Good morning friends & family and welcome to the tournament that will once and for all decide which confectionary treat will reign over them all…it’s time for Candy Madness!
After a delayed start, action got underway Tuesday evening with the blue bloods of American chocolate. The Chocolate West Region is stacked with Mars originals and frequent tournament visitors, Twix, M&Ms, Milky Way and Snickers. And ladies & gentlemen…they did not disappoint. After limping into the tournament, 16-seed Almond Joy held an early lead against Left Twix 2-0. Certainly nothing Right Twix couldn’t overcome. After subbing in for the lackluster Left Twix, Right Twix absolutely dominated the coconut underdog ripping off 9 straight for the remainder of the game. In a controversial ending, Right Twix confidently walked up to Almond Joy and could be seen mouthing…sometimes you feel like a nut, but just not tonight loser…and sent Almond Joy packing with a 9-2 victory.
Next up was the fan favorite M&Ms squad that boasted one of the more diverse starting 5 with Peanut, Almond, Peanut Butter, Mint and Milk Chocolate taking the court. Rattled by injuries early in the year, M&Ms had to fight to get into the tournament and found themselves as a 9-seed against the often forgotten Mr. Goodbar. Like their Mars Conference counterparts, M&Ms would not have much trouble against the representative from the Hershey Conference up-ending the nutty chocolate 9-2.
Following the pair of 9-2 victories for the conference, Mars sent yet another fan favorite to the tourney in a sticky match-up between 5-seed Milky Way and the often difficult but delicious 12-seed Milk Duds. Had this been a trip to the movies, Milk Duds may have faired better. In the end, nougat would be the difference and Milky Way pulled away late with a 7-4 victory. It was a Dud indeed for what many thought would be a much closer match. And finally, the one they call the complete package looked to satisfy the country as Snickers put their record 18-championship banners on display against a vastly under-manned Mounds squad. Folks, this one was over before it even began as Mounds had no answer for the perfect combination of peanut, carmel, nougat and chocolate. Snickers had no trouble in this match-up, dismissing Mounds from the tourney with the evenings only shutout 11-0.
In the bottom half of the Chocolate West, we had a series of incredibly close match-ups with hard to pronounce but fun to say Whatchamacalits putting down Baby Ruth 6-5. Fan favorite 100 Grand just narrowly took down the lowest seeded Mars Conference representative, 3 Musketeers in another 6-5 win as well. In a back-and-forth grudge match, often overlooked Payday used its peanut covered carmelly goodness to smother the crispity, crunch out of Butterfinger in yet another 6-5 win. Finally, Reese’s Pieces was able to use its dull color scheme to outwit an under-seeded Crunch Bar and marched to a 7-4 victory. Phew! And that was only half the night’s action…
Across the bracket we were treated with Seasonal favorites that included some blowouts and the evenings only overtime match. First up was top-seeded Cadbury against the Christmas standby Candy Canes. Cadbury has made many recent moves to overtake the Christmas stocking from the Canes. In a desperate move, Candy Canes benched the red & white stripes of Peppermint early and went with the Rainbow Fruit Cane that just couldn’t handle the chocolate from across the pond. Cadbury easily took care of business in a 10-1 victory after the Canes coaching mistake. Later, Valentines Hearts used its sweet sayings to lull the Candy Pumpkins from the Halloween Conference into submission and swiftly moved to the next round with an 8-3 win. And in the first major upset of the tournament, 5-seed Kinder Bueno couldn’t hold their lead as underdog 12-seeded Robins Eggs came from behind to eek out a 6-5 victory.
Next up was the cool mint freshness of York Peppermint Patty against the childhood favorite Pez. Now, let’s be honest here gang. Pez is basically the fortune cookie of the candy world. Nobody actually likes Pez. They just like what it comes with. Well Peppermint Patty certainly had a fortune for Pez…Your End is Near. The mint patties put down Pez as expected 9-2. One of this year’s tournament fan favorites, Peanut Butter M&M Eggs saw themselves up against an old standby of yesteryear, the Candy Cigarettes. Now, you were never as cool as an 8-year old if you didn’t have one of these bubblegum sugar sticks hanging out of your mouth acting like Joe Cool. Despite criticism from surgeon generals and the general public, Candy Cigarettes continues to find its way into this annual event. But this time, they wouldn’t have it so easy. PB M&M Eggs posed just the right combination of candy coating, chocolate and peanut butter to overwhelm the 19th century confection in a 8-3 win.
In our first overtime game of the tournament, Fun Dip and its candy stick coach came out fast and furious against young upstart Carmel Apple Pops. With second remaining in regulation and tied at 5, Carmel Apple Pop used its last bit of stick to stop the tongue-dying sweetness of Fun Dip dead in its tracks. It would take extra time to determine who would advance. Coach Candy Stick had one last trick up his sleeve and rolled out the Fun Dip multi-pack and Carmel Apple Pops had no answer. Fun Dip slips past the sweet sucker 6-5. In remaining action, Chocolate Bark put up the performance of a lifetime and sent Candy Corn packing 9-2. And in the Easter match-up, Jelly Beans was just too strong for little Chocolate Bunny who just didn’t add enough flavor to the game to be relevant. Jelly Beans move on with a 7-4 victory to conclude the night.
I hope you all enjoyed the action of the first half of the Round of 64. Tonight we have the very strong Non-Chocolate and the Chocolate East Regions kicking off shortly after 7pm ET.
For those of you keeping score at home, I have included a MASTER BRACKET showing all the winners and scores. I will update this throughout the tournament and send after each evening’s match-ups You can measure this up against your brackets and add them up to see who is in the lead in your Candy Madness Circle. At the bottom of the brackets that I sent to you, there is a suggested scoring system. Round 1 correct picks get 2 points each. If you want to play against me, I got 12 picks correct for a total of 24 points. 😉
Hope you are all doing well and enjoy the tournament!
~ The Commish