Thank you to everyone who participated in the planning week for the first-ever Manchester Ink Link Pizza Tournament. With your guidance and information we’ve narrowed down and locked in a field of pizza restaurants in Manchester, pizza restaurants that deliver to Manchester and stores in Manchester that sell pizza along with other things.
Here’s how it will all work (for basketball fans, think March Madness, only for pizza):
Feb. 16-22 “Seeding Week”
Nobody is eliminated in this round; instead voters (that’s you) will choose rankings. Each pizza place can get up to 100 anonymous votes. Voters willing to share their names and a positive comment about the pizza place of their choice are not applied to that cap. If there is a tie, the tiebreaker will be the whichever pizza place has the lowest cost of a large cheese pizza on the last day of the round unless circumstances make investigating prices impossible, in which case, the cost will be ascertained as soon as possible. If both contestants have the same cost for a large cheese pizza at the time of a tiebreaker check, both contestants will advance to the next round and both engage with the opponent the winner was intended to face.
Voters can cast ballots here.
Feb. 23-29: Round of 64
The 64 entrants will be split into four regions of 16, with the rankings from “seeding week” determining where each restaurant will be placed in the regions.
Starting this week, each restaurant will go head-to-head with a winner and a loser. The rules are the same as in seeding week: up to 100 anonymous votes, an unlimited number of non-anonymous votes, cheese pizza cost tie-breaker.
The ballots will become available on Feb. 23.
Mar. 1 – Mar. 7: Round of 32
Mar. 8 – Mar. 14: Sweet 16
Mar. 15 – Mar. 21: Elite 8
Mar. 22 – Mar. 28: Final Four
Mar. 29 – Apr. 4: Finals
Each following week, the same rules as the Round of 64 will apply, with entrants eliminated each week until there’s only one winner. Ballots will become available on the first day of each round.