March Radness: Let's Try This Again

You know you're gonna fill out a bracket. May as well do it for a chance to win some free cards!

Yahoo decided to be incredibly lame and is requiring all entrants to valid a phone number so it can spam everyone with text ads, so I've gone ahead and made an executive decision to switch platforms to ESPN this year for the first time. ESPN uses a slightly different scoring system than Yahoo's default scoring, which is what I've used in the past. Both systems are weighted towards gaining more points for higher stakes (later rounds) games, so I don't think the overall experience will be all that different.

Prizes are going to be slightly different this year in order to make things a bit easier on myself! Read the rules below.

Please note that this contest is open to all Cards on Cards readers. Unfortunately, I only have access to about half of the email addresses of last year's participants, so if you received a Yahoo invite the other day you may not have received an invite to the new ESPN group. Don't fret - follow the instructions down below to enter:

One of the requirements is having an ESPN account. ESPN should not ask you for any creepy information as part of the conditions for signing up. If they do, please tell me immediately and I'll consider other options. If you absolutely, positively refuse to sign up for one of those things, go ahead and send me your bracket before the deadline in some sort of legible form and I'll send you a prize if you manage to pick a lot of winners. 

ESPN's default scoring rules apply. Play-in games do not count because they are still incredibly stupid. Should you choose one of the play-in winners to advance in the real part of the tournament, not only do you do so at your own peril but you also have the advantage of showing success no matter which play-in team makes it in. Please, please, PLEASE make sure you fill out the entire bracket, including the tie-breaking final score of the final game. (There are actually 9 total tiebreakers in ESPN's official rules.) I hate to disqualify people for not filling everything out, but it always seems to happen. 

What's the incentive here? Other than bragging rights, the first prize winner will receive a 2014 Topps Heritage baseball blaster (OR another unopened product of equal value because not everyone likes Heritage.) Five runners-up (runner-ups?) will receive any card from my Trade Bait list (which will be refreshed/updated before the tournament is over) plus a special secret bonus card from their team of choosing. Worst place will receive something truly terrible. I'm not joking this year. It will be bad.

If you participated last year, you should have already received an email at the address attached to your Yahoo account. Ignore this. We are not using Yahoo this year. Some of you may have also received invitations to the ESPN group, which you should definitely sign up for. Anyone who hasn't received an ESPN invite should click here and click on the "Get Started" button (password = marchradness). The deadline is the morning prior to the first real (non play-in) tournament game on Thursday, March 20th, though I would suggest getting your bracket done by the night before just to be safe. Leave a comment here or send me an email if the invite link doesn't work or if you are otherwise having trouble joining up so I can send you a direct invitation.