Good morning Candy Bracketeers and welcome to Day 2 of the Round of 64. Holy Overtime Batman! If you thought we had some close games on Tuesday evening, strap in because Wednesday was a nail biter. Get your sweet tooth ready…cause here comes Candy Madness!
While the Mars Conference dominated early action on Tuesday, it would be the Wrigley and Ferrera Conferences that would have their time in the spotlight to kick us off on Wednesday. Wrigley was a top heavy conference this year sending our #1 overall tournament seed Starburst and the top 2-seed Skittles into the Non-Chocolate Region. Many were in attendance to watch the top-seeded Starburst, including the ‘Two Bigs’ from the Wrigley Conference, Hall of Famers Big Red and Big League Chew. But tonight, the star of the show was clearly Pink who would not be intimidated by the spicy 16-seed Hot Tamales. Pink put up an astonishing 7 on her own, leading the Starburst squad to a 10-1 victory. At the bottom of the Non-Chocolate Region, another tournament favorite from the Wrigley Conference showed up in full Rainbow gear as #2 Skittles just manhandled the underwhelming 15-seed Jolly Rancher squad. Green Apple got into early foul trouble and had to sit out most of the second half (as they should). Skittles moves on with a 9-2 win. Taste that rainbow Jolly Ranchers.
The sweet action continued with an old standby Tootsie Rolls taking on one of the top squads from our neighbors to the north, Sour Patch Kids. Hailing from beautiful Ontario, Canada, Sour Patch looked to show the world that delicious sweet and sour candy doesn’t necessarily have to be made in the good ole U.S of A. Despite Tootsie Rolls trying everything from trusty chocolate to vanilla to the feisty fruit flavors, Sour Patch was just too overpowering and sent Tootsie Rolls packing with a 9-2 victory. Shortly after, it would be a pair of candies from the Ferrera Conference going head-to-head, Nerds v. Sweet Tarts. Now had it been the small box Nerds that always seem to fall on the floor and get lost, Sweet Tarts may have had a leg up. Not this year though. Tonight the often overlooked Nerds team came strong with Big Chewy Nerds that had scouts from around the league giddy with excitement. Sweet Tarts attempted to sub in with their own chewy experience, but it was a day late and a dollar short. Nerds rolls on with a 7-4 win.
One of this year’s tournament darlings, Gummy Bears from Haribo County, brought their cute little squishiness to the floor against Halloween favorite Pixie Sticks. Those little bears were anything but cute tonight. Little Red pounded Pixie Sticks into submission quarter after quarter, leaving Pixie in a pile of sweet dust by the end of the game. The G-Bears move on with a convincing 9-2 victory. The Ferrera Conference continued its dominance in the next few games. Laffy Taffy stretched into OT against a solid performance from Life Savers and eeked out a 6-5 win, while Lemonheads were just simply too powerful and cracked the uncrackable Gobstoppers 8-3. In the region’s final game, the Hershey Conference would send their last non-chocolate hope in Twizzlers to battle Smarties. Down early, Twizzlers would rely on their patented pull and peel defense to shut down the chalky offense of Smartie nation. Twizzlers moves on with a decisive 8-3 win.
So how’s your bracket doing so far? Good? Well here comes the Chocolate East Region to screw all that up.
First up…we take a break with top-seeded Kit Kat who faced a Turtles squad that although delicious, was just too slow for the chocolate wafer bar. Even White Chocolate Kit Kat saw some action late in the Hershey Conference favorite’s victory taking down the Turtles 7-4. Just down the bracket it was the malted milk ball talents of Whoppers on display against the Crunch Bar rip-off Krackle squad. Now honestly, I could’ve passed on this one entirely. If it wasn’t for Goodbar, Krackle would easily be the last candy left in the Hershey variety bag. But Krackle got lucky and drew a match-up against Whoppers that deserved to be in this tournament even less. Krackle easily moves on in an 8-3 victory and will face a powerful Kit Kat squad on Friday night.
Unlike Krackle, the Ghiradelli Chocolate Squares would not be so lucky in their draw into this year’s tournament. They were put up against the ever-dangerous Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup squad. It really wasn’t even a contest folks. Ghiradelli had no answer for the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter. Reese’s easily moves forward with a 9-2 win. Following their decisive victory, a controversial entry into this year’s tournament was back it Wednesday night. Butterfinger, who lost a Tuesday night match to the Carmel Nuts of Payday, now faced the Fine Hazelnut sweetness of Ferrero Roche. How does this happen, you ask??? Well, hours before the selection committee finished their seeding, the group got word that several members of the Aero Bar squad had violated team rules. Without enough players to field a team, the committee was forced to eliminate Aero Bar and re-slot one of the teams from the Chocolate West Region into the East. The committee was promised that Aero would straighten up, and we should expect to see them back in next year’s tournament as a favorite from across the pond. So Butterfinger had their chance for redemption, and redeem themselves they did. Learning from their mistakes, they relied more on crunch than crisp to dismantle the Hazelnuts and move on with a 7-4 victory over Ferrero Roche.
The bottom half of the bracket is where all heck breaks loose. Three of the four games resulted in overtime wins. In a surprising match, Take 5 couldn’t hold it together late, and allowed Heath to rise up and overcome the smooth, crunchy combination that Take 5 is well known for. Heath takes the first OT match 6-5. Another surprise saw little Rolo rise to the occasion and put down Andes Mints with yet another 6-5 OT win. And in one of the most surprising games yet, Hershey Bars, the namesake of their conference, barely squeaked past the fine smooth flavors of Lindor Truffles in the evening’s final OT game. Hershey moves on with a 6-5 win, but looks beaten down after what should’ve been a rout. The only game ending in regulation was Dove vs. Toblerone. A match-up of two chocolate heavyweights that honestly could’ve gone either way. Unfortunately for Toblerone, their plane arrived late from Switzerland and jet lag was likely the nail in their coffin as Dove Chocolates absolutely pummeled the gift from the Swiss into submission. Dove looks strong in the Chocolate East region with a 9-2 victory to end the night.
As with every daily write-up, I have attached the Master Bracket for you to use to grade your picks. I hope you faired better than I did as I only got 9 of 16 right on Wednesday night. Half the field is now eliminated, and we take a night off to regroup before the Round of 32. Action continues on Friday and Saturday night. Be well and stay cavity free!
~ The Commish