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The Sixth Annual Connecticut Town Tournament is HERE!!!!!!!!! Welcome!!! Now, if you have been an active user on this forum for a while, you will probably remember previous Town Tournaments that I organized back in 2022, 2020, 2018, 2016, and even the very first one in 2014; which honestly was an awful one, as it was something I just started on the spot without really any thought or planning.
Here is a link to all of previous tournaments to check out:
Now most of you, especially senior members of this forum, will know that this whole Tournament has become a trend and something that I run every two years. This is almost like one of the biggest events of the whole CT Forum that everyone looks forward to and enjoys so much! I know so many of you that have enjoyed all the previous tournaments a lot and always look forward to the next one. And the unique thing is that every two years is pretty reasonable timeframe because towns slowly change with developments, etc, and we always have some new voters every time, as well as the format being a bit different each time. Therefore, there is always something new to experience for every new tournament.
Now before I say anything else, there are two things that make this 2024 Tournament extremely special that I would like to point out:
1. Celebration of the 10-Year Anniversary: Since I started this in 2014, and we are in 2024 now, we are celebrating the 10-year anniversary of when this whole trend started! This is a really big deal, because like I stated earlier, I first started this as just a fun hobby to test out and see how others would like it, and had NO intention of doing anything like this again after the first one in 2014. However, because I did not plan it at all and made a sudden decision on the spot, the 2014 tournament turned out horribly. Therefore, after two years, I decided to try again in 2016 with one planned out. The 2016 tournament gained a lot of traction and was loved by so many users; I was honestly amazed by the passion and competitiveness that our forum members had for this! Because of how loved it was, I decided to give it one more test in 2018, and we had more voters / participants that year than ever before! Right after 2018, I said to myself that this needs to be made an official 2 year thing and trend and something that we all look forward to on our Forum! And since then it has only ever gotten better with new participants joining in every time! Because this is the 10-Year Anniversary, I decided to add a special feature and make this a DOUBLE-ELIMINATION TOURNAMENT!!! That means that every town will need to be eliminated twice before being completely eliminated and there is absolutely ZERO excuse of a tough draw for being eliminated early! I will explain in more detail in the format!
Also, I would like to share with you a song that has made itself in my books: The Connecticut Tournament Song! "When Can I See You Again by Owl City": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM1YMeDsc-M This song always reminds me of the CT Town Tournament mainly because there was one night when I was coincidentally listening to it on repeat, while working on the 2016 Town Tournament! Now I listed to it all the time when I work on this tournament with recording results, starting each round, etc.
2. Dazzleman's Memorial: Over the past years, there was a senior member that was pretty active on the forum with the username of "dazzleman". He was always a tournament participant all the way since 2014, and always brought some great discussions and subjects about the towns when talking about the matchups and tournament predictions. He was a really beloved member. Sadly, he passed away just under a year ago, and therefore will not be participating in this tournament Here is a thread to get more details on this: https://www.city-data.com/forum/conn...leman-rip.html . Anyways, I just wanted to give him a very special honor and shoutout to him because of his past contributions in our previous tournaments!
Format: OK so like I already said earlier, this is a Double-Elimination Tournament. There will be two brackets: one winners and one losers bracket. CT has 169 towns and we will start with all the towns in the winners bracket. Once a town gets eliminated from the winners bracket, the town will get relegated down to the losers bracket. Every town will enter the losers bracket at some point, depending on which round, the towns get eliminated from in the winners bracket. So basically if a town gets eliminated in Round 1, it'll have a much longer route to the final in the loser's bracket. If a town gets eliminated from the winner's bracket in Round 6 or 7, it will have a much shorter route to the final via the loser's bracket. Towns will be seeded based on coefficient ranks that are determined by their performances in all the previous tournaments. The more recent the tournament was, the higher weight it has on the town's coefficient ranking. Now one thing I need to bring to everyone's attention, especially if you might not completely understand how brackets work in general, Connecticut has 169 towns which is an odd number and also not divisible by 2 all the way. Therefore Round 1 is basically the wild card round / play in fixtures. Therefore most of the well performing towns will skip over to Round 2! The winner of each fixture will move onto the next round. Remember each town needs to be eliminated twice in order to be officially eliminated, with the exception of the GRAND FINALE. One other thing to note is because we have two brackets, some towns will NOT appear in every round, especially because there will be a few rounds where we need to get the Losers Bracket moving and therefore the Winners Bracket will hold off for a round here and there. All together we are looking at about approximately 14 rounds, which means this tournament will likely last around 14 weeks give or take. Therefore, we expect this tournament to be done sometime in Early June!
