Darwin crushes Jesus! Kuhn destroys Popper! Pluto Wins, Pluto Wins!!! (CHAIR bracket results are in)

Holy cow. What a day. Holy cow. We've been trying to track all the action, but probably missed some of the highlights. We caught that late three, way way behind the arc, from Pluto to secure their win over IAU, but still can't believe it. Totally stunned, totally stunned. The raucous crowds at the Darwin v Jesus game was as we expected, and intense. And the others, well, hopefully some of the other viewers will file some comments below on the games we didn't get to track too closely.

Popper: 65
Kuhn: 87
Oh Popper, dear Popper, a lot of people thought they didn't even deserve to be in this thing, and they were right. Kuhn trounced them. I will say this, Popper definitely represented, and they brought out the fans. The house was rockin', and clearly Kuhn was frustrated at the line - just 7 for 16 in free throws - but besides that, their preparation, their awareness of the field, of the entire context of the game, it just helped them roll. True, we shouldn't forget there were a lot of game-changers there in the second half. Everyone still seemed to agree, for the most part, that it was close at half-time. But as the second half got going, you could see the old consensus kind of breaking up about this one.

Reductionism: 57
Determinism: 75
Determinism easily beat Reductionism in the late game yesterday. They knew it all the time. Oddsmakers had them scoring 75. They scored 75. Reductionism's game was too simple, that's the whole of it. Determinism stuck with their game plan from beginning to end, and never let up. They knew where they wanted to be, and dammit if they didn't head straight there, no matter what got in their way.

Theory: 82
Experiment: 81
Theory won, in one of the more closely contested games of the afternoon. It was a narrow match and definitely one of the better played games. Both teams were there to play hard, and both teams seemed to feed off ach other. By halftime, it wasn't clear that the two could really be separated. But, at the end, Theory held its ground and edged out Experiment with some late defense. In the post-game conference, I heard experiment saying that they respected Theory a lot, had a good game out there but really though that if they were given one more chance, they'd come out on top, that they could put theory in its place. Theory pretty much agreed, expect saying the reverse.

IAU: 76
Pluto: 80
DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES? Do you believe!!!! Pluto, wiping the tears from my cheeks, dear Pluto. They pulled it off. They did it, they did it, Pluto did it. Unbelievable. Truly, a true shocker. From the post-game interviews: "Nobody believed in us, nobody important at least. But we just kept playing, we just kept at it, and we really had nothing left tot lose, you know? It's just, it's so rewarding to be standing here, having overcome the IAU. This is our biggest victory ever. Really. Ever. But we don't want to rest on our laurels. Coach says we have a lot of practice tomorrow, and we look forward to the next game. Peace out..."

Public: 73
Corporate: 100
Well, we shouldn't be surprised. Public was simply out-matched. With Corporate's facilities, and their team of trainers, and their full range of sponsors, what else did we expect? It's sad, but this is the game, folks. This is the 21st century tournament. Corporate's gonna trounce public time and time again. I only see them getting stronger too in the coming years. Look for good stuff out of their guards in the second round, but don't get down on Public. They gave it their all. They had the moral high ground, and they were in this game for the betterment of society. But that's no match anymore if you're in there with the Fightin' CEOs. When you're playing on a tax payer gym, and your team

Logic: ...
Logic: ...
This one's still going on. Not just overtime, or second overtime, but I think - hold on, let me check CBS Sportsline - yep, yeah, they're in I think their 29th overtime. We'll be looking in periodically, but unless Jesus stomps on over from his court, I don't see anyway out of this one. They definitely need a miracle, something supernatural here. I can't even get my head around it.

Darwin: 102
Jesus: 59
DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES? Do you believe!!!!
Umm, no. No miracles here. Darwin simply pummeled Jesus. At the Scienceblogs venue, Jesus didn't stand much of a chance. It really was an unfortunate seeding for Jesus, and a difficult placement in the regions, having to come all the way out to play the heavily favored Darwin at their own arena. But what about this part -- if any of you saw the post-game interviews, didn't you think it was funny/strange, or a little discomforting, that Darwin actually thanked Jesus for giving him the strength to win that game? Weird. Really weird.

Ancient Greece: 76
Royal Society: 80
This game was, on the whole, pretty dull. Royal Society started late, but ended strong. Easily overpowered Ancient Greece in the end. No upset here. If others were at the game, maybe they can pitch in here. I sort of fell asleep by the end.

So there you have it. Next round match-ups are as follows:

Kuhn vs Determinism
Theory vs Pluto
Corporate vs Logic or Logic, depending...
Darwin vs The Royal Society

Giddy up.