Legion March Madness: Who will win the Tournament?

You know the rules!

After 14 months of voting on "conference" winners and then 3 weeks of voting tournament style, here we are at the finale. Who's going to win: Brainiac 5 or Saturn Girl?

Click the Twitter poll to vote - note that the way Twitter embeds its polls now, it will open up a new tab for you to actually cast your vote. You'll have two days to vote, the poll will close on Sunday night and the winner will be the 65th Anniversary Tournament Champion.

Poll 67: Ventura:

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. This is Poll #67, the finale! Who’s going to be the Champion, Brainiac 5 or Saturn Girl?https://t.co/a85Id1x651

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 31, 2023

Who's your winner pick?

Legion March Madness: Semi-finals

You know the rules!

We're now in the semi-finals, which two are going to the final Championship round?

Click the Twitter poll to vote - note that the way Twitter embeds its polls now, it will open up a new tab for you to actually cast your vote. You'll have two days to vote, the poll will close on Friday night and the winner will move on.

Poll 65: Ventura:

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament Final Four! Voting is open for 48 hours. This is Poll #65, also look for #66 for the other matchup. Who’s going to the Championship?https://t.co/f3AwwbLQoX

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 29, 2023

Poll 66: Ventura:

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament Final Four! Voting is open for 48 hours. This is Poll #66, also look for #65 for the other matchup. Who’s going to the Championship?https://t.co/f3AwwbLQoX

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 29, 2023

Legion March Madness: Who's in the Final Four?

After 2 weeks of voting, here's your Final Four! Matches starting Wednesday March 29 and ending Friday March 31: 

• #1 Timber Wolf vs #2 Brainiac 5
• To get here, Timber Wolf beat #17 King Jonn of Pasnic, #8 Zymyr, #5 Kono, and #10 XS
• To get here, Brainiac 5 beat #15 Superboy (Jon Kent), #7 Eltro Gand, #3 Ultra Boy, and #1 Princess Projectra
• #1 Element Lad vs #2 Saturn Girl
• To get here, Element Lad beat #16 Sodam Yat, #9 Invisible Kid II, #5 Blok, and #10 Cosmic Boy
• To get here, Saturn Girl beat #15 Wildstar, #10 Matter-Eater Lad, #6 Dawnstar, and #1 Chameleon Boy

The winners will then match up starting Friday, with the voting to be concluded on Sunday April 2. (Yes, the real basketball tournament games are on Saturday and Monday, but I'm moving that up a day so that we can talk about the results on the podcast which records on Sunday night.)

• Who's your winner pick? My prediction is Saturn Girl defeating Timber Wolf for the Championship.

Now, for some behind the scenes stuff that you can skip if you don't feel like reading about how the voting was conducted.

---

As I've mentioned, I co-host the Legion of Substitute Podcasters show (website, podcast home) which comes out every Monday morning. In late 2021, I came up with the idea of doing a poll for every year of the Legion's existence, but it was a few weeks until it occurred to me that the actual anniversary date fell really close to the March Madness tournament, and the 65 years would lead to 65 rounds of polling which was pretty darn close to the 68 entrants the NCAA tournament holds. So that was my goal, and each week I presented a new poll to the members of the LoSP Facebook group, and they are the ones who voted. I took those numbers and put them into a spreadsheet for seeding into the brackets. Ultimately, my plan was to put the bracket out on Twitter for anyone to vote.

I've been asked how I did the seeding. It took a few weeks to tweak it how I wanted, but it included elements that allowed me to simulate (sort of) how the NCAA college basketball tournament works. Some conferences get to automatically send their winner to the tournament, and there are a number of at-large slots reserved for stronger teams that didn't win their conference as well as for winners of smaller conferences. For this tournament, each year of voting ("the class of 1962") was like a conference tourney with an automatic bid for the winner, and I reserved some spots at the end for wild cards. I came up with a formula to rank everyone based on these four elements:

1. How many votes did that person (or place or thing) get in their round?
2. How many total votes were cast in that round?
3. A flat bonus for winning the round, as I wanted the winner to stand out over non-winners, but not so much of a bonus that all winners were above all non-winners.
4. How does the number of votes in that round compare to the votes in all of the other rounds? I used this as a "strength of schedule" analog.

My formula for calculating everyone's score: Points = (votes cast for that person + total votes in the round + bonus) * square root of (strength of schedule). Yes, I understand that I'm double-counting the number of votes cast for the person, but I felt that you should be rewarded for both separately. 

