Metallic Madness 2023 returns: official bracket details and where to vote

10 March 2023 – The madness is back for 2023! Metallic Madness, the wackiest, inconsequential fandom tournament featuring your favourite Sonic the Hedgehog characters, media, and communities, is about to make its return to your Twitter feeds through 16 March to 3 April 2023.

What’s Metallic Madness?

Inspired by that major college basketball tournament, Metallic Madness is a single elimination knockout bracket that will feature 64 unique entrants from the vast world of Sonic the Hedgehog official media and fandom! Fans from around the world determine the outcome of each match by voting in a series of polls on Twitter until one is crowned the winner!

We are aiming to unite the community with a quirky, inconsequential spin of a popular format. Embrace the upsets, the victories, and the out of the ordinary!

How does it work?

Metallic Madness will feature 64 entrants handpicked or randomly drawn by the Selection Committee. Just like last year, the entrants will be divided into four “divisions” based on a subject matter.

The divisions

  • The Games division will feature characters from the mainline Sonic the Hedgehog video games series.
  • The Comics division will be centered around the characters from IDW Publishing’s Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series.
  • The Universe division will feature characters from Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog cinematic universe, the Sonic Prime animation, and non-playable characters from the Sonic Frontiers video game.
  • The Community division will include a number of well known fan communities, events and outlets, as well as four nominated content creators.

The entrants will compete against each other in their respective divisions, and no entrant from another division will cross each other until the Tournament Semifinal round.

All matches will be played out for two hours each, and approximately at the same tip off times to the real-life college basketball tournament.

The rounds

There are six rounds in Metallic Madness, spread across a total of ten matchdays.

  • The First Round will feature a total of 32 matches. 16 matches will be played each in the two matchdays, and each division will play a total of 8 games.
  • The Second Round will feature a total of 16 matches. 8 matches will be played each in the two matchdays, and each division will play a total of 4 games.
  • The Divisional Semifinals will feature a total of 8 matches, 2 games per division. This is the final round where every side of the bracket will be played in each matchday.
  • The Divisional Finals will feature 4 matches. The top half of the bracket (Games and Comics) will be played on the first matchday, while the bottom half (Universe and Community) will be played on the second matchday.
  • The Tournament Semifinals will feature the winning entrants of each division in two respective games. This will be the first time the divisional entrants will cross each other in the bracket.
  • The Tournament Final will feature the winning entrants of the left and right sides of the bracket, and will ultimately decide the winner of the tournament.

What should I know?

Last year, Comics divisions winner Whisper the Wolf bested Media (now Universe) division winner Agent Stone in a historic match that ended in a tie and forced the first-ever overtime vote. This year, both entrants will return in a refreshed bracket, featuring a slew of returning and new characters!

Not only will Whisper return to new faces in the Comics division; Agent Stone, the only remaining Sonic movie representative, will battle it out with characters from Sonic Prime and Sonic Frontiers in the newly renamed Universe division; and fans can expect brand new content creators to appear in the Community division!

What’s new?

This year’s Metallic Madness will largely retain the same format like last year, albeit with a few thematic changes:

Automatic first seeds

That’s right! All the divisional winners from last year’s tournament will return as the first seed in this year’s bracket! Get ready to see the return of Silver the Hedgehog in the Games division, as well as fan favourite Sonic Team Argentina in the Community division!

Community Draft

Speaking of fan favourites, your favourite content creators will be featured in the Community division! New for 2023, interested applicants can submit themselves in the Community Draft, and four eligible nominees will be randomly drawn into the bracket!

Nine candidates were nominated, and the four entrants selected via random draw are:

Who am I voting for?

Each division will contain no more than 16 entrants. To determine their match up in the First Round of the bracket, the entrants were organized in four divisional pools.

The Games pool will contain have last year’s divisional winner, Silver the Hedgehog, as the automatic first seed. There will be 14 returning characters from 2022, as well as one new character.

Last year’s tournament winner Whisper the Wolf will return as the automatic first seed in the Comics division, which will feature 11 returning characters, as well as 4 new characters.

Agent Stone, last year’s Media division winner, will return as the automatic first seed in the newly renamed Universe pool, which will feature eight new Sonic Prime characters, and seven new Sonic Frontiers characters.

Four new content creators will face against last year’s divisional winner, Sonic Team Argentina, in the Community pool, which will feature 9 returning entrants, and two new entrants.

Games poolComics poolUniverse poolCommunity pool
(1) Silver the Hedgehog*
Amy Rose
Big the Cat
Blaze the Cat
Charmy Bee
Cream the Rabbit
Doctor Eggman
Espio the Chameleon
Infinite
Knuckles the Echidna
Metal Sonic
Miles “Tails” Prower
Rouge the Bat
Shadow the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog
Vector the Crocodile
(1) Whisper the Wolf*
Belle the Tinkerer
Doctor Starline
Don the Rooster
E-117 Sigma
Jewel the Beetle
Kit the Fennec
Lanolin the Sheep
Mecha Knuckles
Mecha Sonic
Nite the Owl
Rough the Skunk
Shard
Surge the Tenrec
Tangle the Lemur
Tumble the Skunk
(1) Agent Stone*
Batten Rouge
Knuckles the Dread
Mangey Tails
Rebel Rouge
Renegade Knucks
Rusty Rose
Tails Nine
Thorn Rose
Banger
Giganto
Knight
Koco
Sage
Squid
Super Sonic
(1) Sonic Team Argentina*
/r/SonicTheHedgehog
Chaos Creators
RadioSEGA
Sonic Amateur Games Expo
Sonic Hacking Contest
Sonic News Network
Sonic Paradox
Sonic Retro
Sonic Revolution
Sonic Stadium
Sonic the Hedgeblog
Sonic the Cosplayer
Garrulous64
GamesCage
JaydenXV
* = Entrant automatically seeded due to winning their respective division in 2022.

How were they drawn?

Each pool had their entrants drawn at random order via the means of a random list generator. The entrants will be seeded sequentially in their respective division from 1 to 16. For details about the drawing procedure, please check out our official casebook.

Where do we vote?

All polls will be conducted live on the official Metallic Madness Twitter account, @MetalMadTour. Each poll will be two hours in length. Remember, Metallic Madness isn’t a popularity content!

What are the dates and times?

  1. First Round – set 1
    Thursday 16 March from 12:00 pm ET to 11:55 pm ET
  2. First Round – set 2
    Friday 17 March from 12:00 pm ET to 11:55 pm ET
  3. Second Round – set 1
    Saturday 18 March from 12:00 pm ET to 11:30 pm ET
  4. Second Round – set 2
    Sunday 19 March from 12:00 pm ET to 11:30 pm ET
  5. Divisional Semifinals – set 1
    Thursday 23 March from 6:15 pm ET to 11:30 pm ET
  6. Divisional Semifinals – set 2
    Friday 24 March from 6:15 pm ET to 11:30 pm ET
  7. Divisional Finals – set 1
    Saturday 25 March from 6:00 pm ET to 10:30 pm ET
  8. Divisional Finals – set 2
    Sunday 26 March from 2:00 pm ET to 6:55 pm ET
  9. Tournament Semifinals
    Saturday 1 April from 6:00 pm ET to 10:30 pm ET
  10. Tournament Final
    Monday 3 April from 9:00 pm ET to 11:00 pm ET

What are some other things I should know?

If you’re interested to read a little about Metallic Madness, here’s a look at the principal points that will guide the organizers through the event.

  • Metallic Madness is not a serious tournament. The tournament and its results should not be construed as objective. Have a bit of fun~!
  • To win a match, the entrant must record 51% or more of the vote. If not, overtime rules may apply.
  • Community entrants and participants are expected to practice good faith and sportsmanship before, during, and after the tournament.

If a community entrant wins the tournament, what’s their prize?

Nothing, except gaining the immense gratitude of not losing to a fictional character. 😉

Conclusion

Those are all the details for this year’s Metallic Madness tournament! Be sure to vote beginning 16 March on the official Metallic Madness Twitter.

Have fun!

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