If you listened to Episode 298 of Geek Out Loud, you know how some of the scores were chosen for placement. Then, for the past two weeks or so on the Guardians of the GOLiverse Facebook page and the Geek Out Loud X feed, I have been posting polls so that everyone who wanted to could vote for scores to be included.

Most scores that had multiple submissions from the listeners were in automatically. The seeding of each division is based on the amount of times a score was submitted. Scores that were submitted an equal amount of times were seeded based on when they were submitted.

Most eliminations were handled via listener voting on the aforementioned platforms. There are a few scores that I chose by executive decision to omit based on a judgment call. I will point out those scores when we get to the big episode.

Within this post you will find a PDF version of the brackets that you should be able to download and follow along as we go. It has yet to be decided if we will have a mega blow out episode or handle the voting over the course of several episodes. Let us know what you think by emailing geekoutonline@gmail.com or commenting on Twitter or the facebook group.

To best enjoy the voting process I would encourage you to hunt down and listen to scores with which you may not be familiar or haven’t listened to in a long time. Voting will happen via the live chat on mixlr when we go live with Geek Out Loud. To know when we go live follow the show on X or in Guardians of the GOLiverse Facebook group.

Thanks to everyone who submitted the over 180 scores, and the everyone who has voted thus far to help narrow down the brackets. Without further adeu…here’s the bracket!

• We are not doing soundtracks. For example, if Batman from 1989 was submitted we are focused on the Danny Elfman orchestral score rather than the Prince fueled soundtrack. Back to the Future would be the Alan Silvestri score, not the soundtrack with songs by Huey Lewis and the News and…well…others. (I don’t konw!)
• We are considering the ENTIRE SCORE, not just a track or two. While pieces like the Imperial March are awesome, if we are talking about The Empire Strikes Back score we have to take into account the entire score for the whole movie.
• Scores have been submitted by listeners via e-mail. Almost every score that was submitted has been included. There are a small handful of scores that were omitted because the “score” of the film was pre-existing music from classical composers, or a made for television movie was submitted. We are sticking to original cinematic scores only.
• Seeding of the tournament is handled by how many submissions a film got (fun facts about that to come)
• There are four divisions – Sci-fi/Fantasy, Drama/Thriller, Action/Adventure, and Comedy/Other
• Winners will be chosen LIVE on the next few episodes of Geek Out Loud. Tune it at mixlr.com/goliverse to participate. Notices will go out on “X” and in the Guardians of the GOLiverse Facebook group for when we will be live.
• Winners will be chosen by a vote from the audience as well as the host who has a more weighted voted (fat joke).

Everybody that got? Good.

There were 187 different film scores submitted from every era and genra of cinema except for silent films. (Not my choice…nobody submitted one) We have to somehow get that narrowed down to 64 films for the big dance. By and Large movie scores that had multiple submissions will be included no matter what. (Except for the scores that are eliminated in the qualifying tournaments) On the next couple of episodes of Geek out Loud we will have those qualifiers in very distinct tournaments. For example, we will have a best super hero score tournament, best animated film score tournament, best Star Wars film score tournament, etc. These smaller qualifying tournaments will get us to 16 film scores in each division to have the BIG show. In some instances we will have individual match ups to stay in the tournament. For example, 2 different Back to the Future scores have been recommended, and if we need to we will pit those against each other in sudden death match for a place on the big bracket.

On the next episode of GOL we will be tackling a 16 entry Superhero tournament, a 16 film animated tournament, and an 8 film Star Wars tournament. If time permits we may hit up more.

Watch your mixlr notifications, the X and the facebook group to know when we go live! And grab a few of the qualifying round brackets below to follow along.

On Saturday February 8th, 2020 Host Steve Glosson will be joined by other co-hosts and friends throughout the day for a day long podcast marathon aimed at raising money for CURE.  The marathon will actually begin with a pre-recorded broadcast of The Big Honkin Show that will air on WGIG 1440 AM 98.7 FM in Brunswick, GA at 7am Eastern. WGIG can be heard globally on iHeart Radio.  

At 10am Eastern Steve will go live at www.bighonkinshow.com/live where listeners can tune in all day to hear Steve and company discuss funny topics in the news, pop culture subjects like Star Wars, superheroes, movies, tv shows, and music, as well as having listeners call in to a number that will be given during the live broadcast. 

During the day listeners are encouraged to go to www.geekoutonline.com/cure or www.bighonkinshow.com/cure to donate to CURE.  CURE Childhood Cancer is a non-profit organization dedicated to eradicating childhood cancer in our lifetime.  More information about CURE can be found at their website www.curechildhoodcancer.org 

This will be the sixth time the Geek Out Loud network of shows has undertaken this marathon.  Over the past six years nearly $20,000 has been raised through the generosity of listeners and fellow podcasters.  This year, the goal has been set at $5000. This will actually be more difficult this year as the former network has decreased in size and scope.  

We are asking all media outlets and podcast friends to announce this marathon this week on your podcast if it’s not too late and/or your blog and social media.  We will be using the hashtag #GOL4Cure on the day of the marathon and people can follow our progress on twitter by following @GOLiverse.  

If you would like to participate in the marathon by calling in please contact Steve Glosson at geekoutonline@gmail.com 

However, I’ve been playing around a little. I have the tools (not really the talent), and it seems wasteful to just let said tools go unused. So here we are…with a new experiment. Geek Out Loud video. Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments! Should we pursue this…go with YouTube? Is there another platform out there? I’m no Stuffedy…but this could be some fun times. Let me know how you feel about it. Thanks all!

As always we are collecting the money through a First Giving Page. First Giving is a site that partners with non-profits to help make events like this possible for independent groups. This way all of the money collected goes straight through them to CURE. Neither I nor anyone in the GOLiverse ever touches the money or receives any benefits from it other than the joy of putting in the effort to see the good work done.

You can access the page this year through one of two links. They are

https://geekoutonline.com/cure
http://bighonkinshow.com/cure

Either one of these links will take you to the correct page which will be active for one week following the marathon.

During the marathon we encourage you to use your social media to help us promote the even using the hashtag #GOLForCURE. If you’re on twitter let CURE know you’re participating by tweeting @CUREChildCancer

This year we have a lot stacked against us as all of the other events going on in life have prevented us from properly preparing. Steve admits that’s completely on him and he apologizes for not promoting this sooner and making sure everything was ready to go. Because of that, we will be relying heavily on our listeners throughout the day to call in and be more a part of the marathon than ever before. We hope you’ll be listening and we hope you can find in your heart to give whatever you can afford to help fight Childhood Cancer.