Here's how 1958 came out, for example:

Saturn Girl got 19 of 54 votes, thus making her the winner, so the first part of the formula comes up with (19 + 54 + 150). The 54 votes cast for the 1958 class was the 6th best, so it came out to a rank of 58/64, pretty good. This was enough to give Saturn Girl the overall #7, which meant a #2 seed in her bracket.

For another example, here's 2022:

The Golden Age Legionnaire got nearly the same number of individual votes as Saturn Girl, but there were far fewer votes cast for the class of 2022 overall, meaning their strength of schedule was lower, giving the winner a lower point total and a lower ranking.

Here's the lowest ranking out of all 68 entrants:

Their winner rank of 362 is by far the lowest (next is the Promethean Giants from 2013 at #276) of the 68 teams, so they ended up with a #17 seed. But as a weekly winner, they get an automatic berth; my #16s and #17 got to play in the First Four, for the right to lose to the #1 seed in that bracket.

I ended up with 59 weekly winners for the 65 years that the Legion has been around (I had to merge some years due to too few new characters). That left me with 9 open slots, which I used for:

• 2 slots for 22 members of the L.E.G.I.O.N. or R.E.B.E.L.S. books who I neglected to add
• That's how the Omega Men and Wildstar got in
• 3 slots for the 104 "Oops, I forgot to include them", including those who were part of Mon-El's JLA or Starman's JSA; members of the various versions of the JLA, JSA, and Titans that the Legion teamed up with over the years; and anyone I just forgot to include earlier
• That's how Anti-Lad, Mary Marvel, and Flash (Wally West) got in
• 4 slots for the 22 wildcard second chances, anyone who got 10 or more votes in an earlier round but did not win their round
• That's how Dream Girl, Ambush Bug, Cosmic Boy, and Matter-Eater Lad got in despite not winning their initial round

The good news is that if I ever decide to do this again, I've got the templates all worked out already! But not next year, since I would have had to have started back in January to get all those weekly votes using some other criteria. Maybe an "oops, all villains" tournament? Or maybe take the top 3 vote-getters instead of just the top 1. Hmmm...

Legion March Madness: Final Four, part 2

You know the rules! Here's part 4 of week 2, it's the Elite 8 down to the Final Four (Sunday games). Today we do the bottom half of the Final Four bracket, who will represent the Aleph and Planet Gotham regionals?

Click the Twitter poll to vote - note that the way Twitter embeds its polls now, it will open up a new tab for you to actually cast your vote. You'll have two days to vote, the poll will close on Sunday night and the winner will move on.

Poll 63: Aleph bracket (grapefruit)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. It’s the Elite 8! This is Poll #63, also look for #64 for the other Sunday matchup. Who’s going to the Final Four?https://t.co/3goBjSHaaK

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 25, 2023

Poll 64: Planet Gotham bracket (blue)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. It’s the Elite 8! This is Poll #64, also look for #63 for the other Sunday matchup. Who’s going to the Final Four?https://t.co/3goBjSHaaK

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 25, 2023

Legion March Madness: Final Four, part 1

You know the rules! Here's part 3 of week 2, it's the Elite 8 down to the Final Four (Saturday games). We're working on the top half of the bracket today.

Click the Twitter poll to vote - note that the way Twitter embeds its polls now, it will open up a new tab for you to actually cast your vote. You'll have two days to vote, the poll will close on Saturday night and the winner will move on.

Poll 61: New Earth bracket (yellow)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. It’s the Elite 8! This is Poll #61, also look for #62 for the other Saturday matchup. Who’s going to the Final Four?https://t.co/2JCoaMQEid

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 24, 2023

Poll 62: Amazon Galaxy bracket (green)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. It’s the Elite 8! This is Poll #62, also look for #61 for the other Saturday matchup. Who’s going to the Final Four?https://t.co/2JCoaMRc7L

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 24, 2023

Legion March Madness: Elite 8, part 2

You know the rules! Here's part 2 of week 2, it's the Sweet 16 down to the Elite 8 (Friday games).

Click the Twitter poll to vote - note that the way Twitter embeds its polls now, it will open up a new tab for you to actually cast your vote. You'll have two days to vote, the poll will close on Friday night and the winner will move on. Today we start the bottom half of the bracket, the Aleph regional and the Planet Gotham regional.

Poll 57: Aleph bracket (grapefruit)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. We’re at the #Sweet16 now! This is Poll #57, also look for #58-60 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/sjhifyjORV

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 23, 2023

Poll 58: Aleph bracket (grapefruit)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. We’re at the #Sweet16 now! This is Poll #58, also look for #57-60 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/sjhifyjORV

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 23, 2023

Poll 59: Planet Gotham bracket (blue)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. We’re at the #Sweet16 now! This is Poll #59, also look for #57-60 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/sjhifyjORV

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 23, 2023

Poll 60: Planet Gotham bracket (blue)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. We’re at the #Sweet16 now! This is Poll #60, also look for #57-60 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/sjhifyjORV

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 23, 2023

Legion March Madness: Elite 8, part 1

You know the rules! Here's part 1 of week 2, it's the Sweet 16 down to the Elite 8 (Thursday games).

