We’ve reached the end of our Icons of C-U Tournament, which was dreamed up after last year’s C-U Food + Drink Tournament took place. Though there wasn’t an actual March Madness NCAA basketball tournament to pay attention to this year due to COVID-19, we still felt like this was a great opportunity to engage while we’re all staying put. After Monday’s Championship matchup was revealed, the votes are in, and the champion of our Icons of C-U Tournament is: KRANNERT CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
Starting out as a top seed in the Dorothy Vickers-Shelley Region, Krannert’s path to the title included matchups versus (16) Golden Harbor, (8) PYGMALION, (5) Jarling’s Custard Cup, (7) Burnt Ends at Black Dog (our Food + Drink Champion last year), (16) U of I Quad (an absolute sleeper of a 16 seed), and then finally (8) Urbana’s Market at the Square. KCPA had its work cut out for it, but ultimately triumphed.
KCPA celebrated its 50th anniversary season just last year, and most certainly is worthy of such an honor, as it is an icon of our community. Saying we are lucky to have it in our community is such a vast understatement. If you read Smile Politely at all, you know how we feel about KCPA.
Congrats to KCPA and all of those that make it amazing year in and year out!
In case you missed it and wanted to catch up, here is each round of voting throughout the tournament:
Thank you to all of you who particpated by voting, we look forward to throwing something wacky and weird together again next year when we are (hopefully) out of self-quarantine.
Right click and open in a new tab/window to enlarge brackets:
Top photo by Anna Longworth.