian Gunter nabbed the 2021 title with his Baylor pick, one of only six who picked the Bears to go all the way despite a number one seed. The Brandy Award was pretty much a certainty for Maluri Fernandez when two of Mal’s Final Four picks were blown out in each of their first games.
2020: The tournament and the world alike came to a screeching halt when COVID-19 struck, causing all play to be canceled for the season. On the bright side, pool participants’ private cash stashes were unexpectedly flush with funds, allowing them to fill out even more brackets for the following year…providing that stash remained stealthily squirreled away in the sock drawer. Oops!
2019: Perhaps the greatest comeback ever saw the previous year’s Brandy Award winner, Gerald Eggink, take that free entry and parlay it into the following year’s winning entry. Gerald himself admitted to invoking his inner Ricky Bobby as he staged the tournament’s only worst-to-first performance, whiffing on eleven of the Sweet Sixteen entries in 2018 to slam-dunking the entire tournament in 2019. Tom Chan, often known as the Duke of the EQE March Madness tournament, came in second, inches behind Gerald. 2019’s Brandy Award winner went to Sonia Tripolitano, whose entry, TripsterMatilda, went truly down under, finishing with a stunningly weak 44-point effort. Sonia somehow managed to spiral out of the tournament completely before the Elite Eight convened – and there were not that many upsets in year 2019.
2018: Football and basketball came together when John Lautz’s entry, Kirk Who?, took the title as Villanova prevailed over Michigan in the final game, exactly as John had predicted. As an added bonus, the team’s inspiration, Kirk Cousins, having recently spurned John’s hometown Redskins, fell flat on his face when the Vikings failed to make enough money to cover Kirk’s expenses. Maluri Fernandez, a first-time participant, impressed all, also correctly predicting the final game, coming away with a second-place finish. Interestingly, both the first and second place finishers had Virginia in their Final Four. As a reminder, Virginia achieved the dubious distinction of being the first number one seed to get bounced in the first round of the tournament. Despite not putting Virginia in his Final Four, tournament regular John Riley came in third, as he also nailed the outcome of the final game. Our Brandy Award winner for 2018 was taken by Gerald Eggink, who had only five entries remaining after the first two rounds and only one of those managed to advance to the Sweet Sixteen – whereupon they were summarily bounced.
2017: Love for the Big Ten conference proved to be the key to victory when Amanda Johnson’s “Big Ten Love” took the Hoops Madness title for the 2017 season despite the fact that no Big Ten teams made it to the Elite Eight. Apparently, her love was not that strong as her pick, North Carolina, prevailed over Gonzaga in the title game. Brian Gunter took second place nailing the title game and result, but evidently, he did not love the Big Ten enough. Dave Getty pulled a first in the tournament, finishing third through fifth. Yes, three of the top five finishers were picked by one participant. What you lack in precision can be made up for in bulk. An upset occurred among Brandy Award winners as Ron Cushing’s “Tom Crean” entry fittingly got bounced out of the tournament when he picked only one of the Sweet Sixteen teams.
2016: Establishing his dominance and laying claim to “Best EQE March Madness Guesser” was Tom Chan, the tournament’s first repeat winner. Tom also took the title in 2009, so it’s fair to say that a Chan Dynasty has been established. But wait, there’s more! Another first took place when the same participant took both third and fifth place! Zag Nation loyalist Todd Schoentrup somehow managed this anomaly despite having picked exactly one of the Final Four teams, ironically none of them being Gonzaga. Laying claim to yet another Brandy Award was the strange effort of Dave Ditlevsen, winner of four of the last five years’ worst of the worst. Intentionally trying to pick the worst lineup goes against the intent of the award, but the scores achieved, almost twice the official worst score ever, underscore the uniqueness of the original achievement.
2015: A stark turnaround from 2014, the 2015 championship game was nothing but favorites. When Duke beat Wisconsin in a tight matchup, Qing Hua Huang took home the vaunted title of EQE March Madness Champion. 2015 also featured the continued crafting of a company tournament dynasty, with both the number 1 (Qing) and number 2 (Todd Schoentrup) finishers being colleagues at Quantum Consulting Engineers. We can only hope that their passion for college basketball doesn’t detract from their passion for engineering. If familiarity breeds contempt, David Ditlevsen will very much dislike receiving the 2016 freebie entry having won the prestigious Brandy Award for the third time in four years (and yes, the editors of this copy have grown lazy – and promise minimal edits should DD crack the bowl again in 2016).
