Super Villain Bracket

Who is the coolest super villain around?

We had that question and created this bracket as a result. Villains for all superheroes are included, though you will notice in the bracket below that they are mostly Marvel or batman villains. Some of these villains you may have even rooted for. There are a few that have a good side when the greater good is at stake like Magneto, Venom, and Loki. All of these guys are awesome heroes in their own rights. Please enjoy the super villain bracket.

The blank bracket

This bracket is divided into sinister villains in the top left, evil geniuses in the bottom left, villains with cool powers in the top right and characters with brute force in the bottom right. Some of them as always could fit multiple descriptions. I did my best to include most of the great batman villains and all the villains from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but didn't get them all. I also included the typical heavy hitters like Shredder for the Ninja Turtles.There are a few that I left off that I wanted to include hence the crossing out. Arnim Zola is one of those villains and pyro and blob are on the other side of the bracket.

This bracket is written in red pen. It was the only pen around at the time I made these, which was right before a long trip. Don't worry, many brackets in the future are typed out. I wanted to finish out the handwritten ones first before we got to the new typed ones. Anyway, here are our filled out brackets....

Eli's bracket

Eli started out with Jenna's nice handwriting during our long car ride, but you will notice that the writing switches throughout the bracket. Our youngest actually fell asleep during the brackets being filled out and I finished his bracket with him when we arrived and he woke up.

As always though, Eli went with the names that sounded cooler for the most part. He picked yellow jacket to win the whole bracket. Eli thought saying yellow jacket was cool and he really likes yellow jacket's shrinking power. The boys both enjoy the ant-man movie. Yellow Jacket is a cool bad guy from that movie. Losing to yellow jacket in the finals was Red Skull, another awesome character. Rounding out his top 4 were Joker and Sabretooth. That is a solid final 4 that a lot of people would have. Yellow Jacket, Red Skull, Joker, and Sabretooth is an intimidating group of villains.

Noland Jr.'s bracket

Noland's bracket actually surprised me a pretty good amount. I thought for sure that Jr. would have Venom winning his bracket. Venom did make the final 4 though, but Lizard was the pick over Venom. Which makes sense in the grand scheme of things. Noland Jr. does not like villains, but likes the ones that are sometimes good. That is a characteristic that is true for Lizard and Venom. Killer Croc is even a good guy in suicide squad and is known to sometimes fight for the greater good.

So we have that narrative and we know that Jr. doesn't like super evil bad guys....What about one of the most evil bad guys in the Shadow King? Shadow King made it all the way to the finals and he is super bad and creepy. Shadow King never shows a good side. What gives? Well Shadow King was in an episode of X-Men in an African village. Noland loves African animals. Since he liked that episode he overlooked how evil Shadow King was. He picked the Shadow King and surprised us, but justified it because he loved that episode. Oh 5 year olds!!!

Jenna's bracket

Most people would have a bracket looking a lot like this. Two 1 seeds for Jenna and two 2 seeds. Loki, Kingpin, Thanos, and Magneto in the Final 4 with Loki winning it. How popular Loki was in the MCU, he probably should have been a 1 seed. However, Magneto, Joker, Thanos, and Doctor Doom are arguably bigger names. Still, Loki is just so dang entertaining. The master of deception is the master of Jenna's bracket and perhaps another bracket because there is still one more to come. He's sometimes good, but usually about as evil as it gets. Loki is the reason the Avengers had to come together in the first place, but he has fought alongside some Avengers in the last few movies. Such a great character with a lot of depth.

Her other final 4 picks were based on what she has seen. She absolutely loved the kingpin in the Daredevil series. He was our favorite villain from all of the Marvel Netflix series to date. We like him way better than the Hand. Thanos is a character with a lot of layers to him and she quite enjoyed seeing his flawed point of view in the Avengers. He is a really well developed bad guy. Finally, Magneto is perhaps the most iconic bad guy of all. Magneto was the main villain in the X-Men universe and the best known Marvel villain before the MCU started.

My bracket

I had a few choices that were different than others. I had Ronan going further than everyone which was a bit of a surprise to me. If Ronan wasn't up against my champ Loki, he could have made a deep run. The guy wrecked everything in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, which was absolutely terrific by the way. I also had Juggernaut and Rhino going further than other people and Scorpion as well for that matter. I really like those characters from the cartoons of my childhood. Those characters were always my favorites. They were so big and powerful and it often took multiple heroes to stop them. Scorpion always went after J Jonah too and JJ was super annoying, let's be honest.

My toughest choices were Juggenaut over Thanos, Rhino, and then Magneto. I could have easily argued any of those in the top spot for that bracket. Dr. Doom v. Red Skull was another tough decision. Those are probably my 2nd and 3rd favorite villains respectively, but I have always enjoyed Red Skull. That character (the red skull) was always my favorite villain. My favorite villain until recently. Tom Hiddleston has done such a fantastic job with Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that it was actually impossible to pick against him. This guy is the most deserving champ and certainly the best villain. There is everything to like about the character. He has just been brilliantly done. Loki is the champ in 2/4 brackets. Let's see our top 5 overall though.

