The Banner Bracket

How it works

Sixteen banners, drawn against each other two at a time. Pick one, it goes through; the other is out. Eight matches become four, four become two, and two become the final — fifteen choices in all, and about a minute of your life. There is no scoring and no correct answer. It is entirely a matter of taste, which is the point.

The draw is fixed. Nobody gets a shuffled bracket, because a shuffled bracket is not comparable to anyone else's and comparing is the entire pleasure. The four obvious favourites are placed in four different quarters so the first round is not a procession, and each of them meets something with a real case to make.

The sixteen

• The beasts — the direwolf, the lion, the three-headed dragon, the crowned stag, the kraken, the black bear, the three hounds.
• The high and cold — the falcon and moon, the sun and spear, the golden rose, the leaping trout.
• The ones that should not work and do — the onion, the merman, the twin towers, the giant in chains, and a weirwood face that is not a creature at all but is definitely watching.

Sharing your bracket

Your fifteen choices pack into a fifteen-character code that rides in the link, so a shared bracket replays in full: your champion, the banner it beat in the final, and every round it came through. That is the part worth sending — anyone can name a favourite, but "it went past the kraken in the quarter-final" is a claim somebody can take issue with. No account, no bracket stored, and none of it sent anywhere; the whole run happens in your browser.

This is fan-made, and unofficial

More diversions

The fan tributes hub collects the lot: a region sorting quiz, a daily lore round, a house words generator and a banner reading. The original is the Which Great House Are You? quiz. Or play Iron Realms — free, in the browser, no download.