2014: In a year marked by a tournament upsets, the championship game, decided between a #7 and #8 seed, was both exciting and irrelevant for final pool standings. With only one entry having UConn in the final game (and winning it), and no entries having picked Kentucky to make it to the championship, there was no drama at all for pool participants. Sean Carline enjoyed the game without good luck omens knowing that a first-place finish was guaranteed before tip-off. If familiarity breeds contempt, David Ditlevsen will very much dislike receiving the 2015 freebie entry having won the prestigious Brandy Award for the second time in three years.
2013: A first occurred in the tournament when we had a repeat champion for the 2013 season. Dave Getty sandwiched two championships around ten years of futility and laid claim to the title, “Winningest Hoops Madness Contestant Ever.” For now. Lovable Loser, Bill Levitan won the 2014 freebie entry through use the Heads or Tails method, scoring a handy 61, still besting Brandy’s noble achievement by more than double.
2012: Not content with the usual racketeering profits gained by highly leveraged short-term investments of entry fees, Ron decided to run the gauntlet and try to take home the first-place prize. With an effort buoyed by 8 entries into the pool, Ron was ultimately successful and was last seen riding off into the sunset with the first-place purse. With the increase in gas prices, the sunset turned out to be just a few clicks down the road for our peripatetic co-chair, but they were reportedly “high quality miles.” Ron’s score of 180 was the highest score seen in 3 years. At the other end of the spectrum, David Ditlevsen won himself a free entry into the 2013 pool with a fairly ho-hum Brandy award winning 64.
2011: The NCAA threatens to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs by adding four teams to the traditional group of 64, throwing a wrench into the works that make all bracket pools run smoothly. Kent and Ron not only overcome this formidable obstacle, but they introduce new features on the website such as automated reporting, and a fun new Dynamic Status report that allows users to make up their own scenarios. Oddly, “hey, honey, I won!” is heard in more than one household. Despite her preference to be knitting, Jackie Lewis takes the title with the lowest winning score in 22 years, continuing a decline rivaling that of the Pac 6 8 10 12.
2010: In response to a “cease and desist” order claiming that the Winklevosses own the rights to “The world is an unstable place” and variants, we’ll just state that things continued to stink it up on the big stage. Pool fools Kent and Ron get better but continue to struggle with the new format. The tournament itself sees a stunning number of upsets, though in the end the Blue Devils triumph over Butler, sending the Riley household into momentary delirium as John wins it all with a modern era* record low winning score of 149.
*The modern era is roughly defined, oddly enough, as 1992 when Greg Hardy took it all with a 162.
2009: The world has been unstable for long enough that instability has become the status quo. Pool architect Shin Kao redesigns the website to use “WordPress” to the joy and acclaim of the pool entrants. Pool fools Kent and Ron publicly applaud, and privately grimace trying to figure out this newfangled technology. Comfort for the pool admin is found in the fact that the back-office still runs on a TRS-80 with a card reader wired in. Pool stalwart Tom Chan takes first place with a 192 score.
2008: The world is an even more unstable place. The financial system begins to crumble, and banks begin to fail, but a glimmer of hope emerges when CBS commentator Billy Packer announces that 2008 will be his final game. Sports fans around the world rejoice, and the woes of the country are temporarily forgotten. In celebration, all four number one seeds ascend to the Final Four, and college basketball aficionado Eric Tate, known to his friends as Stimpy, grabs the 2008 title with a score of 208.
2007: The world remained an unstable place. The US continued its war against Iraq to rid the world of an evil menace, and “EQErs” continued to look elsewhere for gainful employment. The reported pace of the exodus slows, however, as the reporters can no longer find a statistically significant number of “old goats” still remaining at what was once EQE. In a startling about face from 2006, the tournament has almost no upsets. Those who picked the higher seeds, trusting in the wisdom, fairness, and joie de gambling of the NCAA tournament committee, were rewarded with high scores. But in a year of high scores, just finishing above 200 points wasn’t enough. Like Barry Bonds without the indictment, Gary Byers crushed the prior record of 202 with his top score of 218 points. Is this a record that will ever be broken? The Sammy Sosa’s of the pool could only shake their heads and wonder what could have been, as four of the top five finishers all tied or broke the top score record.
2006: The world remained an unstable place. The US continued its war against Iraq to rid the world of an evil menace, and “EQErs” continued to look elsewhere for gainful employment. The NCAA tournament was chock full of big upsets, with no #1 seeds making it into the final four. LSU, symbolizing the hope of the south recovering from the devastation of the 2005 hurricane season, made it to the final four, only to lose to UCLA (damping spirits in Louisiana AND pool HQ). I can’t recall what happened in the tournament after the loss, but I’m sure that it was exciting and interesting.