Top 5 across the brackets
T-5. Yellow Jacket/ Lizard/ Ultron (made 0 final 4s) 9 spots
4. Magneto 10 spots
3. Joker 11 spots (only made 1 final 4)
2. Red Skull 14 spots
1. Loki 15 spots

Loki is the winner of the super villain bracket!

Who is your favorite Super Villain?
Did you enjoy this bracket?
Do you have any suggestions for future brackets?
Leave a comment and let us know?

Join us in 5 days for our South American Animal Bracket!

-Noland

North American Animals Bracket

We always think of other continents when we think of the location of the best animals. Most think Africa, others Asia, still others Australia, or South America. What about the animals right here in North America though? We have some incredibly awesome animals right in our backyard. Our family loves going on walks, and going to state parks to look at animals. Sometimes we go to the beach and look at animals there. If we are in the car, we are trying to spot birds and seeing who can find the coolest ones. Take a look at our North American Animal Bracket and see for yourself some of the awesome animals in America.

Once again, we have developed themed regions. These regions are based on the climates the animals live in. We have desert animals, snow, and an everything section. You will notice that is only 3 climates, because there are so many unique and awesome birds on this continent, we gave birds their own region as well. Animals that could fit in multiple categories, like mountain lion, were placed in the region that allowed for the greatest seperation of what I thought would be the favorites.

Our four 1 seeds are Bald Eagle, Grizzly Bear, Polar Bear, and Mountain Lion. I think most would agree that those are four of the first animals they think about when they think about this continent and its creatures. Some would say alligator or bison, but most are thinking of one of those 6 at first thought. Because of that the regions were themed around separating those animals. That being said, Moose is a really strong 3 seed. The snow bracket is so incredibly strong as a region. It is perhaps the strongest out of all the regions.

Enjoy seeing what we picked in our brackets....

Starting with the animal lover himself, Noland Jr.

Jr. goes to a school where the cougar is the mascot and he absolutely adores that school. So it is no surprise seeing the mountain lion (cougar) is his choice as overall champ. As you will notice, he tends to go with some type of intimidating predator in all of these brackets too. He chose the tiger in Asia and the cheetah in Africa. That is not by accident, he really enjoys learning about predators and looking at them.

The big surprise he had was picking the cottonmouth over the grizzly. I do not know where he got anti-grizzly all of a sudden, but he really was against them. Usually he is all about the apex predator, but not this one. He has been all about snakes lately though because they scare his mom. Isn't he too young to say things like that though? This kid said the other day he wants a pet snake. That will not ever happen in this house. At least he realizes a pet venomous snake is a bad idea. Still, Noland definitely supported the snakes in his bracket. Cottonmouth made it to the final 4 in Jr.'s bracket and was out in the first round for the rest of us.

The final four also included a Peregrine Falcon. Jr. learned all about these types of falcons on the Wild Kratts and has become obsessed ever since. They do have awesome "creature powers" as the Kratt brothers would say. A super cool bird that does many great things. I was not surprised when it made it all the way to the finals for Noland Jr. It was a little surprising to see Red Fox win that bottom right bracket, but it is an awesome predator and he is consistent with picking those. Also red is Jr.'s favorite color so it makes sense.

Next, is our other animal loving boy, Eli Thomas

Eli again shows a bias for bears. He always picks any type of bear to do really well. This bracket was no exception. Da Bears! Polar Bears won in the final over grizzly bears. Kodiak Bears only lost because they went up against Polar Bears. The only surprise is that not all bears advanced past the 1st round. Eli had Bullfrog over the black bear. I do not know where that came from. I can only think that he picked bullfrog because of leapfrog. They are both frogs and he loves leapfrog.

The spoonbill won the bird bracket for Eli. He really likes seeing them at Busch Gardens and at Animal Kingdom. They are one of my favorite birds as well. We see them in the wild in Florida every now and then and always see them near the coast. A bird with a spoon shaped beak, what isn't to like? Such a unique and majestic bird.

Also in the final four for Eli is the mountain lion. He is going to be joining Noland Jr. at school next year and likes everything Noland likes. Since Noland likes the cougar mascot, Eli likes it too. The mountain lion could win some future brackets for Eli, but it won't beat a bear. It definitely will not beat the polar bear. Now, to take Eli to see a polar bear....

Next, my lovely wife, Jenna

Sorry you didn't get to see Jenna's awesome handwriting, she was once again working on some project for her shop while we were filling these out. You will also notice some blue dots all over her paper. I left my clipboard out where I did these and the boys colored over them. Some blue marker from one of the boys was able to bleed through to her bracket. I was going to rewrite it, but I think it shows our family personality. This is for our family, so why not showcase the blue marker.

Moving on to the content of the bracket now....

Moose in the final four was the only surprise. It's not that the moose is not awesome. I just was not expecting moose to beat out polar bear on any of our brackets. Jenna really grew to like the moose on a vacation out west before we met. She took a trip to Colorado and saw some awesome moose while visiting family. There is that and the fact that moose are really cool.

The other final 4 are not surprising. Bald Eagle is a deserving champ. Mountain Lion was a #1 seed and how do you choose against a grizzly?

Pretty solid bracket right here from my wife, but the best bracket is still to come...

Finally, you can see my bracket...

