And now there are 16.
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The ComicBook.com Bracket Battle is set to begin its Super 16 round on Thursday and the sprint to the finish will be one for the ages as just 22 entrants (of nearly 600) scored over 50 points — of the 64 possible — in the first two rounds.
You can click here to see an updated bracket of results.
There is a massive group of entrants just outside of that 50-point threshold, and many within striking distance to the top with plenty of points still to be awarded.
Demogorge, jonnyboy, and Comics4aCure all sit atop the list with 56 points.
CaptainAmerikeval and TheMadTitan66 are just behind with 55; SMPunk, HuffyD45, Missykodi as well as Jake Koskella each have 54, and Poolioj along with JJlifts both have 53.
Lord Mangus and Batman3385 both sit at 52 with JongLee, Tunchniak, ComicBookClub, and Colm Donston at 51.
The largest group is at 50 points with Theasueus92, DrTinyCat, Dayton, Tom Sawyer, and LordofThunder coming together inside the Top 25.
Behind that group is a pack of 29 entrants that all have 49 points, another 17 with 48 points, and a similarly sized jumble of 19 which all have 47.
Of the brackets submitted only 21 have all four selections still alive in the Final Four, of which 10 of the Top 25 entrants are among that group, giving those users an odds-on edge.
Two of the three leaders tied at 56-points, jonnyboy and Comic4aCure, have all four potential finalists still alive. Both have Goku and Thor on one side of the bracket with one having Deadpool and Black Panther advancing to the Final Four, as the other has The Hulk and Superman.
The winner will receive a prize pack valued at nearly $500, including an Infinity Gauntlet, Boba Fett travel suit case, a trio of Black Panther POP! figures, a $75 Fandango gift card, as well as a ComicBook hoodie and t-shirt.
Here is a complete breakdown of the bracketing results:
The top right quadrant of the initial field had three upsets in the first round with Mewtwo eliminating Naruto, Mario knocking off Harley Quinn, and Kylo Ren downing the Red Ranger.
From there the biggest bracket buster came in the second round when Captain Americaedged Batman by the narrowest of margins on our Instagram polling. Cap kept the bracket from being all chalk into the Super 16 and eliminated the most common selection of a champion in the field.
Curiously, the No. 4-seed, Optimus Prime advancing to this round was one of the least selected characters in the brackets submitted, but cruised to victories over Buffy the Vampire Slayer and then Mewtwo.
The pairing of Optimus Prime and Captain America was the least predicted going into the second weekend of the tournament.
In the bottom half of the left side in the tournament, the only double-digit seeds to advance were No. 14 Leonardo of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and No. 10 Thor, which bettered Negan and Luffy, respectively.
Both were runaway winners in the first round with Leonardo falling to Cable in the second round while Thor sent his hammer down on The Joker to set up an unexpected competition to make it to the Round of 8.
The top half went a lot more predictably with top-seed Spider-Man blowing out Grifter as well as Green Arrow to advance. He will take on Harry Potter, which eliminated Buzz Lightyear and Maggie from The Walking Dead with ease.
Maggie represented well in her match against Belle, the lone Disney Princess in the field, in what many thought was going to be a 12-5 upset.
The third quadrant of the bracket proved to be among the most predictable as 14 entrants picked the entire first round correctly, including Godzilla knocking out Princess Leia, Charizard bettering Izuku, and The Hulk eliminating Gohan.
Another 42 entrants had the current group of four advancing to this point.
Iron Man was the easy selection in the first round with only a handful of fans giving Xena the nod and in a closer battle than expected, Tony Stark moved on over The Flash.
Deadpool has a lot of public recognition right now and drubbed Hellboy and also eliminated Godzilla to advance.
Luke Skywalker also has an easy go of it with Sonic in the first round and then Charizard in the second.
Where the most stumbles in this bracket came was with Rick Grimes.
The leading man in The Walking Dead had more than his fair share of detractors even in the first round versus Firefly star Captain Reynolds, and then was unable to hold off one of Marvel’s largest luminaries, The Hulk.
When all combined, this bracket was the one that produced the most points of the four in the tournament.
The final quadrant has the least chalk left on the board, but it is also not altogether surprising as it had some of the most culturally timely entrants as well as all-time legends.
Black Panther is crushing the box office and did the same to Green Lantern in the first round. The second round was not much different at the Wakandan eliminated Darth Vader from the tournament.
He will be set to take on Wonder Woman in the next round as she held off Spawn and then downed one of the most popular anime characters in the world, Vegeta.
The bottom half of the bracket, from an entry standpoint, was all over the map. Aquaman was not a high seed, and nearly didn’t make the field, but bettered Han Solo in the first round in a surprising pick as more people had Han Solo advancing to the Final Four than any other Star Wars character. Aquaman then downed He-Man in an oddball 11 versus 14 pairing after He-Man somewhat predictably beat Michonne from The Walking Dead.
The most predictable advancement in the bracket was Superman getting to this point over Kratos and Yoda. It should be noted that two user, flyguybs and S33TH, did select Kratos to win the entire tournament.
Pairings will again be loaded onto the ComicBook Instagram account in time for the college basketball games this weekend and the pairings will stay consistent with the weekend slate of games.
