The ZAU Events Department is now officially announcing March Madness! Beginning at the end of this month, ZAU will undergo a bracket competition between its members and visitors to determine a grand champion controller that will be awarded a worthy prize at its conclusion. Are you ready to hear it works?
ZAU March Madness Bracket Competition
Who Can Participate?
As long as you are a ZAU member or visiting controller by February 16th, 2015 you are eligible to participate in the event.
If I join or submit a visiting controller application ZAU on February 17th, why can't I participate in this competition if the competition isn't until March?
We intend to have an early cutoff ZAU registration for the event due to the fact that if a new controller starting as an OBS joins late in the month, they may not have the ability to be promoted to an S1 prior to the beginning of the competition. By using February 14th as the ending eligibility date, it allows for those OBS controllers to get training and be promoted. Unfortunately, if a C1 controller joins on February 17th they are still going to be ineligible for the competition in order to be fair to all potential members even though the C1 controller will be able to control on ZAU positions.
What is the purpose of this competition?
The purpose of this competition is to increase controller activity at ZAU in order to encourage more pilots to fly in/out/through our airspace. And, it's fun!
What positions are eligible for the competition?
Any position within the ZAU airspace, DEL thru CTR is eligible for the competition. If you spend the entire month on MKE_DEL, it still counts.
How do I win?
There are two ways to win and you can actually be eligible to win both ways! The first way to win is to defeat your competition and be the ZAU March Madness Champion! The second way to win is to submit a completed bracket indicating your predictions and having the highest scoring bracket at the end of the competition whether it predicts you winning the competition or not. If you get the most points for your completed bracket and you are the grand champion controller at the end of the competition, you win both prizes!
How are seeds determined?
In an NCAA March Madness bracket, all the teams are placed based on their ranking. Since we cannot rank controllers prior to the event, rankings will be based on VATSIM CID. We will equate experience with ranking. Therefore, a controller with an 8XXXXX CID will be ranked higher than a controller with a 12XXXXX CID number.
We don't have 64 controllers, how will some rounds be determined?
Because we don't have 64 participants, the remaining slots will be filled with a BYE. If we have 40 participants, seeds 41-64 will be considered BYE weeks allowing the participants competing against a BYE to automatically move into the next round.
How can I submit my own bracket?
On February 16th, after the cut-off for the event, a blank bracket will be completed by the Events Coordinator and made available to the public. All you have to do is download a blank bracket and fill in your predictions. Once you have filled in your bracket, you will email it to the events coordinator and your bracket will be made public for all to see. That's it. Your bracket will be scored and updated as the competition progresses.
How will the brackets be scored?
Due to the number of controllers that will be participating, there will be 6 rounds of competition. Each win will be awarded a certain number of points depending on the round. The scoring is shown below:
Round 1: 64 Controllers competing - Each win in this round will be worth 1 point. (32 points possible)
Round 2: 32 Controllers competing - Each win in this round will be worth 2 points. (32 points possible)
Round 3: 16 Controllers competing - Each win in this round will be worth 4 points. (32 points possible)
Round 4: 8 Controllers competing - Each win in this round will be worth 6 points. (24 points possible)
Round 5: 4 Controllers competing - Each win in this round will be worth 8 points. (16 points possible)
Round 6: 2 Controllers competing - Each win in this round will be worth 14 points (14 points possible)
Total Points Possible: 150
For the final round, all bracket competitors will be asked to provide the total hours controlled by the final two controllers IN THAT ROUND ONLY. For example if you think Controller A will beat Controller B by a score of 20hours to 15hours in the final round, you will enter 35 as your guess. This will be used to break any tie that may occur at the end of the competition. Of the tied leaders, the competitor with the closest guess to the actual score will be declared the winner. It does not matter who is the finals but if there is any kind of a tie at the end of the last round, this tie braker will come into effect.
How will hourly ties be handled each round?
If two controllers who are competing against each other happen to tie in the hours controlled for that round, the following steps will determine the winner:
1). Which of the two controllers has the most hours total in the competition to date?
2). If still tied, which of the two controllers has the oldest VATSIM CID?
How long is each round?
Each round still start on Friday evening and run through Tuesday evening.
The competition dates are as follows:
Round 1: February 27 2359z thru March 3 at 2359z - February 27 at 6:00pm Central thru March 3 at 5:59pm Central
Round 2: March 6 2359z thru March 10 at 2259z - March 6 at 6:00pm Central thru March 10 at 5:59pm Central
Round 3: March 13 2359z thru March 17 at 2359z - March 13 at 7:00pm Central thru March 17 at 6:59pm Central
Round 4: March 20 2359z thru March 24 at 2359z - March 20 at 7:00pm Central thru March 24 at 6:59pm Central
Round 5: March 27 2359z thru March 31 at 2359z - March 27 at 7:00pm Central thru March 31 at 6:59pm Central
Round 6: April 3 at 2359z thru April 7 at 2359z - April 3 at 7:00pm Central thru April 7 at 6:59pm Central
What are the prizes?
Of course, the reason to compete other than for the bragging rights! The winner of the competition will recieve a download code for the FlightBeam KDEN scenery, a prize value of approximately $30-$50. If you have the highest scoring bracket, you will win the opportunity to create the idea for a ZAU event to be held this year.
If you have any questions, please email atm@zauartcc.org