How do you not pick the symbol of America in the Bald Eagle? I could not do it and selected the Bald Eagle as my overall champion. It is by far my favorite type of bird and I get goose bumps everytime I see one. It does not matter where I see it, but I really want to see a bald eagle whenever I go on a hike, in the car, or to a zoo. They are one of the first animals I look for. It is just truly a magnificent creature.

I almost went entirely chalk and pick all four one seeds. However, I chose one wildcard. The majestic pronghorn knocked off the mountain lion for me. Their speed and grace is truly magnificent. I have yet to see one and it is near the top of my creature list to see. I think of pronghorns as America's gazelles. It sure would be cool to see one in the wild.

Polar Bear would have been a great pick to win and I'd love to see them in the wild as well. It would be absolutely thrilling to see (not too close though). However, I could not put it over a Bald Eagle. The polar bear is my favorite type of bear though and I really have enjoyed seeing the few I have. Still, seeing one in the wild has to be the ultimate thrill.

We really do have some amazing creatures on this continent. Let's look at the top 5 selections based on spots advanced.
5. Porcupine - 10
4. Grizzly Bear - 13
3. Bald Eagle - 14
2. Polar Bear - 15
1. Mountain Lion - 16

These are some mountain lions that we found resting at the Jacksonville Zoo. Probably my favorite place to see these animals was the Catty Shack Ranch in Jacksonville though. There you can see them feeding. However, we were more interested in the tigers and African Lions feeding that day and didn't get a good picture. Still, these mountain lions are absolutely fantastic creatures. The mountain lion is the winner of the North American Animal Bracket.

What do you think of our picks?
What are your favorite animals from North America?
Did we leave any important animals out?
Do you have any topic that you want to see used on a bracket?
Leave us some comments and let us know.

Have a great weekend and a great summer (it is officially summer now!!!)
Join us in 5 days as we do our super villain bracket!!!

- Noland

Coolest Animated Bear Bracket

This is the most specific bracket we have done to date and possibly the most fun. Who is the coolest animated bear? A debate you may have not known you had, but certainly are thinking about now.
Is it Yogi?
Baloo?
Pooh?
Another Contender?

There are so many surprising, and wonderful options to select here. I hope you take a look at what we have put out there for you. I know the intrigue is killing you, so why don't we just go on ahead and release the bracket already....

There are themed regions as always. This time it is mean bears in the bottom right, adventuring bears in the top right, bears with personality in the top left, and caring bears in the bottom left. The bottom left could also be labeled the care bear regional. That is where most of the care bears are. It was the hardest regional for me and my family to do because we don't watch care bears. We did it based on colors and designs of the bears as well as names. The four obvious #1 seeds were Yogi, Baloo, Smokey, and Winnie the Pooh. Most would assume most people will go chalk and pick those 4, but not so fast my friend. The Bear in the Fox in the Hound is the 16 seed in the mean bear regional.

Let's go over some of the lesser known characters and clarify. Whistlestop Jackson is a pilot in the series TaleSpin. Vladimir Gryzlikoff is a villain in the cartoon Darkwing Duck. Ted is who you think it is, that vulgar bear from the adult movie. It was tough to find this many bears and I figured to include him for any people that might want to fill one out. Koslov is the giant polar bear from Zootopia. Most don't know his name, but he is an intimidating presence and Eli loves him. None of us really know who honey bear is, but he is a bear that comes up in searches. Just type animated honey bear and he will be there. Brother Bear, Sister Bear, Mother Bear and Papa Bear are from Berenstein Bears. There is also Mama and Papa Bear which I have designated as Disney. Those ones designated as Disney are from the series Goldie and Bear. Jack A. Bear is the main bear from Goldie and Bear. Tug is the giant, friendly bear from the movie Brother Bear. Bongo the Bear is a circus bear from early Disney and Lulubelle is his girlfriend. Bernard the polar bear is from his own standalone series. I had never heard of him, but apparently there is some cult following.

Let's start with Jenna, because this was her favorite bracket so far...

Jenna went mostly chalk and had 3 1 seeds in her final. With Koda pulling some upsets in the other bracket. This could be a trend in our family as we loved the Brother Bear movies with the star Koda. The characters in those two movies could do quite well throughout the brackets. Plus, as mentioned earlier, we aren't big care bear fans, so you might see them knocked off. Jenna also enjoyed the Berenstein Bears as she had the characters from those shows advancing further than the rest of us. She even had Brother Bear advancing to the sweet 16. Jenna is the only one to pick Sister Bear over Funshine Bear (although she did it after saying Funshine first hence the cross out)

To the surprise of nobody, her champion was Winnie the Pooh. If you remember our Disney Movie Madness bracket, you will remember that she picked The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh as her champion. You might also remember she wrote that Pooh was the kindest, sweetest bear. He is her favorite Disney character of all. Not just her favorite Disney bear. There is no beating Winnie the Pooh for her on any bracket.

Her final four was rounded out with Yogi and Baloo. I was actually a bit surprised with Baloo as I thought she would go Kenai due to her affinity for Brother Bear. However, she stuck with the family favorite and took Baloo into the final. It is impossible not to like Baloo after all. Yogi making it was not surprising as he is an iconic character. What was surprising was Nita's first round exit. As cool as Po is, Jenna loves Brother Bear. I assumed Nita would be up against Kenai in the next round.

