Greatest Viking Of All Time Tournament Rules Of Engagement: Nominations And Seedings

So, now that we know what all the hubbub is about, how are we going to go about doing this?

Well, before I get too far in, I want to give a big thank you to the folks at SB Nation's blog devoted to professional wrestling, Cageside Seats. A lot of the ideas that we're implementing for this tournament come from the folks over there. In fact, the incredible graphic that you see that will be our canvas for the tournament was designed by J.M. Williams, a graphics wiz that has done extensive work for the SB Nation combat sports sites. Their way of putting a tournament together is something that I think works out quite well, and should give us the best and most accurate results possible.

On Monday, I'm going to put out a post calling for nominations for the tournament. The way this is going to work is that somebody will put out a name of someone that they think belongs in the bracket in the comments section for that particular post. The format for this will be the word "Nominate," followed by the name of the player they want to put up for consideration.

For example. . .and I'll use someone that will obviously get in. . .if someone wants to nominate Bud Grant for the tournament, they will put up a post with "Nominate - Bud Grant" in the subject line.

After someone puts a name out there, people that agree will "rec" that comment. . .again, this is why folks need to be registered, because you can't comment or rec unless you are. The thread will stay open for a couple of days (pinned to an easily accessible location), and at the end of the time period, I will go ahead and look at all of the players nominated and how many recs they received. The four people that get the most "recs" will be the four "#1 seeds" in the tournament. The four people that are next will be the #2 seeds, and so forth until we fill out our 64-person field.

If you want to see an example of this, here is the nomination post that Cageside Seats did for their tournament to determine the best finishing maneuver of all time.

People can make a case for the person they're nominating, if they feel it necessary, and people can debate the merits of the nomination as well. In the case of a tie, I'll either flip a coin or use some other method to break it.

From there, we'll fill in the bracket, and the tournament will be underway!

Once again, the nomination thread will come out on Monday, just after the Open Thread hits the site. Hopefully you've all got folks in mind for this already. . .outside of the obvious ones, I mean.