[Road Warrior Shark]

So, I got inspired the other day. I kind of miss Gator's goofy showdowns and started thinking what haven't we had a showdown on? And I came up with this little nugget...

Countries of the world.

So I spent some time on Wikipedia and other informational sites and came up with 195 countries in the world that are generally recognized.

So thinking about bracketing, 192 is a great number, so I tossed out the USA, Canada & UK, since we have regular posters from all three.

That leaves 192. the 64 most populated countries get a round one bye, leaving 128 in round 1. All pairings and brackets are random.

I figure I can do 8 matchups a week (or so) and see what shakes out.

What are you voting on? Well that's the beauty of this one. The criteria? None. You vote for your favorite, the place you visited, the place you'd like to visit, the place with the worst flag, whatever you like. Use politics, religion, hottest babe in the Miss Universe pageant, whatever makes you smile.

Here, in random order are the 64 countries getting a bye.

1. Ukraine
2. North korea
3. Ghana
4. Ethiopia
5. Yemen
6. Sudan
7. Mozambique
8. Uzbkistan
9. Germany
10. Australia
11. Colombia
12. Uganda
13. Netherlands
14. Ecuador
15. Thailand
16. Bangladesh
17. Sri lanka
18. Kazakhstan
19. Mali
20. Egypt
21. Iraq
22. Japan
23. India
24. Mexico
25. Nepal
26. Venezuela
27. Cameroon
28. Spain
29. Morocco
30. Democratic Republic of the Congo
31. Myanmar
32. Peru
33. Nigeria
34. Malaysia
35. Afghanistan
36. Romaina
37. Kenya
38. Turkey
39. Saudi Arabia
40. Madagascar
41. Niger
42. Poland
43. Guatemala
44. Argentina
45. Syria
46. China
47. France
48. Brazil
49. Algeria
50. Chile
51. Italy
52. Russia
53. Vietnam
54. Taiwan
55. Philippines
56. Iran
57. Tanzania
58. Pakistan
59. Burkina Faso
60. Indonesia
61. Angola
62. South Africa
63. Ivory Coast
64. South Korea

They will be randomly paired with round 1 winners.

I'm getting the first set of matchups up late late tonight

[The Canadian Content]

Fun idea, Sharky.

[Deleted]

[Road Warrior Shark]

Just in case some haven't seen this in the 20 recent posts...

[Road Warrior Shark]

Hoping to get to the nexy set of polls tonight, but it might not be until Saturday

[Road Warrior Shark]

New Polls Going up!

[Road Warrior Shark]

I'll work on the new Polls this night/overnight

[Road Warrior Shark]

17-24 Need your vote!

[Road Warrior Shark]

I'll get the next round up this evening sometime.

[Road Warrior Shark]

I'll get the next batch up tonight or tomorrow morning

[Deleted]

Yay!

[Deleted]

Sharky, when we get to Round 2, would it be possible to put the country names in the thread titles?

[Road Warrior Shark]

Mar 6, 2012 9:02:34 GMT -5 @gatorbait said:

Sharky, when we get to Round 2, would it be possible to put the country names in the thread titles?

I could probably remember to do that.

[Road Warrior Shark]

Slow day at Puns House? Vote in this week's Clash Polls!

[Road Warrior Shark]

Once I get 6 or 8 hours sleep, I'll get the next batch going

[Road Warrior Shark]

Alright Folks, after much delay, I'll be working on the next set of polls this morning. I'm hoping to return to a regular weekly-ish format.

[Doug]

Sharky, you have two poll 48's, and no poll 41. Just thought you might want to know.

[Road Warrior Shark]

Mar 25, 2012 11:09:42 GMT -5 Doug said:

Sharky, you have two poll 48's, and no poll 41. Just thought you might want to know.

Bosnia v Lesotho should have been 41. Thanks

[Road Warrior Shark]

Slow day at Puns? Nothing to draft? VOTE in the Clash!

Polls 42-47 and both poll 48's need your support!

[Road Warrior Shark]

Mar 29, 2012 12:00:47 GMT -5 Road Warrior Shark said:

Slow day at Puns? Nothing to draft? VOTE in the Clash!

Polls 42-47 and both poll 48's need your support!

[Road Warrior Shark]

Should get to the new ones tonight...

[Road Warrior Shark]

Apr 3, 2012 10:24:07 GMT -5 Road Warrior Shark said:

Should get to the new ones tonight...

This... won't be happening tonight.

On the plus side, We drove into Louisiana this evening and I nearly hit an alligator.

sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/524099_10150672199936137_587356136_9308213_1034850725_n.jpg [/img]

My co-worker wanted to paint it's toenails pink.... so it ran away

[Road Warrior Shark]

Movie Draft going slow? Tired of clicking refresh every 30 seconds to see if the guy before you has picked yet? Cursing the fact that the clocks haven't even started yet and Solly already snaked you? Take a break! Vote in Poll 49-56 of the Clash of the Countries!

[Road Warrior Shark]

Currently working on the next batch of polls. These 8 will wrap up round 1!!!!

I'd like a little feedback... this round I used a wikipedia link and the flag to represent each country. I'm thinking about changing it up next round, basically because I don't want it to be a "Flag Showdown." Plus reading the comments, I'm doubting people are actually using the Wikilinks (as opposed to Wikileaks, which is a whole other thing, I swear!)

I know the first answer is "Hot Chicks" Trust, Me I thought of that one already. I think that's best served for the round of 16 or 8 or somewhere really close to the end.

National Beers is another option, but that might also be alot more work than I want to out in. Maybe save that for closer to the end too.

I'm leaning toward posting a political map or something next round. But if anyone has suggestions, I'm listening

[Deleted]

A map showing the shape of the country would work for me. I would enjoy that.