Next, let's look at the boy who inspired this bracket in Eli Thomas...

Eli is all about Baloo. It is his favorite character. He absolutely loves that bear and Jungle Book and TaleSpin. You can see that he had that TaleSpin bias with Kit Cloudkicker also making his Final Four.
Although it's not really bias because Kit Cloudkicker and TaleSpin are awesome. The only TaleSpin characters knocked out before the Sweet 16 were Whistlstop Jackson who was knocked off by TaleSpin alumnus Becky Cunningham, and Molly Conningham who was bested in Rd. 2 by the super popular Little John.

The two other characters in the Final Four were Koslov and Koda. Brother Bear was a family favorite and Koda did well in all of our brackets. That little bear from Brother Bear was expected to make it that far. But, Koslov? Most don't even know his name. That being said, he is popular in our house as we absolutely love Polar Bears. Eli especially loves Polar Bears. I'm looking up places we can see polar bears as we speak so that he can see one in person. A fascinating animal that Koslov happens to play very well.

Eli had Special Agent Oso going further than either his mom or I. He also had Bedtime Bear further than any of us. Other than Cheer Bear making the Elite 8, there were no other huge surprises. Eli and I picked Tug from Brother Bear further than the rest of the family did. We just really like Tug. Finally, another upset over Smokey, maybe you are starting to realize a trend.

I guess we will do my bracket next....

That final is so tough for me. Winnie the Pooh or Baloo, how do you choose? I have gone back and forth on the two of them several times over the years. Each of them always finishing in my top 3 characters. Recently, as my 2nd and 3rd favorite characters respectively. I usually say I like Pooh more, but I go back and forth a lot. The tiebreak for me recently is how much Eli adores Baloo. When your kids like something more, it makes you like it more as well. Eli's love for Baloo won it for the bear. It is just one more thing Eli and I get to bond over, Jungle Book and TaleSpin.

I kept the trend going with Koda to the Final Four like everyone else so far. He truly is a one of a kind character. It is always nice to see that movie recognized and to recognize it ourselves. Speaking of Brother Bear, Jenna and I both selected the character Brother Bear to the Sweet 16. That character is from Berenstein Bears though not the Disney movie. The other main character from the Disney movie Brother Bear, Kenai, also did really well in the brackets. Kenai made it to the Elite 8 in both mine and Jenna's brackets.

My Final Four was rounded out by Br'er Bear. This character from Disney's Song of the South and Splash Mountain is known for the ride more than anything else. That ride is my favorite and it brings me joy when I see Br'er Bear around the parks. He is just fun to me even though he is a bad guy. Lots'O or Br'er Bear was a tough decision, but the Splash Mountain connection was the tie-breaker.

Now up, the bracket king, Noland Jr.....

Junior had a crazy upset off the top with Kwicky Koala (who he doesn't know) over family favorite Baloo. This was rather surprising as Jr. has always loved Baloo. He was just messing with his brother who is obsessed! You will notice quite a few upsets in Jr.'s bracket actually. Whistlestop Jackson even made an appearance in his final four.The Bear from Fox and the Hound upset Yogi and went all the way to the Elite 8. Another surprise elite 8 appearance came from Birthday Bear. We haven't watched Care Bears so that was quite the shock. The explanation wasn't shocking though, because who doesn't love birthdays. He said he picked him because he loves birthdays.

The overall champ for Jr. was Kit Cloudkicker. That made for quite the TaleSpin Final Four. Kit Cloudkicker and Whistlestop Jackson both making it into the Final Four. The young bear (Kit) is another favorite in our household and in particular a favorite of Jr. He has always enjoyed Kit and his bravery. That glider doesn't hurt Kit's case either.

Also in the Final Four was the ever popular Koda. Well, he's popular in our house anyway. Finally, the top group was rounded out by Special Agent Oso. Jr. has always enjoyed Oso. The yellow bear showed us 3 special steps to making it in the Final Match U. He is a pretty neat character, but Noland had him going twice as far as the rest of us combined. While Noland picked Oso, I thought Baloo would win that regional in everyone's bracket. I guess I was wrong.

Bonus Pick: My little brother Justin asked whether it was TaleSpin Baloo or Jungle Book Baloo. I stated that it is whatever Baloo you want it to be. He picked Baloo to win it all specifying that it must be the version from TaleSpin. He claimed that Baloo would drop water from the Sea Duck on the fire started by Smokey the Bear in the championship

Here are our top 5 according to most spaces advanced on the brackets (not including Justin since we don't have a full bracket).
5. Special Agent Oso (11 spots)
T - 3. Koda/ Kit Cloudkicker (16 spots)
T - 1. Baloo/ Winnie the Pooh (17 spots)

Super jammed at the top. Baloo wins 2 brackets, but has to tie with the overall win because Jr. decided to pick a Koala he has never heard of lol. He really does love Baloo, he was just messing with his brother. We will give the overall win to Baloo because of that and him winning Justin's bracket as well!

