I stumbled upon this character bracket while reading Bill Simmons at ESPN.com. It is clearly for entertainment purposes only, so I wouldn’t get your dander up over some of the results (I will say, however, that Nazis upsetting Zombies in the Cliches Regional is a travesty of epic proportions). Though I’ve never been particularly impressed with this columnist in the past, some of the comments associated with the various contests are pretty humorous. For those who listened to last week’s episode of BLAST PROCESSING!, pay special attention to the first match-up under the Sports Game Regional (16 vs. 16 – equivalent to the play-in game). So true!

Obviously, that decidedly unscientific bracket was settled on by a committee of one, the author, and really has nothing in common with the semi-annual bracket hosted by Gamefaqs, where the winners are voted on by the gaming community (sometimes fraudulently with rampant ballot-stuffing, but hey, gaming geeks are nothing if not passionate).

If I remember correctly, the Gamefaqs “tournament” originated some years back as a character battle that would take place seemingly on a whim. Past winners include Link and Sephiroth. It appears they’ve since decided to periodically change up the format while also expanding the field. Their Spring 2009 tournament is set to begin April 3rd and will decide the best game ever, once and for all… or at least until they run the next tournament.

Just like the thousands of office pools and online contests associated with the NCAA tournament, you can fill out a bracket and try to predict the winners while voting on the match-ups yourself. They even have prizes. If you want to get involved, you have to fill out your entry by this Thursday, so get to it… or don’t, so I have a better chance of winning.