March Snackness Unites Industry Dive in a Time of Madness

My favorite thing to do is treating trivial matters like they are of immense importance. Thankfully, my colleagues at Industry Dive seem to enjoy the same thing (as evidenced by the extreme competitiveness of the fall Chili Cook Off, Annual Pie Competition , and even a Guac n Roll: Guac Off). But such feats of food face-offs require being...face-to-face. Thus was a born a silly idea I had to bring us all together during our self-quarantine.

After briefly suggesting the concept to a few coworkers while we were still in the office, I bracketed 64 different food items into four regions: Fast Food, Candy, Comfort Food, and Beverages. I named the bracket "March Snackness." and shared it with my coworkers, hoping to bring some levity to our confinement.

Levity resulted at first, before it transitioned to outrage at my seeding, region choices and others taste, or lack thereof. There was also confusion over why certain items made it into the bracket and others were left out (I will be apologizing for the absence of Mac and Cheese for the rest of my life).

Two weeks, five rounds, and a #March-Snackness slack channel creation later, Industry Dive had successfully voted on its favorite food. Here are the noteworthy results:

• The biggest upset came in the first round when 15-seed Sonic felled 2-seed Burger King in the Fast Food region by a single vote.
• For some reason, the highest seed in the Beverage region, Water, seemed like an underdog, managing to defeat Diet Coke, Coffee, and Margaritas in a run to the Edible 8.
• The Final Feast was made up of Reeses Cups, Chick-Fil-A, Pizza, and Wine.
• Pizza ended up taking the championship, and had a relatively breezy time getting there, never having a match up that could be regarded as remotely close.

I've learned about my coworkers, despite not seeing them in nearly a month. I learned people really needed something, anything to focus on other than being at home. I learned they dont respect Taco Bell, Buffalo Wings or Sour Patch Kids nearly as much as they should. I learned in the future to make sure Im more specific and careful to choose specific seeding, so I can respond to the outrage and something less generic than Pizza -- which felt entirely obvious to be the general favorite -- could make a run.

Now, we're moving on to other brackets from other commissioners; brackets filled with jokes, Disney movies, or maybe music. Hopefully, March Snackness will make its return next March, but this time, it would be awesome to ignore their complaints about my seeding and tell everyone how wrong they are in person.