Pizza Tournament!
Looking for a fun way to invite more friends to dinner without having to cook a thing? I’ve got just the thing: A Pizza Tournament
Yep, you read that right, a Pizza Tournament.
Are you imagining two pizzas squaring off, one claiming victory and slapping its team name onto the bracket’s next round? We’re on the same page.
For 18 months, nearly anytime we had friends for dinner, we’d pull out our tournament bracket, let them pick a matchup, and taste-test pizzas from two local pizzerias. I’d keep it simple: order what the kids like and maybe a specialty from each place. After dinner, my kids would pass out notecards and markers and each judge would write their favorite on the super-secret ballet. What was the judging criteria? Whatever was important to you. Pick what you like.
After the ballets were collected, in a ceremony fraught with anticipation, my kids would read and tally the responses and a winner would be declared. The winner would live another day and be recorded onto the next round.
It was so. Much. Fun.
Since I shared our pizza journey on my social media, it also seemed to grease the wheels of those “we should get together sometimes”. It created an easy follow-up and, while certainly absurdly extravagant, for some reason made a dinner invitation feel more casual and approachable.
Interested in doing one too? Here’s how we did it:
If you’re from Bloomington-Normal, I’ve already done steps 1 and 2 for you. You just need to grab the bracket here.
Not a Bloominite? You can grab a blank bracket here.
Ask your everyday people or social media friends about their 3 favorite local pizza places
Weight your responses by scoring 5 points for 1st choices, 3 for 2nds, and 1 for 3rds. This way you can seed the pizza places and save the best two places’ matchup for the end. We don’t want, say Pizza Hut to make it all the way to the Final Four because it only competed against Dominos and Papa Murphy’s, while your local pizza powerhouses knock each other out in the first round.
Plant your bracket! This will depend on what type of tournament you are doing and how many pizza places you’ve entered. For ease, I did a single elimination, 16 team tournament.
The highest seeded team goes on the first line in the top, left corner. If you’re looking at my tournament as a guide, that’s Flingers. The lowest scoring team, in my case Michaeleo’s, is their matchup.
The second highest team goes on the top right line. (Ever seen the NCAA tournament? These are your regions.) The second lowest team is their match-up. Continue this pattern working clockwise around your bracket.
Invite! Text a friend and ask them to pick a matchup. I found it helpful to ask them to pick up a pizza on their way over to our house so both would be hot.
Repeat until you have a winner!
Psst…friends and pizza? Obviously, the real winner is you!
Important Update:
We’re at in again, but this time with tacos! You’ll find brackets at the pizza links! :)