What did you think of our brackets?
Who are your favorite bears?
Got any ideas for future brackets?
Leave us any feedback you wish in the comments

Join us back here in 5 days for our North American Animal Bracket

- Noland

Asian Animals Bracket

People always tend to think of Africa when it comes to coolest wildlife. I think it would be foolish to sleep on Asia when it comes to cool animals though. The land of the tiger has their own amazing creatures to behold. Here we look at some of those amazing creatures from the vast Asian continent. I really hope you enjoy our bracket for the coolest Asian Animal.

Much like our African Animal Bracket, this is just picking the coolest animal. Enjoy our brackets for the coolest Asian animal. Take a look at the blank bracket first.

Some of these names are harder and some of them are a little harder to read. The brackets are separated by themed regions once again. Animals with spots are in the top left corner of the bracket with the Giant Panda as the #1 seed. Those circles around the pandas eyes were counted as a spot. Asian elephants were the #1 seed in the bottom left bracket for the region labeled heavy hitters. With this region all of the animals are big, strong, and powerful. Top right we have striped animals with the #1 seed of a tiger. The bottom right is graceful animals. The number 1 seed in that bracket is the Orangutan. Separating the regions this way gave us a good bracket breakdown and allowed for the separation of those four easily identified animals. Some of the striped and spotted animals are stretches, but those being the brackets made for an interesting contrast.

You will notice that this bracket is far more specific than the African Animals bracket and therefore has longer names written in. Indian Rhino instead of just Rhino. Arabian Ostrich instead of just plain ostrich, although it is just the same thing in that case. One of the hardest to read is brown long eared bat, which is the 11 seed in the grace regional. To more difficult ones are the golden spotted monitor (13 seed spot regional) and the golden snub nose monkey (10 seed spot regional). Other than that you should be good here. If you have a question of what the animal is, I suggest a google image search. Some of these animals are not well known, but they sure are magnificent.

Now, let's look at Eli's bracket...

Komodo Dragon was the ultimate champion for Eli's bracket. The thing that won Eli over was the komodo dragon feeding we saw a few years ago. Noland Jr. also had a class pet (Bearded Dragon) and that helped both of the boys love lizards. They often try catching lizards in the back yard. Good thing they don't have a Komodo Dragon to catch though. Those things are so dang powerful and deadly. Another point in the dragons favor is that is the closest thing we have on this planet to a living breathing dinosaur.

The biggest upset in this bracket came when Tree Kangaroo beat the mighty Tiger. I thought Tiger would be in a toss up matchup with Komodo Dragon in the Final Four. I never expected Tiger to lose to the Tree Kangaroo. We have never seen a Tree Kangaroo in person, but they look super cool. Now, I got to locate one in this country for the boys to see.

Aside from the Tree Kangaroo, his final 4 was rounded out by Snow Leopard and Sloth Bear. He picked Sloth Bear because that is what Baloo the Bear is. Snow Leopard was the other pick, just because they look cool and he enjoyed saying it. They are super cool. Eli kept picking the big predators too other than that Tree Kangaroo.

Let's check in on the brother Eli adores, with Noland Jr.'s bracket...

Noland's bracket looks far different than Eli. He had an entirely different Final Four. The toughest match-up for him was taking Chinese Pangolin over the Komodo Dragon. He really enjoys pangolins though and really wants to see one. Every knew the tiger would win overall though as that has been his favorite animal forever. Even at 3 months he used to always get a big smile when seeing a tiger and hearing the word tiger. He absolutely loves them. The Final Four was rounded out by the Draco Lizard and the Sun Bear. He picked the Draco because of its unique gliding creature power (as the Wild Kratts would say). The Kratt brothers even did an episode on the Draco Lizard. While the Sun Bear is just super cool and has an orange stripe across its chest. Noland Jr. thought that stripe was the coolest.

There were a few upsets here, most specifically the bears over the rhinos. I did not see those upsets coming. The Mugger Crocodile advancing two rounds, including past the Asian Elephant, was also a big upset. Most surprising, was his selection of the Asian Water Monitor over the clouded leopard. It is super awesome, but this boy is usually such a big cat fan that I thought the lizard stood no chance against the mighty leopard. Also surprising was the Indian Star Tortoise knocking off the Giant Panda. I thought the Panda would make it deeper on his bracket.

Now their mother....

Jenna went chalk as is typical for her. She enjoys the fan favorites when it comes to animals. All four #1 seeds made it into her final four, with Asian Elephant taking the crown. She did it in her own special style too with the notes and all. As you can see her tough choice was Orangutan over Komodo Dragon. Both animals performing pretty well across the brackets, but more on that later.

Jenna had two question marks on her bracket. I'd assume that would happen on some if everyone were to fill these out. She had a hard time picking between the Golden Snub Nose Monkey and the Gibbon, so she didn't pick one. There was no preference one way or the other and she just decided not to pick. The same thing happened with Bactrian Camel and Mugger Crocodile. She wanted to move on from those animals because she wasn't picking them more than one round anyway. Jenna was working on another project during this and wanted to do the bracket quick. This is the only bracket of hers with question marks. Jenna is much more excited for our next bracket, which she labeled her favorite so far...

Time for me....

