SCIENCE SPRING SHOWDOWN: Octopus Region -- 1st Round Recap

1st ROUND RESULTS | PRESS CENTER | PRINTABLE BRACKETS

The results are in from the first round in the Octopus Region of the Science Spring Showdown hosted at the World's Fair. By seed, there were three upsets, but the nine seed Internal Medicine knocking off eight seed Surgery was hardly a surprise (although the 107-76 score was a wider margin than many of the experts predicted). The win by 14 seeded Unipotent over the three seed, Totipotent, on the other hand, was quite a shocker, with many people attributing the victory to the definitive coaching style of the Unipotent's lead general, Determinate Cleavage. Psychology also managed to squeak by Neuroscience, pulling off the 10 versus 7 seed upset. The other five games went according the chalk.

The Invertebrates showed why the deserved the number one seed, holding the Vertebrates to 59 points and leading the Vertebrate head coach to question his teams backbone. The showdown between Genomics and Proteomics was held up thanks to equipment overload. But that didn't matter to Genomics, who made sure not to fall into the classic 5/12 trap, holding off Proteomics by four points. Genomics will meet up with four seed Photosynthesis in the next round; the carbon fixers took advantage of the sunlight and more than doubled up Respiration.

In the lower half of the bracket, Phylogenetics and Taxonomy squared off in a defensive battle. Phylogenetics got the upper hand, 63-61, thanks to strong play by Max Likelihood. They will take on upstart Unipotent in the next round. The two seed, HIV, played with the same virulence that led them to both the regular season and tournament championships in the Infectious Disease conference, knocking off the perennial micro-major powerhouse Plasmodium from the Eukaryotic Pathogens conference.

Round number two will be carried on the evolgen family of networks presented by Applied Biosystems. Previews of the second round match-ups will be posted over the weekend.

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