2005: The world remained an unstable place. The US continued its war against Iraq to rid the world of an evil menace, and “EQErs” continued to look elsewhere for gainful employment. The pope passed away, professional baseball seemed poised to follow suit with disturbing relevations of steroid use/abuse, and the NCAA tournament was chock full of great games, with a large number of early round upsets and overtimes. The tournament finished without any Cinderellas though, with the championship game pitting the number 1 and 2 ranked teams in the country facing off. The finale, with UNC defeating Illinois, caused many in the Midwest to feel a strong sense of loss. This feeling was not felt by two in our St. Louis pool region as two entries from said region finished in the top 5, with the winner being “petey2”.
2004: The world remained an unstable place. The US continued its war against Iraq to rid the world of an evil menace, and “EQErs” continued to look elsewhere for gainful employment. Again, the EQE tournament proved invaluable as a touchstone for both current and past EQE employees, friends, and pets. Brandy handed over the award bearing her name to Shelly Smith. Phil Hashimoto claimed first prize, and promptly started planning his retirement from the company once known as EQE. Word has it that he invested his winnings in a Barbeque joint in Kansas City and has since gone back to work with many of his previous colleagues at Ares Corporation.
2003: The world remained an unstable place. The US launched a war against Iraq to rid the world of an evil menace, and BYU caused pool managers worldwide to fret over their brackets when it was revealed that they would refuse to play on Sunday. Yet through it all, the EQE tournament provided participants with a sense of stability and familiarity as Brandy stepped up to the plate and reclaimed the award that bears her name. Dave Getty claimed both the 1st and 4th place prizes in the pool by cleverly choosing Syracuse to win it all.
2002: Unbowed (or perhaps motivated by) by fear of worldwide terrorism, a wavering economy, and new business cards that have resulted in the replacement of the commonly asked question “What does EQE stand for?” with “What does ABS stand for, and why did you drop EQE?”, 207 entries formed the 2002 tournament pool. Winner Jorge Silva was so dominant that the outcome of the championship game had no bearing on his victory. Confused by the lack of feedback on the redesign of the pool website, Nathan Detroit spends endless hours writing up countless procedures and work instructions to improve the future quality of the pool.
2000: The first tournament of the new millennium and the first tournament conducted under the watchful eye of wary new company owner, ABS. Ships across the world are left adrift, however, as new owners abandon their normal duties and embrace illegal activities with frightening fervor.
1999: The ultimate technological development is achieved with web-based entries. The pool of winners is expanded to the top five entries, which ends up being evenly split when all 283 participants pick Duke to defeat U Conn in the finals. New Hampshire resident Jim White demonstrates all around adeptness regarding illegal office wagering activities when he complements his football managing talent with the NCAA basketball title. Unfortunately, Jim plows all profits into EQE stock.
1998: The tournament goes global as league establishes Internet web page where up-to-the-minute results are posted. Of 145 participants, Kent gets only one request to receive results via e-mail. Mystery contestant, “Random'” literally makes choices with eyes covered and wins coveted Brandy Award but doesn’t come within a whisker of Brandy’s 50 incorrect picks.
1997: Tournament continues to grow with 110 participants. Omar Khemici, with only 25 of 63 correct picks, wins despite not picking NCAA tournament winner.
1996: Participation grows to 92. Strange names begin to appear among participants as some people attempt to hide their identity. Pizza and Beer, Inga, Mr. Windy and Ron Polivka are among the more unusual ones. Brandy establishes her legacy by picking only 14 of 63 games correctly, resulting in an impossibly low score of 30 points. The Brandy Award is christened.
1995: Kent David discovers automated scoring program which automates scoring process and initiates hostile takeover of Commissioner’s duties. Nina Bonds pulls off remarkable feat by simultaneously attaining both the highest and the lowest scores.
1994: Participation almost doubles as more people discover how to use e-mail. Outsider, but valued client, Larry Goen, takes title with a record total of 202 points out of a possible 247. Rumblings are heard when tournament prizes go outside of company confines.
1993: With the advent of e-mail and in-house networks, interest spreads to the San Francisco office. 26 people participate and SF employee, Jean-Paul Conoscente takes title.
1992: Impell employees abandon office and join EQE, the main impetus being consolidation of the NCAA March Madness Tournament.
1989 through 1991: Mike develops high tech computer program to automate scoring process. Interest wanes, however, with participation by only 12 to 18 players in the Southern California area. EQE sees its first association with the tournament with four entries.
1988: Begun by Commissioner Emeritus, Mike Salmon, the competition consists of a mere 21 Impell participants, only two of whom will become EQE employees. Scoring was crude but accurate. The rules set in place are the same as those that exist today. Future EQE star, Steve Short, demonstrates his prowess at college basketball by correctly picking Duke to take the NCAA title in their 80 to 75 defeat of Oklahoma.