Bracket Strategy From A Last Year’s Loser

By Jennifer Houghton

Now that the draft is done and the brackets are drawn up, you can bet I’m getting a little rowdy. And while I might be described as competitive, I’m also not one to keep my hard earned lessons to myself. So, settle in fellow competitors, and get ready for some bracket strategy courtesy of yours truly. 

When you’re completing your bracket, you might want to avoid my approach from last year. The strategy I employed last year for college basketball could best be described as a “hate bracket”. For example, I dated someone who attended Ohio University so they didn’t advance. Or, I grew up in a border state and won’t ever select The Ohio State University (that turned out to be a great pick, by the way). How does this apply to the pen bracket? 

When I drew up my pen bracket last year I used my personal preferences, similar to my basketball bracket. I went through the list and picked only pens that I owned. Not the best strategy, I can say after losing epically.

Since the winners move forward based on voting, you are best served by selecting the fan favorites. How do you pick those, you ask? 

Score the community and interact with others and see what is popular is one option. The other option is to kind of bring a “Survivor” mentality to it. Get all of your crew together to vote the loser off the island, so to speak. The more friends you can get to vote for your pen selection, the better chances you have to see your pens move forward into the next round. 

Fountain pen lovers are an opinionated group, so I expect to hear you all loudly during the month of March. The prizes are great, the interaction will be a blast, and you know that the Atlas clan will give us lots of opportunity to connect during this once-a-year event. 

So get over to the Atlas website and fill out your bracket. Deadline to submit is Monday, March 7th, 2022. I look forward to seeing everyone’s strategy play out and folks win some awesome fountain pens! Best of luck, friends!