Click the Twitter poll to vote - note that the way Twitter embeds its polls now, it will open up a new tab for you to actually cast your vote. You'll have two days to vote, the poll will close on Thursday night and the winner will move on.

First round of the Sweet 16 features the New Earth (yellow) and Amazon Galaxy (green) brackets on the top half.

Poll 53: New Earth bracket (yellow)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. We’re at the #Sweet16 now! This is Poll #53, also look for #54-56 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/8scz7zBYWK

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 21, 2023

Poll 54: New Earth bracket (yellow)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. We’re at the #Sweet16 now! This is Poll #54, also look for #53-56 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/8scz7zBYWK

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 21, 2023

Poll 55: Amazon Galaxy bracket (green)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. We’re at the #Sweet16 now! This is Poll #55, also look for #53-56 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/8scz7zBYWK

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 21, 2023

Poll 56: Amazon Galaxy bracket (green)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. We’re at the #Sweet16 now! This is Poll #56, also look for #53-56 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/8scz7zBYWK

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 21, 2023

Legion March Madness: Who's in the Sweet 16?

After 6 days of voting, here's where we stand in the Sweet 16 (click to embiggen and read clearly):

We ended up in a tie in the Aleph round between #3 Ultra Boy and #6 Wildfire, so we're going to a 24-hour runoff vote as the tie-breaker. The winner of the tie-breaker gets one point added to the final score of 30-30.

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for only 24 hours. This is Poll #47.1, a runoff between #3 Ultra Boy and #6 Wildfire to advance to the #Sweet16, as the original ended in a tie.https://t.co/pC7JI23oSb

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 20, 2023

In a squeaker, # Ultra Boy wins the "overtime" and goes on to play #2 Brainiac 5 in the Sweet 16 later this week (it's a 2-point win because of one extra vote via Facebook).

Tournament highlights so far:

• Biggest upsets (based on a high rank vs low rank): #10 XS over #2 Mordru, and #10 Cosmic Boy over #2 Computo, both in the 2nd round
• Biggest blowout: Brainiac 5 by 58-0 over Eltro Gand in the 2nd round
• Biggest non-surprises: all four #1 seeds are in the Sweet 16
• Cinderella story: I'm going to go with #10 XS, who beat #7 Shikari and #2 Mordru to get to the Sweet 16. For the other #10 still in it, #10 Cosmic Boy got in as a wildcard 2nd chance (he came in 3rd in the 1958 round behind Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad, but he had enough votes to make it into the wildcard round), and I don't think it was too big a stretch for a founder to beat out #7 Lyrissa Mallor or even #2 Computo.

My predictions for the Sweet 16:

• New Earth bracket: #1 Timber Wolf over #5 Kono, #10 XS over #3 Tyroc, and #1 Timber Wolf over XS to get to the Final Four
• Aleph bracket: #1 Princess Projectra over #5 Gates, #2 Brainiac 5 over #3 Ultra Boy/#6 Wildfire, #2 Brainy over Jeckie to get to the Final Four
• Amazon Galaxy bracket: #1 Element Lad over #5 Blok, #10 Cosmic Boy over #3 Gigi Cusimano, #1 Element Lad over Cos to get to the Final Four
• Planet Gotham bracket: #1 Chameleon Boy over #4 Kid Quantum II, #2 Saturn Girl over #6 Dawnstar, #2 Saturn Girl over Cham to get to the Final Four

Final Four:

• #1 Timber Wolf over #1 Element Lad
• #2 Saturn Girl over #2 Brainiac 5

Final:

• #2 Timber Wolf over #2 Saturn Girl

Legion March Madness: Sweet 16 part 2

You know the rules! Here's the fourth day's worth of games, all 8 of them ending on Sunday to get to the Sweet 16.

Click the Twitter poll to vote - note that the way Twitter embeds its polls now, it will open up a new tab for you to actually cast your vote. You'll have two days to vote, the poll will close on Sunday night and the winner will move on.

