Down to the Quarters: Nine-Seed Ramo Still in Contention; High Seeds Survive in Other Brackets

Michael Wester | Nov 9, 2015 2:00 pm | Add a comment | 1716 reads

We're down to eight: After four days of intense balloting in the Sweet 16, one longshot survives: Fangjia Hutong's Ramo, a nine-seed, made it past this year's other longshot, Haven, to make it to the finals of the Bars/Clubs division of the 2015 Pizza Cup.

Ramo now moves on to take on the other winner in the Bars/Cafes division, Great Leap #45, which inched past Mao Mao Chong to earn its place in the next round.

In the hotly-contested Pizza Specialists division, Gung Ho! Pizza narrowly survived an onslaught by Tube Station to make it through, where they will meet three-seed Pizza Plus, who upset second-ranked La Pizza in Sweet 16 balloting.

Our Mid-Range finals see the bracket's top two seeds – Eatalia (1) and Annie's (2) – meet again in a repeat of last year's division battle. Eatalia earned the chance to repeat by fighting off Loft Eatalicious (5), while Annie's (2) survived a challenge from Vineyard Café (3).

Finally, in the Upscale Restaurants division, Tavola (2) eked out a victory against Mio (3), and now faces the division's other winner, Sureño (4), who sent off Prego (8) in this past round.

Each of this round's matches are a final in and of themselves, as the outcome of each determines who is tops in their respective division. The winners in each make up our Final Four for 2015.

Voting is now underway in the Elite 8 – get in there and vote before the list is cut to the Final Four on Thursday (Nov 12).

Here are our quarterfinal matches:

Pizza Specialists Final: Gung Ho vs. Pizza Plus

Bars/Cafes Final: Ramo vs. Great Leap #45

Mid-Range Restaurants Final: Annie's vs. Eatalia

Upscale Restaurants Final: Sureno vs. Tavola

Meanwhile, here's a full summary of Sweet 16 matches:

Pizza Specialists
Gung Ho! Pizza (1) narrowly survived an onslaught by Tube Station (4)
Pizza Plus (3) upset second-ranked La Pizza (2)

Bars/Clubs
Great Leap #45 (2) pushed aside Mao Mao Chong (3)
Ramo (9) sent Haven (12) skyward

Mid-Range Restaurants
Eatalia (1) zoomed past Loft Eatalicious (5)
Annie's (2) survived a challenge from Vineyard Café (3)

Upscale Restaurants
Tavola (2) eked out a victory against Mio, Four Seasons Hotel (3)
Sureño, The Opposite House (4) vs. Prego, Westin Financial Street (8)

For the visually oriented, here's our bracket so far (click for a larger version):

Finally, we asked you to rank the contestants that were eliminated in the last round; we'll use this data as a starting point next year when seeding the 2016 Pizza Cup:

17. Pizza Express
18. Hutong Pizza
19. The Tree
20. Bottega
21. Bocca Della Verita
22. Sugar Shack
23. Q Mex
24. Luga's Villa
25. The Rug
26. Assaggi
27. Scott's Family Ristorante Italiano
28. Grandma's Kitchen
29. iFresh Pizza
30. Alio Olio
31. Via Roma, Kempinski Hotel
32. Park 17

Add this to the rankings from the previous round, and we have everyone from 17 through 97:

33. Kro's Nest
34. Pie Squared
35. Xian Bar
36. The Den
37. Whale's Pizza
38. Pizza by LMPlus
39. Isola
40. Stuff'd
41. Jazz-Ya
42. Pizza View by Opera Bombana
43. Peter Pan
44. Kitchen Igosso
45. Flypizza & Hoodadak Chicken
46. The Local Bar and Grill
47. Lily's American Diner
48. Yummy Box
49. Pizza Buona
50. Nasca Cafe
51. The Irish Volunteer
52. Fratelli Fresh
53. Elisa's
54. The Veggie Table
55. Tiago Home Kitchen
56. Bene
57. Mrs Shanen's / Green Cow Cafe
58. FA Cafe
59. Charlie's
60. Passby Bar
61. Mixs Italian Grill
62. Casalingo
63. Agrilandia
64. Michael’s Place
65. Papa John's Pizza
66. Pizza Hut
67. Mr. Pizza
68. New York Style Pizza
69. 1st Floor
70. Red House
71. Domino's
72. Ricci Café
73. Lakers
74. Eudora Station Bar and Restaurant
75. Pizza Now
76. Windy City
77. Peter's Tex-Mex
78. Hercules
79. Frost
80. Time Cafe
81. PBD Pizza Bar
82. Miss Pizza
83. Mr. Fabbro
84. Alba
85. Pizza Maru
86. Nanjie
87. Parkside Bar & Grill
88. Abella
89. Cafe del Mar
90. Yonmeike
91. The West Pizza Pub
92. Monkey Mountain Club
93. Skyline Café
94. Fuel
95. Old Town Roses
96. Bella Vista
97. Yi Lai Er Qu