N Candy AA II: The Final Four

November 18, 2010

Confused? Hungry? Searching for answers? Look no further. Bracket is here, voting is now.

10 Nerds vs. 11 Smarties/SweeTarts. I don't get it -- Nerds, while inoffensive, don't seem like championship-candy material to me, and their presence here is (and I apologize) likely the result of a flaw in the construction of the brackets. SweeTarts' defenders, meanwhile, have noted that they're bigger and better than Smarties and shouldn't have to share a slot with them, but 1) it doesn't seem to have harmed either candy's chances, unfortunately, and 2) it still doesn't explain how the entry beat Dum Dum pops or saltwater taffy.

No, I don't get it. But in a strange way, I like it. The other side of the draw showcases a predictable outcome: two high-ranked, mass-appeal candies, the kind of semifinalists we've come to expect in the brackets. This side is, like, what the hell are they still doing here, and when you've done these brackets for a while, you like to see the occasional Seabiscuit performance from an 11 seed.

Not this one, though. It's gross. Voting Nerds; not sure whether it wins; positive the victor here gets shellacked in the final.

2 Starburst vs. 3 Reese's Pieces. I think I'm having a sugar crash. I was really hyped up in the beginning and middle of this bracket, but now I barely have the energy to type "meh." I'm simply not excited by this match-up. It's too predictable in the mass appeal of both contenders. On the other hand, it shows we knew what we were doing when we ranked them. (For once. Ahem.)

At some point I called Starburst for the win. (Okay, so it was only AFTER I realized my Peeps were living on borrowed time and wouldn't make it to the finals.) I'm not backing down from that prediction, especially since the only thing I can think to say about Reese's Pieces at this point is that I often call them "Reese's Peese's" and it's not always intentional.