I really enjoyed this bracket. It was one of my favorites to complete. African Animals is always my default answer when I am asked which continent has the coolest animals. However, this bracket made me realize that Asia is a strong contender. This continent has some really incredible creatures. I actually think I prefer it after doing the research. You forget how many different climates are in Asia. That makes for such an incredible diversity of wildlife. It was hard to limit this bracket to 64 choices.

We did limit it though and it was fun to do. A species of rhino ended up winning my bracket, just like in Africa. I ended up selecting the Indian Rhino in the finals. They have an Indian Rhino at the Tampa Zoo and it is my favorite exhibit at the whole zoo. I just love the armor that these guys have. Such an incredibly neat creature. I have never seen a Sumatran Rhino in person, but it was almost my pick to win it all. Now, I have to find where we can see one of those.

My final four was rounded out by Komodo Dragon, Tree Kangaroo, and Snow Leopard. Komodo Dragon is my second favorite animal. Rhinos are first. This bracket was incredibly predictable for my family based on that fact. Although I was fascinated by the Tree Kangaroo. My second hardest selection was Tree Kangaroo over Red Panda. Those little guys are so dang cool. The Tree Kangaroo just narrowly beat it out. Snow Leopards are super neat as well. That is one of the coolest animals that I have seen in person and I want to see one again. They are simply brilliant creatures. All of these animals are actually. I was impressed with the wildlife from Asia.

Here are our top 5 animals across all the brackets.
5. Indian Rhino (11 spots)
T-3. Draco Lizard/ Asian Elephant (12 spots)
2. Snow Leopard (14 spots)
T-1. Komodo Dragon/ Tiger (17 spots)

For the first time, we have a tie at the top. A tie of ferocious predators. The Komodo Dragon and the Tiger reign supreme. If you haven't seen a feeding with either of these guys, we highly recommend it. Pictures are of feeding with these two animals.

This was a massive tiger eating at the Catty Shack Ranch in Jacksonville, FL

This was the Komodo Dragon sensing its food at the Jacksonville Zoo in Jacksonville, FL. Super cool!!!

What did you think of our picks?
What is your favorite animal from Asia?
Got any picks on your bracket?
Anything you want us to do a bracket of?
Feel free to leave any feedback as always.
In 5 days we will have our animated bear bracket. That bracket was inspired by our Baloo loving Eli.

Until next time,

- Noland

Greatest Superhero Movie Bracket

With Noland Jr. loving superheroes the way that he does, I thought it was fitting to make this bracket for him and for all of us to fill it out. This bracket was a little harder because he didn't know all of the movies. I could have made this bracket much smaller and not included the final region. The no DC/ no Marvel region was a little tough for them outside of the animated movies. Noland Jr. played along well with it though as you will see. Eli was just saying stuff lol. Hope you enjoy the Greatest Superhero Movie Bracket.

Again, we had themed regions, but as stated earlier it was difficult for the boys on that last region. The regions are Marvel Team Ups, Marvel Solo movies, DC Universe, and Neither DC or Marvel. This bracket is so large because there are so many superhero movies and the amazing MCU couldn't fit in one region of a standard 16 team region. Therefore, I had to split it up a little bit and include some of the non MCU Marvel movies.

The boys have seen Power Rangers, the turtle movies, the Incredibles, and Big Hero 6 in that No DC of Marvel section. They haven't seen most of the movies on the DC Universe section either, but they did their best with just knowing the characters involved. If they didn't know the characters like Swamp Thing v. Constantine, they just did the best with what they had. This is one that Noland Jr. really wanted to do and he likes the biggest bracket possible so I made it happen. I could have included some other movies like Blade 2, but he hasn't seen the Blade movies either. Maybe I could have also included the animated Turtles movie for a 4th Turtles movie. Either way though, the boys had fun and so did we. I wrote out the participants in the bracket, but Jenna filled out the brackets for us as we talked about them and drove across state. Super fun task for you to do and feel free to use any of our brackets to use. Enjoy our super hero brackets.

Let's start with Noland Jr.'s bracket...

What is the 1st thing you notice?
If you are like me, you notice the weird drawing under his champion. That drawing was his "Spider-Man web shooters." He decided to make them in honor of Spider-Man: Homecoming since he picked that movie as his champ. His Spider-Man love shined through so much that he even picked the dreadful Spider-Man 3 all the way to the Finals....

The Spidey love was predictable, though I thought he would pick Guardians of the Galaxy in the team bracket. His Robocop prediction was not. I guess we will have to let him watch Robocop now. Top 4? What? 1st he had it knocking off the 2nd Turtles movie, Secret of the Ooze, then it knocked of Turtles in Time. A movie he has never seen knocking off two classics. Craziness. He had Big Hero 6 going shorter than all the rest of us too. I thought Big Hero 6 was running to the Final 4 with him. Not to be. Maybe it will with Eli....

Now for Eli's choices...

Eli's choice went a little more like we expected it to. Big Hero 6 was the obvious favorite in his eyes and won the bracket as expected. He absolutely loves that movie, especially Baymax. Again, Robocop upset Secret of the Ooze, but he just liked saying Robocop. I kind of expected it too. Perhaps, the only real surprise came from how well Jumper did. Eli kept saying Jumper while jumping as he advanced it all the way until it played Big Hero 6 in the Elite 8.

