1529: Bracket - Revision history

85.76.4.8: /* Table of the bracket */

2026-04-17T05:54:27Z

‎Table of the bracket

131.111.243.214: /* Explanation */ Fixed typo

2025-06-27T01:31:46Z

‎Explanation: Fixed typo

FaviFake: added Category:Comics edited after their publication using HotCat

2025-06-16T08:08:22Z

added Category:Comics edited after their publication using HotCat

Aaron Liu: fixed | Undo revision 376960 by FaviFake (talk)

2025-05-26T15:44:48Z

fixed | Undo revision 376960 by FaviFake (talk)

Aaron Liu: /* Table of the bracket */ rv table vandalism done by IPs that attempted to will alan becker into table existence

2025-05-26T15:43:14Z

‎Table of the bracket: rv table vandalism done by IPs that attempted to will alan becker into table existence

FaviFake: {{incomplete|Someone broke the table (there's an additional empty column. Someone technical please fix it.}}

2025-05-09T17:10:02Z

{{incomplete|Someone broke the table (there's an additional empty column. Someone technical please fix it.}}

FaviFake at 17:08, 9 May 2025

2025-05-09T17:08:14Z

FaviFake: Thank you!

2025-03-24T17:55:59Z

Thank you!

Cheesesentience: /* Trivia */

2025-03-24T17:25:00Z

‎Trivia

Cheesesentience at 17:23, 24 March 2025

2025-03-24T17:23:57Z

@@ Line 301: / Line 301: @@
 |-
 |[[Cory Doctorow]]
-|He is a real person and has been in [[:Category:Comics featuring Cory Doctorow|many xkcd comics]]
+|Blogger and author. He has been in [[:Category:Comics featuring Cory Doctorow|many xkcd comics]]
 |-

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 The title text may be a reference to {{w|Dr. Dre}}'s 2001 song "{{w|Forgot About Dre}}" or could simply be a reference to the large number of pop culture personas that include the word "Doctor", such as {{w|Gregory House|Doctor House}}, {{w|Mehmet Oz|Dr. Oz}}, {{w|Doctor Eggman|Dr. Eggman}}, {{w|Phil McGraw|Dr. Phil}}, {{w|Dr. Watson}}, {{w|Emmett Brown|"Doc" Brown}}, {{w|Dr. Seuss}}, {{w|Dr Pepper}}, {{w|Doctor Doom}}, {{w|Zoidberg|Dr. Zoidberg}}, {{w|Dr. Horrible}}'s Sing-Along Blog and {{w|List of fictional doctors|many others}}. A simpler explanation is that it would cause the reader to question "Doctor Who?" answering their own question, although this answer would be incorrect because The Doctor is already present. It could also be a reference to the dual meaning of "The Doctor," either he meant to include Time Lord from Doctor Who and forgot about the EMH from Voyager, or he remembered the EMH and forgot the Time Lord.
-The incentive for the comic may have been the {{w|2015 French Open|French Open 2015}}, which started on the day of the publication. The comic inspired several groups to play out versions of the bracket. One user-voting based match-up on twitter, [https://twitter.com/xkcdbracket XKCD Bracket], was featured by Randall on the xkcd home page, with a link at the top of the website, although he didn't create the account. (The link was part of a "news" flash, the other was regarding his book based on [[1133: Up Goer Five]]. See more on this news in that comics explanation.) In the final match on July 29, Neil Armstrong defeated Mister Spock (see the [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CLKJUpFWIAAlDnW.png:orig complete bracket]). The link was removed sometimes before Monday, 10 August 2015, within two weeks of the final result being revealed.
+The incentive for the comic may have been the {{w|2015 French Open|French Open 2015}}, which started on the day of the publication. The comic inspired several groups to play out versions of the bracket. One user-voting based match-up on twitter, [https://twitter.com/xkcdbracket XKCD Bracket], was featured by Randall on the xkcd home page, with a link at the top of the website, although he didn't create the account. (The link was part of a "news" flash, the other was regarding his book based on [[1133: Up Goer Five]]. See more on this news in that comics explanation.) In the final match on July 29, Neil Armstrong defeated Mister Spock (see the [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CLKJUpFWIAAlDnW.png:orig complete bracket]). The link was removed sometime before Monday, 10 August 2015, within two weeks of the final result being revealed.
 Later, Randall has made one smaller but similar bracket in [[1819: Sweet 16]], and then an interactive [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]] in 2019, with an even larger bracket for determining the best emoji in [[2131: Emojidome]]. The bracket for this comic was shown with links from the comic during the matches. Shallots, scallops, and scallions were also mentioned together in [[2372: Dialect Quiz]]. Randall would later release another comic that juxtaposed similar-looking names, [[1970: Name Dominoes]].

