Noodle Arm Disc Golf’s March Mold Mania: Selection Sunday

Last March, Noodle Arm Disc Golf was a fledgling disc golf blog with a couple reviews, some Facebook followers, and a dream’ a dream to entertain the masses with a disc golf celebration to correlate with the NCAA March Madness tournament.

And thus, March Mold Mania was born.

This March, Noodle Arm Disc Golf is still a fledgling disc golf blog, with a few more reviews and a couple thousand loyal Facebook followers.

And as the NCAA tournament drew near, this year’s dream evolved from one where readers could be entertained to one where readers could participate.

And so, without further ado, I present to you the 2016 Noodle Arm Disc Golf March Mold Mania and Bracket Challenge powered by Infinite Discs.

While last year found a series of brackets created and voted upon by readers, I’ve taken it one step further this year.

In true March Madness fashion, Noodle Arm Disc Golf readers will now be able to fill out a bracket before the tournament, follow results on a leaderboard, and assuredly talk all kinds of smack to fellow opponents in the comments section like all good Americans are supposed to.

It all kicks off today, Selection Sunday, with the bracket reveal and contest instructions.

Like last year, I’ve divided the molds into four “regions” based on their use: Warp Speed Drivers, Control/Fairway Drivers, Midranges, and Putters.

We’ve got seedings, and we’ve got matchups. Here’s the lowdown on how to take part in the Bracket Challenge.

Step 1: Fill out your bracket at BracketMaker.com

It took a lot of trial and error and numerous accounts at free bracket-making websites, but I finally found one that will let readers fill out an entire bracket before the event at BracketMaker.com. Just click the link below, hit the “Predict it!” button, sign up for a free account (I’ve gotten zero spam so far, thankfully), and make your picks:

Fill out your bracket here: Noodle Arm Disc Golf’s March Mold Mania 2016

Once you’re in, choose a winner for each match-up in the first round, then press the “Enter” button on the bottom of the screen. You’ll then do the same for each subsequent round through the finals.

Pro tip: Make sure to enter picks for the entire tournament! If you don’t have a full bracket, you won’t qualify for our most-excellent prizes.

And remember, you’re picking here which discs you think will win, not the ones you want to win. Get into the readers’ heads a little with this one.

Bookmark the page at BracketMaker.com so you can come back and follow the leaderboard throughout the tournament.

Step 2: Vote every round at NoodleArmDiscGolf.com

Just like last year, the winners of each round will be determined by Noodle Arm Disc Golf readers voting in polls on the website. So please, come to the site, vote for your favorite molds, talk some smack and make some upsets happen!

Once polling has closed for a round, I’ll enter the results at BracketMaker.com and voila! You’ll be able to see your scores on the leaderboard. Pretty fantastic, right? It’s like your typical March Madness pool, without all the tank tops.

Step 3: Win prizes

The fine folks at Infinite Discs have stepped up to offer excellent prizes to our top three bracket finishers:

1st place: Top 4 molds in Champion or equivalent premium plastic, Noodle Arm dri-fit, Infinite Discs tee and towel

2nd place: Top 2 molds in Champion or equivalent premium plastic, Noodle Arm dri-fit, Infinite Discs tee and towel

3rd place: Top mold in Champion or equivalent premium plastic, Noodle Arm dri-fit, Infinite Discs tee and towel

Not too shabby, eh? A huge thanks to Infinite for powering the prizes for the Bracket Challenge!

Behind the Bracketology

Some of you might be wondering, aside from the obvious seeds, how every mold was assigned a ranking.

You weren’t? Well, I’ll tell you anyway.

Last year I ranked all of the discs myself, judging based on my experience in disc golf, discussion on various forums, and common sense. Not everyone agreed with my rankings, but it was a spur of the moment idea and I went with it.

This year, I wanted to make it a little more scientific.

So, I reached out to a few of the internet’s top disc golf retailers – the aforementioned Infinite Discs, as well as Disc Golf Center and Marshall Street Disc Golf – who were kind enough to supply me with their sales data from the last six months to a year.

I then sorted the sales by disc type and crunched some numbers on my abacus. The aggregated results from the three retailers became the seedings, so what you’re seeing, for the most part, is the will of people’s wallets driving this competition.

I did fill in the blanks with some of the deeper seeds on my own, though, to ensure a few more manufacturers were represented. The first 13 to 14 seeds per each region, though, are based on aggregated and averaged sales numbers.

One more note: I restricted each manufacturer to five molds per region, so as not to make the drivers an Innovafest or the mids a Discraft destruction. Hopefully this will make for some good Cinderella stories, as well as some representation from a wider cross section of fans.

The Fine Print

Like any good contest, there has to be a couple rules. Lame.

Bracket entries must be completed by 9 a.m. PDT on Thursday, March 17, 2016 to be eligible for prizes. One bracket per email address, please. Any ties at the end of the tournament will be decided by a random draw on RandomResult.com.

Find your ‘One shining moment’

This is truly one of my favorite events – both in disc golf and basketball – each year, so please join in on the fun. Fill out your bracket, come back Thursday to vote for the Round 1 matchups, and enjoy!