Procedures: For those of you who are new and / or might not remember the previous tournaments, let me explain the procedures. So there are many rounds. Out of 169 towns, two will face each other, and you will vote in each fixture regarding which town would be your favorite out of the two. It could be the town you would rather live in, rather vacation in, love the most due to characteristics, your choice. Pick the town you would overall like better. After the first round is done, all the towns that won will advance to the next round and be drawn to face each other. This procedure will be repeated until the final round when there is only two towns left, and one town wins the tournament. If you have not been to certain towns, you can either skip some fixtures, or guess which town you might prefer based on what you have heard, as well take advice from other people on these forums or other friends. Anybody can enter the tournament and vote at anytime. Suppose you see this when Round 2 already starts, you can vote even if you missed Round 1. Jumping in is not only allowed but is encouraged at any time during the tournament. The more voters we have the better. In 2016, we had a total of 31 voters, in 2018 we had 37, in 2020 we had 32, and in 2022 we had 27. Hopefully we can have more voters with this tournament!!! Each round will have a deadline that I will post as soon as I post the fixtures for each round. Approximately, every round will last about one week. In case of any draws in the fixtures, I will extend the deadline for that fixture an additional 90 min. If it is still equal after that additional 90 min, we will restart only the specific fixture in question from scratch again, and everyone will have 24 hours to revote. The truth is we will not have everyone make it in only 24 hours, so will definitely get different results. You are also allowed to change your vote at anytime prior to deadline.
In the 2014 Tournament, I remember that quite a few people complained about fixtures not being fair. I am sorry about this, but in a tournament, you will never have fair fixtures, and you will see many fixtures with one town likely a clear favorite to win over another. That is just how the tournament works I'm afraid, and there is no way to get to a final round without having unfair fixtures.
By the way the best way to vote is probably to quote my post of fixtures, and either bold or underline the town you vote for, but you can do it any way you feel comfortable with. I will be keeping track of everyone who has been voting. In the future rounds, I will likely PM you in the middle of the week if you have not voted in a certain round yet, but have in a previous round in order to send a reminder and make sure you do not forget to keep voting. Remember you can enter at anytime, and please do vote. We want as many voters as possible. Depending on the circumstances, I could extend or retract the deadline if I feel a need to. I also still have records of the voters from previous tournaments and plan to send PMs to those people as well. Also feel free to make comments on why you voted for a certain town in fixtures if anything is interesting or it was a tough call! We love to hear people's reasoning and opinions! This is a Forum after all, and discussion about the fixtures, votes, towns, and choices is always encouraged!!!
I believe I have said WAY TOO MUCH in this post, so I will stop here, and if you have any further questions, please feel free to ask me. I request that you ask here on the forums rather than sending me a PM, so everyone can see it.
I will have Round 1 posted on here within the next few hours!
I hope you are all excited and ready to vote. WHO IS EXCITED AND READY???
To Everyone, just a quick announcement; in order to honor one of our former members: dazzleman, I will not post the Round 1 fixtures for two hours. I want to take two hours of NO VOTING in order to remember and honor our eternal member 'dazzleman" as he passed away.
During this time, please feel free to say anything you would like to honor dazzleman / his previous tournament participation, or you can post anything you'd like in regards to the tournament! I will have Round 1 fixtures posted and ready at around approximately 10:30pm CT Time!
Deadline: Sunday, March 10 at 10:00pm Connecticut Time.
Remember you are more than welcome to comment on any fixture after voting, and say why if you want. Also making comments on other peoples votes is not only allowed but very welcome if you have something to say.
Note: This is only the Wild Card Round. All the other towns that you do not see on this list will start in Round 2, which is pretty much most of them.
East Haven vs Stratford
Ashford vs Windham
Morris vs Wolcott
Hampton vs Stafford
Seymour vs Montville
New Britain vs Bloomfield
Berlin vs Lebanon
Sherman vs Derby
Coventry vs East Hartford
South Windsor vs Lisbon
Pomfret vs Waterbury
Plainville vs Hartland
Harwinton vs Ledyard
Norfolk vs Sterling
Putnam vs Preston
Middlefield vs Torrington
Bethany vs Griswold
Canterbury vs Sprague
Barkhamsted vs Naugatuck
Windsor Locks vs East Windsor
Eastford vs Norwich
West Haven vs Windsor
Colebrook vs Meriden
Bristol vs Chaplin
Killingly vs Salem
Tolland vs Somers
Granby vs Hamden
Beacon Falls vs Sharon
Thompson vs Ansonia
East Granby vs Brooklyn
Durham vs Voluntown
North Haven vs Suffield
Goshen vs Plainfield
Canaan vs Plymouth
Union vs Bozrah
Willington vs Columbia
Andover vs Prospect
Scotland vs Franklin
Burlington vs Winchester
Enfield vs Vernon
Haddam vs Warren
So there we have it. I am really looking forward to seeing how this turns out. WHO IS EXCITED AND READY TO VOTE??? LET'S GO!!!!!
