2009 GF5 Tournament Champion: STAR WARS
The 2009 Geek Force Five Tournament Champion is Star Wars! It wasn’t an easy road—the space opera overcame Firefly, The Daily Show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lost, and Batman before wiping the floor with the Beatles in the final round—but George Lucas’s grand creation outlasted every other obsession in the tournament. Congratulations to Star Wars and its many fans, and thank you to everyone who cast a vote in the tournament.
Until next year, it’s back to our regularly scheduled programming.
2009 GF5 Tournament FINALS: The Beatles vs. Star Wars
It’s been a little less than a month since we first announced the participants in the Geek Force Five Tournament, and now, ladies and gentlemen, it all comes down to this: The Beatles versus Star Wars.
For the generation that came of age in the 1960s, I don’t think there is any icon of popular culture that will ever top The Beatles. And, for the generation that came of age in the late 1970s, I think the same can be said for Star Wars. The thing that makes these forces of geekdom and popular culture all the more impressive, however, is that they not only shaped the time during which they were active and vital—they also forever shaped the art forms of which they were a part.
How do you decide between The Beatles and Star Wars, unless you’re one of those few who think that one or either of these things is highly overrated? I don’t know. I was born in 1977, the same year that the original Star Wars film debuted, and so I have a closer relationship with the films than I do with the band they are competing against. But how can anyone, even me, deny the cultural impact of the Fab Four?
It’s time to make up our minds. Vote now, and vote as often as you’d like. The polls close at 10 pm EDT tonight and, after that, a winner will finally be crowned.
2009 GF5 Tournament Round 5 Winners
Congratulations to fans of Star Wars and The Beatles. Your obsessions have made it to the finals. Voting for the final match begins on Friday, April 10 at 6 am EDT and runs through 10 pm EDT on that same day.
2009 GF5 Tournament Round 5: The Beatles vs. Apple
Here it is, a battle for the ages, a real-life conflict renewed in the quest for Geek Force supremacy! For years, Apple Computer, Inc. battled Apple Corps, Ltd. over trademark disputes and such, putting at odds the world’s greatest band and what was once (and might yet again be) the world’s greatest computer company. In 2007, that dispute was finally resolved. But the Beatles have continued to stick it to Apple, opting to release their music digitally for the first time as part of a Rock Band video game package, as opposed to releasing it through through Apple’s iTunes Store.
In terms of contributions to geekdom, Apple seems the clear winner here—the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone, the iTunes Store—but in terms of contributions to the public at large, the Fab Four most definitely come out on top. Hundreds of years from now, when computers as we know them are thing of the past, our descendants will still be singing the songs of the Beatles. Right? But, then again, how are we going to get to where we’re going without the technological advances that companies like Apple, and companies trying to take down Apple, are providing?
It’s time to vote, folks! Do it now, and do it as many times as you’d like before 10 pm EDT on Thursday, April 9.
2009 GF5 Tournament Round 5: Batman vs. Star Wars
Batman is perhaps the most popular comic book hero of our times. The popular and critical success of The Dark Knight proved that. But I think it’s easy to forget that Batman has staying power. He didn’t just pop up out of nowhere to capture our imagination. The dude has been around since 1939, when Bob Kane and Bill Finger first brought him to life. So, it’s not like his success is a fluke. Bats has been here before, and he almost certainly will be here again.
Star Wars, it can easily be argued, has staying power of its own. It’s been over thirty years since the release of the original film and yet, despite the widespread derision of nearly every Star Wars narrative brought to the screen in the past ten years, the phenomenon is still going strong. There is such love for that original trilogy of films that its hard to imagine them ever entirely leaving the cultural zeitgeist. You might say that this is the real accomplishment, to have stuck around despite years of suck (though the person doing the cross-examining need only point to Batman & Robin to prove what humiliation the Dark Knight can survive).
So, Fivers, it’s up to you. Vote now, and vote as many times as you’d like before Thursday at 10 pm EDT. And tell you friends, too! Let’s make the turnout for this matchup a big one.
2009 GF5 Tournament Round 4 Winners
And then, my friends, there were four. The top seeds in each bracket came out on top, and our Final Four is now set. Batman will take on Star Wars, the Beatles will take on Apple, and then the winners of those two matchups will compete for the right to be called Geek Force Champion. I guess this means it’s probably time to decide what the heck the winner wins, huh?
Stay tuned! Voting for these two stellar matchups begins tomorrow (Wednesday) and runs through Thursday evening.
2009 GF5 Tournament Round 4: The Beatles vs. Nine Inch Nails
This final matchup of the Elite Eight round really isn’t a contest at all, is it? I mean, whoever faces the Beatles should expect to have their asses handed to them on a platter, shouldn’t they? Well, the Beatles vs. Nirvana matchup in the Sweet Sixteen round proved otherwise. While the Fab Four held the lead throughout much of the weekend, Nirvana fans propelled their band ahead in the late-going. Perhaps it was the result of nostalgia on the anniversary of Kurt’s death, or perhaps it was that part in each of us that wants to see the underdog win—whatever it was, that matchup has to give Nine Inch Nails fans some hope.
But not too much. Let’s face it: the Beatles are moving on, aren’t they? And if NIN somehow wins, people are going to come out of the woodwork, knowing that NIN is my favorite band, and they are going to cry foul. Aren’t they?
Beatles! Nine Inch Nails! Vote now!
2009 GF5 Tournament Round 4: Apple vs. Nintendo Wii
According to the blurb that appears at the bottom of their press releases, “Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.”
And, according to the blurb that appears at the bottom of their press releases, Nintendo is “[t]he worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment…Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System™, Nintendo has sold more than 2.8 billion video games and more than 485 million hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii and Nintendo DS, as well as the Game Boy™, Game Boy Advance, Super NES™, Nintendo 64™ and Nintendo GameCube™. It has also created industry icons that have become well-known, household names such as Mario™, Donkey Kong™, Metroid™, Zelda™ and Pokémon™.”
Convincing arguments for both, right? Now, it’s up to you to decide who wins. Apple! The Wii! Vote now!
2009 GF5 Tournament Round 4: Batman vs. X-Men
I think it’s only fitting that the final matchup of the Comics bracket should be a Marvel vs. DC affair, and that the combatants should be the marquee players from each company’s roster. In these dark times, Batman and the X-Men are the popular heroes that come closest to representing us. We are either scared, alone, and feeling like the whole world’s against us, or we are too fucking bat-shit insane to care. Either way, we fight to make a difference, all the while wondering what the point is. It doesn’t seem like we can win, but we keep fighting anyway.
Who wins? I think this one is a toss-up. It really depends on how people mobilize their side of the fandom, and it depends on which character/characters remain in the minds and hearts of the general public. Batman! X-Men! Vote now!
2009 GF5 Tournament Round 4: Star Wars vs. Lost
In the wild and crazy Sweet Sixteen round, the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 overcame the crew of the starship Enterprise in a big upset, setting up this Elite Eight matchup between Star Wars and Lost. And, folks, if last round proved anything, this one should be interesting. We have learned that nobody is safe in this tournament, not even geek institutions like Star Wars. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you will recall, had the lead on the Skywalker clan heading into the fourth quarter of their third round matchup, and it wasn’t until a last minute call to arms was issued that the Millenium Falcon flew in to save Wookiee-lovers everywhere from certain doom.
Who wins in this matchup and goes on to face the winner of the Comics bracket in the semi-finals? That’s up to you to decide. Will it be the tried and true franchise, or will it be the obsession of a new generation? Star Wars! Lost! Vote now!