We have narrowed all three regions of GIF Tournament V to four GIFs apiece. The bracket has shed its lesser GIFs, and only the Terrible Twelve remain. These are my feelings on each matchup:
GIF Tournament V: Open thread for the Terrible Twelve
Today, we bravely march deeper into the fifth-ever SB Nation GIF Tournament. Only 12 animated sports GIFs remain. Here is your open thread.
EAST
We have a Pac-12 battle on our hands. Interestingly enough, half the remaining field is made up of GIFs that take place outside the actual field of play, and these two may be the strongest. FACE KICK, the plucky underdog, embraces minimalism. WASHINGTON STATE FAN offers a little more to deconstruct. Between the old-ass Asics and the moustache, I will not rule out the possibility that this gentleman is a time-traveling dad from the 1990s.
I’m rather surprised that OBAMA has made it this far. It’s a fun scene, but WAINWRIGHT/MOLINA is pure art. It’s an animated GIF, and yet besides the baseball, nothing moves.
MIDWEST
Two of the four remaining “bonked upside the head” GIFs do battle here. The GIF informally known as the BUTTSLIDE continues to uphold the proud tradition of DAMN IT, ASTROS GIFs in these tournaments.
Meanwhile, FIELDS is here via the most shocking comeback victory of the tournament so far. When I went to bed around midnight last night, the esteemed PANAMA KID led by a hundred votes, and when I woke up, FIELDS was sitting there with the slightest of leads. I guess the Dolphins’ punter has a huge following in Asia or something.
No decision is clearer to me than this one. In one hand, we have a GIF that documents one of the most incredible shots I’ve ever seen, and by a high-schooler who scores even though he’s not in the dang room. In the other, we have a very shallow GIF of a guy who is being funny on purpose. It is a lowest-common-denominator GIF.
WEST
And in contrast, this might be the toughest decision for me. Relative to other GIFs, PARDY is an epic, both in length and in scope. TULOWITZKI/FERNANDEZ, though, is the rarest of things: a GIF with a dialogue. Both GIFs are cinema.
I look for subtlety in my GIFs, and BURTON/DUENSING delivers that. However, BUTTGOAL -- one of the two surviving butt-GIFs of the Terrible Twelve -- documents an action of failure that is profound, and perhaps completely unprecedented.
Let loose in the comments, y’all!
See More:
