March is known for at least one thing every years, NCAA March Madness and it is right around the corner. And with that is the continuation of the BSC Book Tournament. In case you were curious, yes the two events ARE similar! Our tournament is set up in the style of March Madness where we will eventually crown the Best Dystopian Novel of 2011 (as voted by our readership).

This is the first year Optionated will be participating in the BSC Book Tournament. Because of the world wide phenomenon caused by The Hunger Games over the last year, our tournament will give you a taste of The Hunger Games with 32 dystopian novels fighting to be crowned the winner.

The rules are these: eligibility is determined by a book being published for the first time in 2011, in the science fiction or fantasy genre, YA inclusive (anthologies are only considered if they are not reprints). The selected contestants are bracketed out into four groups; within each bracket the seeds are matched highest to lowest, and a voting poll is put up on our website. The poll will remain open the designated length of time (schedule TBA), and winners are determined strictly by the highest number of votes.  The winners of each round of voting will be matched to their next opponent on a pre-designated schedule (to be announced at the end of this week, in advance of any match-ups). Repeat the steps until we have four bracket champions, who will then play against one another to determine which books proceed to the consolation round, and which to the championship.

Because, as with Highlander, in the end there can be only one.

You can see our list of 32 contestants in their four brackets below:

Future Apocalypse Bracket

1. Incarceron – Catherine Fisher
2. Ship Breaker – Paolo Bacigalupi
3. Birthmarked – Caragh M. O’Brien
4. Fever Crumb – Philip Reeve
5. Legend – Marie Lu
6. The Death Cure – James Dashner
7. Across The Universe – Beth Revis
8. All These Things I’ve done – Gabrielle Zevin

Global Catastrophe Bracket

1. Epitaph Road – David Patneaude
2. The Eleventh Plague – Jeff Hirsch
3. Enclave – Ann Aguirre
4. Wither – Lauren Destefano
5. Awaken – Katie Kacvinksky
6. Ashes – Ilsa Bick
7. Delirium – Lauren Oliver
8. Eve – Anna Carey

Female Lead Bracket

1. Uglies – Scott Westerfeld
2. Matched – Ally Condie
3. The Line – Teri Hall
4. 21 Erased – Barbara Rayne
5. Helper 12 – Jack Blaine
6. Divergent – Veronica Roth
7. Dark Parties – Sara Grant
8. Bumped –  Megan McCafferty

Male Lead Bracket

1. The Scorpio Races – Maggie Stiefvater
2. The Gardener – S.A. Bodeen
3. Ashfall – Mike Mullin
4. Ready Player One – Ernest Cline
5. The Water Wars – Cameron Statcher
6. Dark Life – Kat Falls
7. Vortex – Robert Charles Wilson
8. Dark Inside – Jeyn Roberts

Voting will begin on Monday, March 12, 2012 for the Future Apocalypse Bracket and Global Catastrophe Brackets and on Tuesday, March 13, 2012 for the Female Versus Male brackets.

You can see the full schedule of matches here, and begin voting for round one here. 

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