Thanks to everyone who participated in the nomination round, we ended up with 182 fictional acts eligible for the tournament! However, there are only 64 spots available (because I don’t have the time or energy to run a 128-team bracket). Because of the way the seeding worked out, an act needed at least 7 upvotes to earn a spot. But this leads me to a conundrum. With the top 50 spots already filled, I’m left with 16 acts with the required number of votes, but only 14 spots left in the bracket.
So, this will be a brief play-in round. To keep things simple, I’ll list the 16 qualifying bands here, and you’ll upvote your favorites. These are not head-to-head yet, vote for as many as you like. The two bands with the LEAST number of votes will be eliminated. The remaining will be seeded into the bracket, and we’ll start the proper voting rounds next time.