Sixty-four began the contest; in the end it came down to just two costumes, in TheOneRing.net’s March Madness 2021: the Battle of the Best Dressed in Middle-earth. Aragorn’s Strider garb took on Legolas’ ‘hero’ outfit – and the voting was fast and furious. Thousands of votes were placed – this final round saw the biggest turn out by far. The lead swung back and forth between the two costumes; but in the end, there could be only one. This year’s Grand Champion is…
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‘We come to it at last – the great battle of our time….’ From 64 costumes at the start, we are down to the last two; which of those will be the Grand Champion of March Madness 2021, the Battle of the Best Dressed in Middle-earth? Here are the results of the Final Four:
Strider took on the Witchking. It is said that no man can kill him; but the clothing of a ranger could defeat the wraith’s robes. By a margin of only about 150 votes, it is Aragorn who strides into the final.
And then there were four! We move out of the regional divisions and into the Semi Final of this year’s March Madness, the Battle of the Best Dressed in Middle-earth. Here’s how the table stands now:
So who triumphed in the Elite Eight? This was a nail biting round; this very post was drafted with certain costumes as winners, but then there was a late surge in voting and a couple of outfits made a comeback!
Beginning with the Humans and Maiar, a fully armoured Eomer was taking on Aragorn in ranger garb. This duel had the widest margin in the Quarter Final, with just under 60% of the vote going to Aragorn’s outfit. He’ll meet the Witchking in the Semi Final; in the Villains region, the Balrog was finally defeated, with the epic helm and long robes of the Witchking claiming about 10% more votes.
Quarter Final time! Only the Elite (or Elegant?) Eight remain in the Battle of the Best Dressed in Middle-earth; one final round in the region divisions. Here’s the latest table:
Let’s take a look at the Round Three results; starting with the Villains this time. The Mouth of Sauron was no match for the Balrog, only managing to muster a third of the vote; and the regular Witchking took 70%, to crush his Twilight self. This means we’ll see the ruler from Angmar taking on the demon of the ancient world in the Quarter Final; and just to prove that there are Balrog cosplays, here’s a brilliant one from a TORn staffer:
The Sweet Sixteen round is upon us! The costumes are dropping like flies in the Battle of the Best Dressed in Middle-earth; here’s how things stand now:
So, what happened in Round Two? Let’s begin this time with the Elves. Galadriel’s Lorien gown beat Arwen’s dress when on the bridge with Aragorn; but now she has to take on her granddaughter again, as Galadriel meets Arwen’s blue and red dress in Round Three. Here’s a certain TORn founder looking very fetching in that gown:
And like that, the numbers are halved. Just 32 made it through – which costumes are still in, for Round Two of the Battle of the Best Dressed in Middle-earth? Here’s how the bracket looks now:
Let’s take a look at some of the battles of Round One. In the Human/Maiar category, the easiest win went to Aragorn’s ‘hero’ Strider costume, which defeated Beorn with 88% of the vote – fellow fan Pavel will be pleased with this victory, as he has a wonderful Strider cosplay (see below). That one is perhaps not surprising; but there are some astonishing results in this region. Four of Eowyn’s costumes started in this region; but only her coronation gown has made it through, defeating Gandalf the Grey’s robe in a very tight battle (51% to 49%). And in one of the biggest upsets of the first round, 16th seed Theoden triumphed over number one seed Saruman; the white wizard could only muster 39% of the vote! The King of Rohan finds himself up against his nephew Eomer in Round Two; show us your Rohan cosplays!