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:08, 16 June 2025
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	[[Category:Star Trek]]		[[Category:Star Trek]]
	[[Category:Tournament bracket]]		[[Category:Tournament bracket]]
		+	[[Category:Comics edited after their publication]]

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 ==Explanation==
-{{incomplete|Someone broke the table (there's an additional empty column. Someone technical please fix it.}}A {{w|Bracket (tournament)|tournament bracket}} shows the planned series of matchups in a tournament. In this comic [[Randall]] has shown a plan for a tournament between a wide range of cultural icons, both real and fictional, based mostly on similarities in their names. Various Internet groups have speculated on who would win in a fight between characters from different films. It may be relevant that the film {{w|Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice}} was soon to be released at the time the comic was made where the two eponymous {{w|superheroes}}, {{w|Batman}} and {{w|Superman}}, fight against each other.
+A {{w|Bracket (tournament)|tournament bracket}} shows the planned series of matchups in a tournament. In this comic [[Randall]] has shown a plan for a tournament between a wide range of cultural icons, both real and fictional, based mostly on similarities in their names. Various Internet groups have speculated on who would win in a fight between characters from different films. It may be relevant that the film {{w|Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice}} was soon to be released at the time the comic was made where the two eponymous {{w|superheroes}}, {{w|Batman}} and {{w|Superman}}, fight against each other.
 The individual starting pairings are generally based on common or similar given names or surnames. Some adjacent brackets are "segued" by someone like Jeff Daniels, who segues from a bracket of "Jeff"s into a bracket of "Daniels"es. The bracket itself is fairly arbitrary. Most initial matchups are pairs, although several are trios and there's a quadruplet in the Russels group, while a single entry, {{w|Beyoncé}}, is given a first- and second-round {{w|bye (sports)|bye}}. Most of the participants in the tournament are people, with a few exceptions. {{w|Shallots}} (small onions), {{w|scallops}} (bivalve mollusks), and {{w|scallions}} (green onions) are similar sounding foods, therefore may be confusing for some individuals (perhaps including [[Randall]]). The final grouping on the lower right of the bracket features several retail stores and a film.

@@ Line 104: / Line 104: @@
 |{{w|Hugh Jackman}}
 |Actor in the ''{{w|X-Men}}'' franchise as {{w|Wolverine (character)|Wolverine}}
 |-
 |rowspan="2"|{{w|Alan Rickman}}
 |rowspan="2"|Actor in ''Die Hard'', ''Harry Potter'' franchise, ''The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy''
 |-
-|rowspan="2"|{{w|Alan Becker}}
+|rowspan="3"|Alan <nowiki>*</nowiki>
 |-
 |rowspan="2"|Alan Par*

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 The incentive for the comic may have been the {{w|2015 French Open|French Open 2015}}, which started on the day of the publication. The comic inspired several groups to play out versions of the bracket. One user-voting based match-up on twitter, [https://twitter.com/xkcdbracket XKCD Bracket], was featured by Randall on the xkcd home page, with a link at the top of the website, although he didn't create the account. (The link was part of a "news" flash, the other was regarding his book based on [[1133: Up Goer Five]]. See more on this news in that comics explanation.) In the final match on July 29, Neil Armstrong defeated Mister Spock (see the [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CLKJUpFWIAAlDnW.png:orig complete bracket]). The link was removed sometimes before Monday, 10 August 2015, within two weeks of the final result being revealed.
-Later, Randall has made one smaller but similar bracket in [[1819: Sweet 16]], and then an interactive [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comics]] in 2019, with an even larger bracket for determining the best emoji in [[2131: Emojidome]]. The bracket for this comic was shown with links from the comic during the matches. Shallots, scallops, and scallions were also mentioned together in [[2372: Dialect Quiz]]. Randall would later release another comic that juxtaposed similar-looking names, [[1970: Name Dominoes]].
+Later, Randall has made one smaller but similar bracket in [[1819: Sweet 16]], and then an interactive [[April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' Day comic]] in 2019, with an even larger bracket for determining the best emoji in [[2131: Emojidome]]. The bracket for this comic was shown with links from the comic during the matches. Shallots, scallops, and scallions were also mentioned together in [[2372: Dialect Quiz]]. Randall would later release another comic that juxtaposed similar-looking names, [[1970: Name Dominoes]].
 ===Table of the bracket===
 The names and other entries in the bracket are given here below, sorted to explain why the individual entries have been grouped as they are. The first-round matchups are grouped by shading.
-{| class="wikitable"
+{| class="wikitable sortable"
 !Grouping
 !Subgrouping

@@ Line 616: / Line 616: @@
 ==Trivia==
-*In the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/8/8d/20250307171024%21bracket.png original version of the comic], Gordon was misspelled as Gordan. This was later fixed.
+*In the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/8/8d/20250307171024%21bracket.png original version of the comic], "Gord'''o'''n" was misspelled as "Gord'''a'''n". This was later fixed.
 *The "Chris" group (Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pine, Chris Pratt) would later be referenced in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGurtL83zhY Chris Pine's opening monologue for SNL], though without an explicit reference to this comic.