The NCAA basketball tournaments (men’s and women’s) are something that I look forward to every year, and we always have a Silverpine bracket competition which is a lot of fun. Obviously, those didn’t happen this year which was very disappointing, but understandable given the situation.

Not to be deterred though, we went ahead and held our own competition this year during our weekly video call with the whole company! The way it worked was that I would say two items over the call and then everyone would write their pick on a piece of paper and hold it up to the camera. For example, I would call out “elephant and giraffe” and everyone would have to write down either elephant or giraffe. The pick with the most votes would move on to the next round until we were able to crown a 2020 champion.

The first round competitors were largely paired together like “Cake vs Pie.” However once we proceeded to the second round, people had to choose from several non-sequitur items like “Seattle vs Taylor Swift.” Some of the pairings had clear winners while others were decided by a single vote, and it was a nail biter down to the end. The Final Four consisted of Dog, Blue, Pie and the ultimate Cinderella pick - Aquarium. In the championship, though, Dog easily coasted past Pie for the win and became the Silverpine 2020 Bracket Champion.

The whole “competition” was a lot of fun and a nice little stress relief, but it also was a great way for the team to get to know each other better. (We found out that one of our employees is a huge pie fan, and that another prefers C++ over dogs!) I actually think we might make this an annual event as the feedback on it has been overwhelmingly positive. Below is the completed bracket. No comments on my terrible handwriting!