His Final 4 was rounded out with Batman Begins, Captain America: Civil War, and Spider-Man: Homecoming. All of those choices were expected. He really likes watching the Marvel movies on the list. Eli didn't advance any movies he hadn't seen over ones he had other than Robocop. His actually made a lot of sense for his age and what he has seen.

Here comes Jenna's list.....

Jenna was not a huge fan of the bottom part of this bracket. She thought I should have just stuck with Marvel, but still played along. She had more loyalty to the original Cap movie than even I did as a huge Cap fan. Her and Eli both picked Doctor Strange over Black Panther in a strange decision. That being said neither had seen Black Panther until after this bracket was complete.We now own that movie, so opinions have changed to a degree. It would not have advanced past Thor though for my Thor loving wife. Thor loses to Cap on one side while the latest Thor takes the cake overall. More examples of Jenna thinking Captain America and Thor are the two best heroes. It has been evident in the Marvel brackets to this point. There is a clear separation after those two.

Star-Lord and Groot are right behind Thor and Cap. She holds the Guardians of the Galaxy in high regard and they are her favorite team of superheroes. The original Guardians of the Galaxy making the Elite 8. Really it's her 3rd favorite, but it went up against her favorite Ragnarok. Civil War and the original Avengers would have done better if they didn't face that movie. Jenna was a big fan of Korg. Let's be honest though, we all loved Korg. Where was Korg in Infinity War?

Finally, it's my turn.....

The way the bracket broke I had some tougher calls early than late. The three toughest calls of the non-DC or Marvel bracket were in the first three rounds. Original turtles over turtles in time was the right call, but I did enjoy that 3rd movie. Big Hero 6 is better than the Incredibles, but I wanted to put Incredibles further. Finally the sweet 16 matchup of Big Hero 6 v. original turtles was also tough.

For the Marvel bracket, Iron Man v. Blade was tough only because I would have liked Blade to go further. Iron Man is one of the greatest movies of all-time though so Blade had no chance. Original Captain America v. original Iron Man was also a tough call. However, the 1st MCU movie won out. Speaking of MCU, the only MCU movie I did not like was Iron Man 3. Get that mess out of here. It was irrelevant in the universe. Iron Man 2 isn't great, but it is entertaining at times. Iron Man 3 is just pure trash. Black Panther v. Doctor Strange was another tough one because Doctor Strange can do some sweet stuff. I enjoy that movie more each time I see it. Panther was cooler though and more iconic. There is no beating Winter Soldier though.

The Marvel team bracket featured a tough matchup in round 2 as well. Ragnarok against Civil War. Two outstanding movies. Civil War gets the edge, but Ragnarok was fantastic and truly set the stage for Infinity War. It also made Thor an even more likable character, which is a trend that continued in Infinity War. Speaking of Infinity War, choosing between it and Civil War was incredibly difficult after only one viewing of the latest Avengers movie. Still, a decision had to be made, and I believe I made the right decision.

The DC Universe bracket was the weakest by far for me, but the Dark Knight stands head and shoulders above the other movies DC has produced. The Dark Knight is one of the greatest movies produced period, not just DC. Batman Begins is also incredibly good. Other than Batman movies, I don't really enjoy what DC brings to the table. It just is not quality. Hopefully, that can change one day, but for now Marvel owns the superhero game.

Our top 5 movies based on spots advanced in the bracket
T-4. Captain America: Civil War/ Spider-Man: Homecoming (12 spots)
3. Batman Begins (14 spots)
2. Big Hero 6 (15 spots)
1. Captain America: Winter Soldier (17 spots)

Captain America: Winter Soldier is the clear top performer in the bracket. Such an unbelievably wonderful movie. One that we truly enjoyed and one you should see immediately if you have not. The movie gave us Falcon. It gave us Bucky back. This masterpiece truly changed the superhero movie game. Its twists and turns were epic and the Russo brothers completely nailed this flick as always. Winter Soldier was as good as it gets and the Marvel Cinematic Universe gets pretty dang good. It will be tough for them to beat this one in the future.

What do you think of this bracket?
Got any picks of your own?
Who would make your Final Four?
What do you think of our picks?
Are there any topics you want us to make a bracket for on here?
Leave us comments and let us know.

Until next week

- Noland

Join us soon for our coolest Asian Animal Bracket

College World Series Bracket

It's almost time for Omaha!!! You just knew we had to fill out this bracket when it was released. You can probably guess who we picked to win it all, but here it is for you to see. If you have not seen the blank bracket, here it is.

The actual bracket itself is hard to argue against. You have 8 incredible teams that took the top 8 seeds. The top 4 were an absolute lock with Florida, Stanford, and Oregon State outpacing the field all year long and Ole Miss winning the SEC Tournament. I thought FSU should get the 5 seed after winning the ACC Tournament, but they come in at #7. North Carolina, fresh off the ACC regular season title comes in at number 6. Stetson got a very good draw at #11 despite not being in line for a home super regional. If you take that factor out, I like their draw best outside of the top 4. I would much rather face North Carolina in Rd.2 then Clemson on the road. Getting Clemson at home is good news for the Seminoles though.