Poll 45: New Earth bracket, Cargg (cyan)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. It’s the 2nd half of the #Sweet16! This is Poll #45, also look for #46-52 for the rest of the Sunday matchups.https://t.co/x5OjoHjtFd

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 17, 2023

Poll 46: New Earth bracket, Lallor (rose)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. It’s the 2nd half of the #Sweet16! This is Poll #46, also look for #45-52 for the rest of the Sunday matchups.https://t.co/x5OjoHjtFd

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 17, 2023

Poll 47: Aleph bracket, Starhaven (gray)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. It’s the 2nd half of the #Sweet16! This is Poll #47, also look for #45-52 for the rest of the Sunday matchups.https://t.co/x5OjoHjtFd

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 17, 2023

Poll 48: Amazon Galaxy bracket, Cargg (cyan)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. It’s the 2nd half of the #Sweet16! This is Poll #48, also look for #45-52 for the rest of the Sunday matchups.https://t.co/x5OjoHjtFd

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 17, 2023

Poll 49: Amazon Galaxy bracket, Braal (purple)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. It’s the 2nd half of the #Sweet16! This is Poll #49, also look for #45-52 for the rest of the Sunday matchups.https://t.co/x5OjoHjtFd

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 17, 2023

Poll 50: Amazon Galaxy bracket, Braal (purple)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. It’s the 2nd half of the #Sweet16! This is Poll #50, also look for #45-52 for the rest of the Sunday matchups.https://t.co/x5OjoHjtFd

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 17, 2023

Poll 51: Planet Gotham bracket, Starhaven (gray)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. It’s the 2nd half of the #Sweet16! This is Poll #51, also look for #45-52 for the rest of the Sunday matchups.https://t.co/x5OjoHjtFd

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 17, 2023

Poll 52: Planet Gotham bracket, Lallor (rose)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. It’s the 2nd half of the #Sweet16! This is Poll #52, also look for #45-52 for the rest of the Sunday matchups.https://t.co/x5OjoHjtFd

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 17, 2023

Legion March Madness: Sweet 16, part 1

You know the rules! Here's the third day's worth of games, all 8 of them to be played on Saturday to get to the Sweet 16. 

Only two upsets in the first round so far (where "upset" = "higher seed lost"): 

• #9 Ambush Bug over #8 Spider-Boy
• #11 Dr Gym'll over #6 BION

Click the Twitter poll to vote - note that the way Twitter embeds its polls now, it will open up a new tab for you to actually cast your vote. You'll have two days to vote, the poll will close on Saturday night and the winner will move on.

Poll 37: New Earth bracket, Weber’s World (light yellow)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Who makes the #Sweet16? This is Poll #37, also look for #38-44 for the rest of the Saturday matchups.https://t.co/LGDU5N2C6p

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 16, 2023

Poll 38: New Earth bracket, Bismoll (light green)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Who makes the #Sweet16? This is Poll #38, also look for #38-44 for the rest of the Saturday matchups.https://t.co/LGDU5N2C6p

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 16, 2023

Poll 39: Aleph bracket, Kathoon (pink)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Who makes the #Sweet16? This is Poll #39, also look for #37-44 for the rest of the Saturday matchups.https://t.co/LGDU5N2C6p

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 16, 2023

Poll 40: Aleph bracket, Weber’s World (light yellow)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Who makes the #Sweet16? This is Poll #40, also look for #37-44 for the rest of the Saturday matchups.https://t.co/LGDU5N2C6p

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 16, 2023

Poll 41: Aleph bracket, Winath (orange)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Who makes the #Sweet16? This is Poll #41, also look for #37-44 for the rest of the Saturday matchups.https://t.co/LGDU5N2C6p

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 16, 2023

Poll 42: Amazon Galaxy bracket, Winath (orange)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Who makes the #Sweet16? This is Poll #42, also look for #37-44 for the rest of the Saturday matchups.https://t.co/LGDU5N2C6p

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 16, 2023

Poll 43: Planet Gotham bracket, Kathoon (pink)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Who makes the #Sweet16? This is Poll #43, also look for #37-44 for the rest of the Saturday matchups.https://t.co/LGDU5N2C6p

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 16, 2023

Poll 44: Planet Gotham bracket, Bismoll (light green)

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Who makes the #Sweet16? This is Poll #44, also look for #37-44 for the rest of the Saturday matchups.https://t.co/LGDU5N2C6p

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 16, 2023

Legion March Madness: Round of 64, part 2

You know the rules! Here's the massive second day's worth of games, all 16 of them to be played on Friday.

Click the Twitter poll to vote - note that the way Twitter embeds its polls now, it will open up a new tab for you to actually cast your vote. You'll have two days to vote, the poll will close on Friday night and the winner will move on.

From the First Four on Wednesday, we had Sodam Yat advancing over Dreamer (Nia Nal) (Poll 3), and the Promethean Giants over Mwindaji (Poll 4). Both now have to face the #1 seed in their bracket.

