It’s here! It’s back! It’s better than ever! The 3rd Annual @deanshaw Twitter Madness Tournament!

As you all remember, last year’s tournament was a ginormous success filled with upsets, drama, controversy, and fun – and we’re here to do it all over again. And I certainly don’t need to remind you about the thrilling final that pitted @jimsterne vs. @jowyang. The epic battle was summarized here and after 64 participants, 6 rounds, 4 angry emails, endless analysis @jimsterne joined @spikejones as the only winners of the coveted @deanshaw Twitter Madness Tournament.

But it’s a new year, with an even stronger field, filled with eager rookies, savvy veterans, and that @andybeal guy who’ll probably never win but shows up anyway.

Here’s how it works:

I combed through the people I follow to come up with 64 Tournament Invitees.  Here are the loose qualifications:

1. No one that I work with can be invited to avoid any hint of impropriety and hurt feelings
2. Invitee has to tweet frequently enough to make their participation worthwhile
3. No invitee could be represented twice (i.e. through personal & company account)
4. Invitee has had shown some history of informing me, amusing me, or pissing me off so much I cant stop following them

Based on those guidelines I was able to whittle down the 423 people I follow to a field of 64.

Next, to establish seedings, I did the only fair (and easy) thing, I used Klout scores – the higher the score, the higher the seed.  Do I buy into Klout scores measuring the quality of a person’s Twitter existence?  No, but it seems like a cheap and easy way to level the playing field, and as anyone who knows me will tell you, I’m nothing if not cheap and easy.

Finally, using Challonge, I created my own bracket as is done for the NCAA Tournament.

Now that the field is set here’s the rules:

1. Tweeters will go head to head over two days
2. I will select the winner of each match based on enormously complicated formula I’ve been working on that combines quality of tweeting, value of information offered, originality, with negative points awarded for general Twitter douchbaggery. For more information on what constitutes Twitter douchebaggery, review my ‘Complete List of 27 Tweet Types‘
3. Because I know you care, I will try and offer insight as to what went into my decision on each match, highlighting the good and the bad.
4. The winner will be rewarded with absolutely nothing, but if it makes you feel better, I’ll let you unlocked my exclusive “I’m a Winner” badge on DeanSquare, suitable for pinning on Pinterest

So there you have it.  Congratulations to the invitees because you are all winners in my book, well except for those of you that lose, you guys are losers.

and with no further adieu, here I present my official brackets for the ‘@deanshaw 2013 Twitter Madness Tournament‘

Good Luck!
@deanshaw