For the #7 national seed, that Tallahassee Regional is a bloodbath. Like I said I prefer Stetson's opening regional better. Mississippi State has given FSU fits in the past in regional play and it is not a team that I wanted to see in regional play. Hopefully we use Parrish in game 2 to send the Bulldogs to the losers bracket.

There are 10 SEC teams in this tournament from that very good conference. Most of the SEC teams are on the left side of the bracket including all of their top seeds. The strongest of the teams on the left side are LSU and the aforementioned Mississippi State squad. There are six ACC squads including four top seeds. Once again, those conferences prove to be the top competition with the Pac 12. While there are less teams than that from the Pac 12, that conference has the #2 and #3 teams overall in Stanford and Oregon State.

Let's do ladies first this time, and start with Jenna's bracket.

Baseball is Jenna's favorite sport, but she does not watch a tremendous amount of it. She does really enjoy FSU athletics though. We went to many a baseball game in our time as students at Florida State. Her favorites were Sherman Johnson and Devon Travis. Now, her favorite player is Drew Mendoza. As a big homer, she had to pick the Seminoles to take the beans. This was an easy prediction to make. Heck, all of our national champions were easy predictions to make.

Jenna has a really solid bracket with a lot of chalk. She has national powerhouse Oregon State to the finals against FSU. She also only has one 2 seed in Omaha. Other than that, she picked all 1 seeds. She has East Carolina and Texas doing quite a bit of damage. You will also notice that she does not have a single SEC team in the College World Series. Her anti-SEC bias is even stronger than mine and I absolutely love it!!!

Now, it's Eli's turn!

As always, Eli picks based on mascots and what sounds best. There is not always sound rationale, but he still isn't three. It is impressive he can even say these team names, let alone know anything about them. He enjoys saying the team names. You will notice a surprising amount of chalk and you will notice that he picked the family squad. He knows what is best after all.

Other than myself and Jenna, Eli actually had the most chalk on his bracket. He had all national seeds advancing, but two. Louisville and Baylor were the two seeds that he had advancing to Omaha. This kid certainly loves to pick Baylor when given the choice. Eli was very excited by East Carolina and their purple pirate mascot. That won him over until the finals against FSU. Some really solid picks from our soon to be 3 year old.

Let's check out Noland Jr.'s bracket.

Other than me, Noland Jr. watches the most baseball in the family. He watches more college baseball then a lot of baseball fans. The kid is a die-hard Seminole and will always pick them in any tournament they are in. Those other picks he made though there is some reason for. He knows his baseball pretty dang well. While this bracket is clearly not chalk, there is some sound reasoning behind a lot of it. Sometimes the mascots prevailed though because he is 5 (hello Wright St Wolfpack). I personally love the selections though and will be rooting for them to come true.

Tigers always win with Noland unless they are playing the Seminoles, so it's no surprise that LSU is advancing to the finals on his bracket. Auburn also makes a deep run until they play LSU. Also look at all those upsets. Crazy!!!!! I promise he loves and pays attention to the game. Being 5 and thinking anything can happen is super awesome.

Finally, I will show you mine....

I went with my head and not just my heart. My head and my heart both say that Florida State will win the day. The team is more than capable and 11 deserves a title. At the end of the day, you have to believe that good triumphs over evil. There is nothing more true in this game than 11 being a complete blessing for the sport. That being the case, it is long past time for this man to get his title. The Seminoles simply have to deliver for him. There are no other options. Florida State must win, they can win, and they will win. Do this Seminoles!!!!

More chalk than I typically go with in a bracket, I picked mostly national seeds to join FSU in Omaha. NC State has a real legitimate shot to upset Florida so I had them in the final field. Louisville has been incredibly hot and I had the Cardinals pulling some upsets to get to Omaha. South Carolina was the other 2 seed I had making it. They have done very well in the tournament historically, so I feel they are poised for another run. Texas I have as the other team on that side. Oregon State and North Carolina advance as top seeds. Stanford also advances. The final breakdown for my predicted Final Four is 4 ACC, 1 Big 12, 2 Pac 12, 1 SEC. I am most confident in the 2 Pac 12 teams being there as they have seemingly easy roads to get there. 4 ACC teams might be a little tougher to come by. This breakdown will leave Oregon State, FSU, Texas, and South Carolina on one side and Stanford, UNC, North Carolina State, and Louisville on the other side. I could be wrong about Louisville and South Carolina though as they could be swapped.

The main thing is though that I am looking forward to this year's tournament and I think FSU has a great shot. I am more concerned about this regional than the super regional. Miss State is no joke and we must get by that team first. Louisville is so incredibly hot right now and they peaked at the right time. Louisville is a team that looks to make a deep run in Omaha and give the Noles all they can handle. Those teams from the Pac 12 are mighty tough and I didn't forget those defending champs down south (well north of here, but south of my school). Anything can happen in this crazy tournament and here's hoping it happens for the Noles!

Would you look at that?
We all picked the Florida State Seminoles!!!! This family really wants Mike Martin to finally get his title. Let's win this one for 11.

What did you think of our bracket?
Who do you think makes it to Omaha?
Are you rooting for Mike Martin to finally get a title?
Got anything else you want us to do brackets of?
Feel free to leave us any feedback in the comments...

Next up for you is the best superhero movie bracket following us seeing Infinity War!!!!

- Noland