Poll 21: New Earth bracket, Cargg (cyan), #6 vs #11

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #21, also look for #21-36 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/7nbg4jDycM

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 15, 2023

Poll 22: New Earth bracket, Cargg (cyan), #3 vs #14

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #22, also look for #21-36 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/7nbg4jDycM

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 15, 2023

Poll 23: New Earth bracket, Lallor (rose), #7 vs #10

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #23, also look for #21-36 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/7nbg4jDycM

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 15, 2023

Poll 24: New Earth bracket, Lallor (rose), #2 vs #15

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #24, also look for #21-36 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/7nbg4jDycM

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 15, 2023

Poll 25: Aleph bracket, Starhaven (gray), #6 vs #11

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #25, also look for #21-36 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/7nbg4jDycM

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 15, 2023

Poll 26: Aleph bracket, Starhaven (gray), #3 vs #14

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #26, also look for #21-36 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/7nbg4jDycM

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 15, 2023

Poll 27: Amazon Galaxy bracket, Cargg (cyan), #1 vs #16

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #27, also look for #21-36 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/7nbg4jDycM

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 15, 2023

Poll 28: Amazon Galaxy bracket, Cargg (cyan), #8 vs #9

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #28, also look for #21-36 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/7nbg4jDycM

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 15, 2023

Poll 29: Amazon Galaxy bracket, Braal (purple), #5 vs #12

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #29, also look for #21-36 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/7nbg4jDycM

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 15, 2023

Poll 30: Amazon Galaxy bracket, Braal (purple), #4 vs #13

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #30, also look for #21-36 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/7nbg4jDycM

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 15, 2023

Poll 31: Amazon Galaxy bracket, Braal (purple), #7 vs #10

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #31, also look for #21-36 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/7nbg4jDycM

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 15, 2023

Poll 32: Amazon Galaxy bracket, Braal (purple), #2 vs #15

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #32, also look for #21-36 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/7nbg4jDycM

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 15, 2023

Poll 33: Planet Gotham bracket, Starhaven (gray), #1 vs #16

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #33, also look for #21-36 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/7nbg4jDycM

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 15, 2023

Poll 34: Planet Gotham bracket, Starhaven (gray), #8 vs #9

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #34, also look for #21-36 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/7nbg4jDycM

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 15, 2023

Poll 35: Planet Gotham bracket, Lallor (rose), #7 vs #10

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #35, also look for #21-36 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/7nbg4jDycM

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 15, 2023

Poll 36: Planet Gotham bracket, Lallor (rose), #2 vs #15

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #36, also look for #21-36 for the rest of the Friday matchups.https://t.co/7nbg4jDycM

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 15, 2023

Legion March Madness: Round of 64, part 1

You know the rules! Here's the massive first day's worth of games, all 16 of them to be completed on Thursday. Below is the bracket as of the Thursday games of Round 1.

Click the Twitter poll to vote - note that the way Twitter embeds its polls now, it will open up a new tab for you to actually cast your vote. You'll have two days to vote, the poll will close on Thursday night and the winner will move on. If you can't vote on Twitter, leave your votes here in a comment.

From the First Four on Tuesday, we had King Jonn of Pasnic advancing over Robin (Damian Wayne) (Poll 1), and Beast Boy over the Terrorforms (Poll 2). Both now have to face the #1 seed in that bracket.

Poll 5: New Earth bracket, Weber’s World (light yellow), #1 vs Poll 1

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #5, also look for #6-20 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/GIG4cP1cD2
Timber Wolf is the overall #1 seed, King Jonn is a #16 seed.

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 14, 2023

Poll 6: New Earth bracket, Weber’s World (light yellow), #8 vs #9

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #6, also look for #5-20 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/GIG4cP1cD2
Zymyr is a #8 seed, Supergirl Sex Robot is a #9 seed.

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 14, 2023

Poll 7: New Earth bracket, Bismoll (light green), #5 vs #12

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #7, also look for #5-20 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/GIG4cP1cD2

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 14, 2023

Poll 8: New Earth bracket, Bismoll (light green), #4 vs #13

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #8, also look for #5-20 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/GIG4cP1cD2

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 14, 2023

Poll 9: Aleph bracket, Kathoon (pink), #1 vs Poll 2

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #9, also look for #5-20 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/GIG4cP1cD2

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 14, 2023

Poll 10: Aleph bracket, Kathoon (pink), #8 vs #9

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #10, also look for #5-20 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/GIG4cP1cD2

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 14, 2023

Poll 11: Aleph bracket, Weber’s World (light yellow), #5 vs #12

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #11, also look for #5-20 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/GIG4cP1cD2

