The first round of the 2021 MLSAces March Madness is over! We saw some top seeds dominate, we saw some close matchups, as well as major upsets! Everything you could ask for from any bracket. With over 1,700 total votes between Twitter & Instagram we have to thank you all so much for being part of this fun project!!! Let’s get into the results and start up in the Producen Vaughnders Conference:

We saw some pretty standard stuff here with the #1, #2, and #3 seeds moving on EASILY! So congratulations to “#SavedTheCrew”, “Black Player Coalition into to MLS Is Back” and “Rodrigo Schlegel PK Goalie” on making it to the second round. But in the #4 vs #13 matchup of Carlos Vela’s 2019 season vs “Doing Better than Bob” was a tough one. “Doing Better than Bob” completed the upset with a MASSIVE win! Let Galaxy fans rejoice. The #5 and #6 seeds moved on as well with some good but close wins. #10 seeded “Tata no shake” pulled off a close upset over #7 “Razov vs Herrera in CCL” and we have a clear viewpoint on who was the better coaching tiff. Lastly in what I expected, the MLS Cup Playoffs handed MLS Opening Day an L.

Moving on: #1 #SavedTheCrew, #2 Black Players Coalition intro into MLS Is Back, #3 Schlegel PK Goalie, #5 2017 Toronto FC season, #6 Thierry Henry goal and lean, #8 MLS Cup Playoffs, #10 Tata no shake with Armas, & #13 Doing Better than Bob

If we move directly down from that conference, we run into our “Timber Jason Vevang Conference”:

Jason’s conference ran pretty standard with most of the favorites winning. Seeds #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, and #8 handled their business. The interesting wins here are in the #3 seed and #5 seed wins. #3 seeded Kobe & Gigi Bryant Tifo pulled out a CLOSE win over the 7-0 win for the Red Bulls in the Hudson River Derby. The vote was split between Twitter and Instagram but the tifo got the win. Similarly here with some social media splits, #5 seeded Frei’s save in MLS Cup almost slipped and almost allowed #12 Unique Stadiums to win. But a late push and the #5 seed won by a finger tip. Let’s look at the one upset here, #10 seeded 70k+ at MLS Cup winning close over #7 seed Nouhou demolishing a beer. This was a fantastic matchup and at the end of the day, I think Atlanta fans showed up in large numbers.

Moving on: #1 Decision Day, #2 90’s Style PKs, #3 Kobe & Gigi Bryant Tifo, #4 RFK Raccoons, #5 Stefan Frei save in MLS Cup, #6 Josef Martinez record goal and look back, #8 RSL Cat, #10 70k+ at MLS Cup

Now let’s move over to the right side of our bracket where we see our “Uncle Daddy Sam Nelson Conference”:

In Jason’s conference we had at least one upset… in Sam’s conference we had NO UPSETS! HOW BORING! But what I can break down in this conference is some very close wins in the #2 seed win, #7 seed win, and #8 seed win. #2 seeded Lucharoo pulled out the closest win from the first round in its win over #15 seed Goalie Warz. I personally thought Goalie Warz was seeded a little low, but the #15 seed was right at the end of the day and it was sent pacing. The #7 seeded Basti brining a World Cup to Chicago was close as well. This one was so close we had another Twitter/Instagram vote split. But at the end of the day Basti continued to be a Ferrari while the #10 seed looked more like a Fiat. The last close matchup here was the #8 seed Eddie Pope ‘96 MLS Cup game winner beating out the #9 seed Wynalda first ever goal in MLS history. This one was a toss up to me and for the longest time while voting was open… it was a toss up out there as well. But, at the end of the day, defense wins championships.

Moving on: #1 Beckham arriving in LA, #2 Lucharoo, #3 Cozmo’s sign to Jose, #4 Zlatan’s El Traffico goalzo, #5 Pep no shake with Porter at ASG, #6 Snow games and orange balls, #7 Basti brings a World Cup to Chicago, and #8 Eddie Pope’s ‘96 MLS Cup winning goal

Let’s finish up with our final conference in the bottom right with our “Tom Sweezy Conference”:

You want upsets? Tom’s conference had the upsets. We saw the big seeds move on. #1 Vermes “Fuck Off? Fuck Off!”, #2 seed Drunk Bruce Arena, and #3 Dempsey ripping ref’s book move on as expected. But we had a major upset in #13 seeded “Get Lost! Get Lost!” taking out #4 seeded Celebrity Owners with pretty much an uncontested win. Then #6 seeded “Alecko Red Bull dump” lost in a shocking upset to me to #11 seed “Kei Kamara twerking”. Kamara doing what he normally does, proving haters wrong and producing in the field. Now that is what I call upsets.

Moving on: #1 Peter Vermes “Fuck off? Fuck off!”, #2 seed Drunk Bruce Arena, #3 Dempsey rips ref’s book, #5 Caleb Porter yelling at Bruce Arena on the sideline, #7 Q’s “Sportscenter is Next” sign, #8, Didier Drogba leg lock, #11 Kei Kamara twerking, #13 Bob Bradley “Get Lost! Get Lost!”