Deadline: Sunday, March 10 at 10:00pm Connecticut Time.
Remember you are more than welcome to comment on any fixture after voting, and say why if you want. Also making comments on other peoples votes is not only allowed but very welcome if you have something to say.
Note: This is only the Wild Card Round. All the other towns that you do not see on this list will start in Round 2, which is pretty much most of them.
East Haven vs Stratford - I enjoy the drive on I-95 through Stratford more than through East Haven.
Ashford vs Windham
Morris vs Wolcott - Don't know much about Morris but more of an anti-Wolcott pick.
Hampton vs Stafford
Seymour vs Montville
New Britain vs Bloomfield
Berlin vs Lebanon - European city vs Middle East Countryl
Sherman vs Derby - Funny shaped
Coventry vs East Hartford
South Windsor vs Lisbon - Easy one - I like this town.
Pomfret vs Waterbury
Plainville vs Hartland - Not much in Hartland I think.
Harwinton vs Ledyard
Norfolk vs Sterling - Ice Box!
Putnam vs Preston
Middlefield vs Torrington - I find this downtown so fascinating - a bunch of hip newer places along with old style businesses that look like they have been there for 100 years.
Bethany vs Griswold - Rock Walls.
Canterbury vs Sprague - Just like the name Canterbury more than Sprague.
Barkhamsted vs Naugatuck
Windsor Locks vs East Windsor - Winner gets a cigar.
Eastford vs Norwich - Rivers
West Haven vs Windsor
Colebrook vs Meriden
Bristol vs Chaplin
Killingly vs Salem
Tolland vs Somers
Granby vs Hamden
Beacon Falls vs Sharon - Fading Beacon Falls here.
Thompson vs Ansonia - Quiet Corner
East Granbyvs Brooklyn
Durham vs Voluntown
North Haven vs Suffield - North Haven too divided up by the highways
Goshen vs Plainfield - Throw a bone to Eastern CT
Canaan vs Plymouth
Union vs Bozrah - What a matchup. Bad experience with bugs in Union area.
Willington vs Columbia
Andover vs Prospect
Scotland vs Franklin - I really don't know.
Burlington vs Winchester
Enfield vs Vernon
Haddam vs Warren
So there we have it. I am really looking forward to seeing how this turns out. WHO IS EXCITED AND READY TO VOTE??? LET'S GO!!!!!
169 towns don't seem like a lot until you are on the 12th matchup between quiet, rural towns you've never been to.
East Haven vs Stratford: Very tough call to be honest. They both have some good areas and other not so good areas. That being said, Stratford does have quite a few run down areas, and while East Haven does to, it still feels like partially an extension of New Haven, so I'm giving my vote to East Haven. Morgan Point is really nice, and I do really like Silver Sands Beach as well as East Haven Town Beach. I've been to Stratford quite a few times, and while it has some great amenities, it just feels very ordinary and not really anything super special.
Ashford vs Windham: Not super easy either. Unlike a lot of people, I have some mixed feelings about the Willimantic area. It's pretty rundown, but at the same time I do feel it's a bit cute with how it's like a very tiny city right in the middle of the quiet corner. All that to say, Ashford is also a really beautiful town with some great trails, and I can't pick Windham over Ashford.
Morris vs Wolcott
Hampton vs Stafford: Sorry Hampton, but there is really nothing there.
Seymour vs Montville
New Britain vs Bloomfield
Berlin vs Lebanon: Again, there's not really much in Lebanon.
Sherman vs Derby
Coventry vs East Hartford: I like the suburb of East Hartford. It's working class and has advantages and disadvantages, but it has some great parts to the town.
South Windsor vs Lisbon: Not much separating these two towns for me, but one of my best friends does live in Lisbon, so I give Lisbon the slight edge. It's also a quiet town.
Pomfret vs Waterbury: One of the nicest towns in the Quiet Corner. Sorry Waterbury, but the city is a dump in many of the areas and is really behind in development.
Plainville vs Hartland: I feel like Hartland is a town that is quite underrated and doesn't get the love it deserves as it's very rural and most people barely know anything about it. There's some really nice forests there, and I do love some of the walking unpaved roads that lead up to Massachusetts. The nature that the town has to offer is not to be underestimated.