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 14, 2023

Poll 12: Aleph bracket, Weber’s World (light yellow), #4 vs #13

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #12, also look for #5-20 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/GIG4cP1cD2

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 14, 2023

Poll 13: Aleph bracket, Winath (orange), #7 vs #10

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #13, also look for #5-20 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/GIG4cP1cD2

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 14, 2023

Poll 14: Aleph bracket, Winath (orange), #2 vs #15

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #14, also look for #5-20 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/GIG4cP1cD2

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 14, 2023

Poll 15: Amazon Galaxy bracket, Winath (orange), #6 vs #11

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #15, also look for #5-20 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/GIG4cP1cD2

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 14, 2023

Poll 16: Amazon Galaxy bracket, Winath (orange), #3 vs #14

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #16, also look for #5-20 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/GIG4cP1cD2

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 14, 2023

Poll 17: Planet Gotham bracket, Bismoll (light green), #5 vs #12

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #17, also look for #5-20 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/GIG4cP1cD2

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 14, 2023

Poll 18: Planet Gotham bracket, Bismoll (light green), #4 vs #13

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #18, also look for #5-20 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/GIG4cP1cD2

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 14, 2023

Poll 19: Planet Gotham bracket, Kathoon (pink), #6 vs #11

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #19, also look for #5-20 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/GIG4cP1cD2

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 14, 2023

Poll 20: Planet Gotham bracket, Kathoon (pink), #3 vs #14

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #20, also look for #5-20 for the rest of the Thursday matchups.https://t.co/GIG4cP1cD2

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 14, 2023

Legion March Madness: First Four part 2

See yesterday's post for the entire bracket and explanation rules.

It's part 2 of the First Four, played on Antares II. Wednesday's games are in the Amazon Galaxy (green) and Planet Gotham (blue) brackets. Click the Twitter poll to vote - note that the way Twitter embeds its polls now, it will open up a new tab for you to actually cast your vote. You'll have two days to vote, the poll will close on Wednesday night and the winner will move on.

Tomorrow starts the voting for the first round with 16 matchups that end Thursday.

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #3, also look for Poll #4 for the other matchup; Polls 1 & 2 open until 6pm CDT on 3/14.https://t.co/XZoHHlc4gO

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 13, 2023

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #4, also look for Poll #3 for the other matchup; Polls 1 & 2 open until 6pm CDT on 3/14.https://t.co/XZoHHlc4gO

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 13, 2023

Legion March Madness: Selection Sunday + First Four part 1

Welcome to Legion March Madness! In celebration of the 65th anniversary of the Legion, for the last year I've been polling members of the Legion of Substitute Podcasters Facebook group to pick a "winner" for each year of the Legion's existence. Some years had no or too few new characters, so I doubled up some years which left me with some wild-cards at the end. I ended up with 68 entries to correspond with the 68 slots in the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Now it's up to you to vote for an overall winner, March Madness style. 

Below is the bracket with each of the winners, seeded according to a formula I made up that considers the number of votes received, the number of voters, and a "strength of schedule" based on the total number of votes that week. Each bracket will have two days of voting, culminating with the winner being decided on the night of that day's "game". The winners will move on, single elimination, until we get a Sweet 16, Final Four, and a Champion.

You'll notice some small numbers on the far left and far right, the inside numbers 1-68 are the overall seed for the entire tourney while the outside numbers 1-17 are the seed for that bracket.

Now the First Four, played on Antares II, are the play-in games, to make the #16 seed in each bracket. Tuesday's games are in the New Earth (yellow) and Aleph (grapefruit) brackets. Click the Twitter poll to vote - note that the way Twitter embeds its polls now, it will open up a new tab for you to actually cast your vote. You'll have two days to vote, the poll will close on Tuesday night and the winner will move on.

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #1, also look for Poll #2 for the other matchup. https://t.co/UNXYhPcvZu

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 12, 2023

It's the 65th Anniversary #MarchMadness Legion Tournament! Voting is open for 48 hours. Visit here for more! This is Poll #2, also look for Poll #1 for the other matchup. https://t.co/UNXYhPcvZu

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 12, 2023

Who do you think will be in the Final Four and who will win the tournament? Who's your Cinderella pick this year? What upsets do you predict?

65th Anniversary March Madness tournament, Legion style!

In honor of the Legion's 65th anniversary, welcome to 31st Century March Madness!