Harwinton vs Ledyard: Ledyard is unique in its own way. Especially appreciate the Ledyard Center and Gales Ferry areas.
Norfolk vs Sterling: Very tough
Putnam vs Preston: Part of the quiet corner.
Middlefield vs Torrington: Not a huge fan of Torrington. It's kind of rundown and one of the more depressing areas of Litchfield county.
Bethany vs Griswold
Canterbury vs Sprague
Barkhamsted vs Naugatuck: Similar to what I was saying about Hartland, Barkhamsted has some really great nature and forests that are not to be overlooked. The whole area of Barkhamsted/Hartland is one of my favorite areas in the whole northern part of the state. Not a fan of Naugatuck at all, and it's pretty rundown if you ask me.
Windsor Locks vs East Windsor: Windsor Locks is just overtaken by the airport for much of the town. Can get quite noisy with all the airplanes.
Eastford vs Norwich: Norwich is another one of those rundown towns that has seen better days in the past.
West Haven vs Windsor: Honestly West Haven, East Haven, and North Haven as the surrounding areas of New Haven have not gotten any love in past tournaments, and I feel they deserve some recognition. All of those towns have some interesting areas and a bit of nightlife. Of course it's nothing like New Haven, but still deserves some love.
Colebrook vs Meriden: I hate voting against Colebrook this early, but I feel like Meriden is one of those towns that has done pretty poorly in previous tournaments, and it doesn't deserve to be known as the dump in the whole state. It's an average small city, but it is not horrible and deserves a bit more recognition than it has gotten in past tournaments.
Bristol vs Chaplin
Killingly vs Salem: As a huge ice cream connoisseur, thank Salem Valley Farms for this. It is definitely NOT my favorite ice cream in the state, but it's a pretty good ice cream place that tastes very fresh, and one of the only very high quality ones that you can find in the heart of Rural Eastern CT. Most of the other top ice cream places are in the western part of the state.
Tolland vs Somers
Granby vs Hamden: Seriously, very tough. I do like the town of Hamden as it’s quite a populated town neighboring New Haven with a few great restaurants. However, Granby is also a nice rural town; and I can’t give no notice to Grassroots Ice Cream, as a huge connoisseur. I give the slight edge to Hamden though.
Beacon Falls vs Sharon
Thompson vs Ansonia: One of the nicest towns of the Quiet Corner of CT. Not a fan of Ansonia at all.
East Granby vs Brooklyn
Durham vs Voluntown: Really do appreciate Rural Middlesex County
North Haven vs Suffield: Again, New Haven surrounding areas not getting enough recognition in previous tournaments.
Goshen vs Plainfield
Canaan vs Plymouth
Union vs Bozrah: Gotta vote for the smallest populated town in the state.
Willington vs Columbia
Andover vs Prospect
Scotland vs Franklin
Burlington vs Winchester: Winchester is arguably the worst area in all of Litchfield County.
Enfield vs Vernon
Haddam vs Warren: Again, I do appreciate the rural towns in Middlesex County along the CT River.
WOW!!! I must say that considering this is only the first round, I already spent quite some time on this, and I found quite a few of these matchups surprisingly tough for it being only Round 1!
You can see how little love the northern rural type places get. Low cost of living, lots of them have decent schools, close to airport, close to highway. Somers/Suffield/Granby’s all have Enfield for your grocery stores/big box.
Anyways, nice first round but none of these will win anyways so it’s splitting hairs.
You can see how little love the northern rural type places get. Low cost of living, lots of them have decent schools, close to airport, close to highway. Somers/Suffield/Granby’s all have Enfield for your grocery stores/big box.
Anyways, nice first round but none of these will win anyways so it’s splitting hairs.
Yeah, honestly I do wonder how many people have actually visited those place. All that to say, I do feel because they're very rural, usually that means there's not that much there, and I think that might be why the lack popularity. I do love some of them but not all of them. Like the Barkhamsted/Hartland Area I really LOVE a lot, as the forests are very beautiful with great nature. There are a few unpaved roads that lead to Massachusetts from those towns, and I do find that kind of cool, as they feel like walking / biking trails in a way. Granby is nice too, but I just couldn't choose it over Hamden.
Not the biggest fan of Sommers and Suffield, but I do like Ashford, Union, and Thompson as well. One town that I expect to do pretty well this time is Salisbury. It got a bye to the next round, but that is far northwest and surprised quite a few of us last tournament.
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Here is a thread to get more details on this: 
dazzleman's memorial