 

From January 2022 until March 2023, once a week I had put out a poll on the Legion of Substitute Podcasters Facebook group (also web, Twitter, Apple podcasts) asking the readers and listeners to vote for a person, place, or thing to represent the "Class" of a particular year. In general, I picked the significant (and sometimes insignificant) ones from the year they were first associated with the Legion, and I tried to capture all characters who appeared at least twice - or, in the case of ones like Fortress Lad and Arm-Fall-Off Boy, made a significant enough impact on the readers. The "Class of 1960", for example, consists of Chameleon Boy, Colossal Boy, Invisible Kid I, and Supergirl, while the "Class of 1998" consists of Driana Allon, Khund Chief Armorer Amilia Crugg, the Justice Legion L, the Legion of Executive Familiars, Dr. Ryk'rr, and Cary Wren. (For some of the later ones, like 1998, I had to post pictures and explanations of who they were, because even I couldn't remember!)

My idea was to then pit each of the "winners" against each other, March Madness style, so I came up with a seeding system based on the number of votes the character got, the total number of votes for that Class as a whole, and a sort of "strength of schedule" ranking based on the total votes that class got. Each week's vote was the equivalent of a conference tournament, and the champion gets an automatic slot in the big bracket tournament. It ended up that there were 59 slots for the 65 years of Legion history (I mashed together 1969-70, 1971-72, 2003-2005, 2013-14, and 2015-16 because there were so few new characters introduced in some of those years; and I included the first couple months of 2023 in with the 2022 class), leaving 9 openings to fill 68 slots. I decided to give 4 "wild card" slots to the highest-ranking non-winners, 3 slots to the list of characters I forgot to include along the way, and 2 slots to the list of L.E.G.I.O.N. and R.E.B.E.L.S. team members who I had forgotten to include. 

Then I placed each of them into a bracket based on the 2022 March Madness schedule, including which "games" are Thurs/Sat and which were Fri/Sun. Each round is associated with a Legion-related planet. 

For each entrant, there are a couple of numbers next to their names, the one on the inside being their overall seed 1-68 and the outer one being the seed for that bracket 1-17.

So each Tuesday through Friday of the tournament, I'm going to post a page here with all the "games" coming up in 2 days (so there are 2 voting days for each game), and then on Sunday I'll recap who's going to the Sweet Sixteen and Final Four. I'm putting all of the voting on Twitter, and then I'll consolidate the games here in one location.

• Selection Sunday: Sunday, March 12
• This is when I will post the complete bracket

• First Four: Tue/Wed March 14-15
• These are the four games on Aleph (gold), one for each bracket

• First round: Thu/Fri March 16-17
• Second round: Sat/Sun March 18-19
• Thurs/Sat: Weber's World (light yellow), Bismoll (light green), Kathoon (pink), Winath (orange)
• Fri/Sun: Cargg (light blue), Lallor (rose), Starhaven (gray), Braal (purple)

• Sweet 16: Thu/Fri March 23-24
• Elite Eight: Sat/Sun March 25-26
• Thurs/Sat: New Earth (yellow), Amazon Galaxy (green)
• Fri/Sun: Aleph (grapefruit), Planet Gotham (blue)

• Final Four: Sat April 1
• Legion's 65th Anniversary tournament championship game: Mon April 3 
• Ventura (dark green)

I hope it works out!

(Note: not associated with CBS or the NCAA, logo used for parody purposes only)

Testing

This is a test. Do not be alarmed. If it was real, you would have been notified.

Testing to see if something works, I hope it'll be cool if it does. Poll 1 of 3.

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 7, 2023

Testing to see if something works, I hope it'll be cool if it does. Poll 2 of 3.

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 7, 2023

Testing to see if something works, I hope it'll be cool if it does. Poll 3 of 3.

— Legion Omnicom (@LegionOmnicom) March 7, 2023

This was only a test.

RIP: Lee Moder

We recently lost one of the great artists of the Five Years Later run, Jason Pearson. This week we heard of the loss of one of the first great artists of the Reboot run: Lee Moder.

Moder only drew four covers for the Legion: 62, 64, 65, and 66. That's because for the majority of his run, the covers were by Alan Davis and Mark Farmer. He drew 36 issues of the Legion - 62-66, 68-69, 71-88, 90-92, 94-100, and 109 - over the course of four years (cover date 11/94 to 10/98).

As penciller on their first issues, Moder shares co-creator credits on Tangleweb, Inferno, Kinetix, Gates, and Lori Morning.

Best as I can tell, Moder's first work was the interior art for L.E.G.I.O.N. '92 #38 in April 1992. He did some work on Wonder Woman and Justice League International in 1993 and 1994 before becoming the regular penciller on the Legion book immediately following the Reboot. In 1999 he co-created Stargirl in Stars & STRIPE with Geoff Johns, and did the first 14 issues of that series. He did some work for Dynamite, DC, and Boom in the early 2000s, but was mostly out of comics by 2010. His last new work for DC was a Superman/Stargirl cover in 2015.

Here are his Legion covers:

RIP: Jason Pearson

I'm late in posting this: former Legion artist Jason Pearson passed away in December 2022, though his family withheld the information until January. 

Perhaps best known for his work on the Dark Horse series "Body Bags", Pearson started his art career on the Legion.

Via CBR:

Pearson's first regular assignment in comic books was working on Legion of Super-Heroes in the final year of Keith Giffen's epic run on the series, along with scripters Tom and Mary Bierbaum, and inker Al Gordon. The fascinating thing about this early work, though, is that Giffen famously used a nine-panel grid on Legion of Super-Heroes, and so in retrospect it is amazing seeing an artist like Pearson, whose work seemed built for splash pages, working in a nine-panel grid in each issue. He made it work, though, but I imagine that Pearson's splash page abilities played at least a small role in Giffen's final issue of his run (which features the destruction of Earth) being depicted in illustrated text pages...

The run finished in late-1992, which was a heady time for the comic book industry, especially for young hot talent like Pearson, only 22 years old at the time. There was DC, of course, but there was also Marvel calling...

In his blog, "It's OK, I'm a Senator", Tom Bierbaum mentioned Pearson a number of times:

• Catspaw was actually created by Jason Pearson during a Legion summit, and the visual was so nice there was no reason not to use her, though, admittedly, we never had a lot in mind to do with her. ... At one point he and we were trying to work out a "Legionnaires" fill-in that would have given more of her background, but  we didn't start thinking about that possibility until our time there was almost up.  Basically, Catspaw was just a woman on Earth when the Dominators were secretly nabbing people and experimenting on them.  
• Someone asked "Did you change the storyline mid-stream in regards to Bounty?  Her character seemed to change quite drastically from Giffen to Pearson." Tom replied: In fact, when Jason Pearson was pencilling the book, Keith was still plotting, so changes in the character were probably largely coincidental when pencillers changed.  As with Kent and Celeste, Al Gordon is your best source for info on Bounty, since he was the one supplying most of the ideas (he was, in fact, the creator of Kent and Celeste). But I don't recall that there was any really changes in the plans for Bounty. Probably what we ended up revealing in the Pearson-pencilled issues was different than what many readers were anticipating. And I don't think we ever took time to really explore the ideas and implications of the Bounty entity.  I remember Mary and I kicking around ideas for a story that explored the Bounty entity and showed it possessing people besides Dawnstar, but we never got the chance to pursue it.
• LSH 21: Starting with our back pages in #21, Jason Pearson began his stint penciling the Legion based on Keith’s layouts.  I don’t recall for sure, but I’m guessing these back pages during the “Quiet Darkness” were Jason’s tryout and he came through impressively.  While it was an adjustment to switch from Keith’s very distinctive style to Jason’s, I think the switch was worthwhile.  While Jason probably didn’t capture quite the grittiness and mundane detail that really set the tone for Keith’s Legion, Jason’s cleaner style probably made the storytelling clearer.  And most importantly, the arrangement kept the book a lot closer to a regular schedule, with much less interruption for fill-in issues.  That allowed us to tell the upcoming “Terra Mosaic” storyline in a much more consistent, uninterrupted manner than had been the case for our earlier arcs (which I guess were formally titled “Five Years Later” and “The Legion of Super-Heroes”).
• LSH 29: [Sade is] a character Jason Pearson created, but I don’t quite remember how exactly her ability was supposed to work. She could essentially disappear and blink back in somewhere else.
• LSH 32: I should mention that I really like the Jason Pearson cover of this issue. It shows a group of five Legionnaires being blinded by a flash of light (the explosion of the chambers), with the shadow of the five characters filling most of the cover. Most effectively, the shadow of Devlin O’Ryan’s hand is cast across his face. Really a nice imaginative piece by Jason.
• LSH 35: This is the issue where young SW6 Sun Boy confronts what’s left of the original Sun Boy, whose powers are burning him alive.  It’s an impactful scene that’s depicted on this issue’s cover, probably one of Jason Pearson’s best.
• LSH 38: The Sandman character Death makes a cameo when the destruction comes, as the planet is lost in a blinding flash.  Jason Pearson does powerful work in this issue and the two-page spread that shows the actual destruction really has a lot of impact.

Pearson only drew a dozen issues of the Legion book (22-24, 26-30, 32, 34, 36, 38), plus 11 covers (26-30, 32-36, and the 2995 Sourcebook) and some of the Skybox trading cards featuring Legionnaires. Here are his covers: