Beware the Newbies: Upsets as Burger Cup Sears Into Round of 32

原创 Patrick F. theBeijinger

Well done, burger lovers! With your preliminary Burger Cup votes, we’ve sliced the initial fat stack of 120 contenders down to a lean 32, all now beefing for the ultimate title of Beijing's Best Burger. From here on out, the action moves faster than you can gobble a slider, with the chance to vote your favorite through to this year's round of Sweet 16 closing on Monday at midday.

Most of this year’s top seeds are no strangers to this level of grilling: Slow Boat Brewery caught some headwinds once again this year, joined by 2017 Burger Cup champion Q Mex, and fellow favorite Great Leap Brewing hopping into the shortlist. But looking past the usual suspects, the real action is happening below, with newcomer Side Street, whose line at last week’s Beijing Burger Festival snaked through the crowd all the way until closing time, catapulting to a top seed.

Newcomer Side Street had consistently long lines at this year's Beijing Burger Fest

In fact, it seems that there's a direct correlation between those who participated at last weekend's Beijing Burger Festival and their current standings in the tournament given that 16 of the top 32 were on-hand and serving their goods. One out of every five voters even went so far as to tell us that the vendor's presence at the event was what inspired them to vote.

Voting indicates that there is a positive correlation between those that attended last weekend's fest and their seeding

Side Street also represents another of this year's voting trends so far: the rise of the newbies. Aside from the Jiaodaokou-adjacent venue, other burger babies threatening the stalwarts include Hulu and The Great Outdoors, with fresh meat claiming 11 of the top 32 spots in total.

That means all eyes on the new guys. Two matches in the first round, in fact, pit newbie versus newbie: Side Street take on The Bell in Bracket D and Common Burger @ ARCADE by Hatchery face fellow freshman Bodensee Kitchen in Bracket C. Meanwhile, only you can decide whether reigning Burger Cup champ Q Mex in Bracket B survive its head-to-head with QS, this being their first showing in the contest.

Scan/Extract the QR code above to push your juicy lover through to the Sweet 16!

A few unexpected knockouts that failed to make the cut include long-time slinger Tim’s Texas Bar-B-Q (last year’s #19), 2017's quiet hopeful Burger Break (#20), the downhome offerings of Grandma's Kitchen (#24), and Wudaokou student favorite Lush (#25).

During this round of voting, we also asked you what your favorite beverage pairing is with your mighty burgers and it should perhaps come as no surprise that the top choice is ... beer. A whopping 62 percent of you said you enjoy sipping a brew as you chew, while the runner-up choices include soft drinks (26 percent), iced tea (18 percent), or milkshakes (15 percent) for some sweet cow on cow action.

How did we go about seeding this year's hopefuls? In our initial round, all contenders were spread into four brackets based on last year’s seedings, with the strongest candidates spread evenly across the groups. The top eight from each round were selected for entrance into the Round of 32, re-seeded by their strength of victory in the opening round, and, once again, spread evenly across four brackets. With that in mind, here's what this year's race to the top looks like so far:

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Bracket A

*Slow Boat (1) vs Biteapitta (8)
*Home Plate BBQ (2) vs *Joe’s Bar and Kitchen (7)
Cannon’s Burgers (3) vs *The Butchers Club (6)
*Hulu (4) vs Katchup (5)

Bracket B

*Q Mex (1) vs *QS (8)
Blue Frog (2) vs The Cheesecake Factory (7)
The Local (3) vs Fatboy's (6)
*3 Little Pigs by Andy's Craft Sausages (4) vs Plan B (5)

Bracket C

*Great Leap (1) vs Ramo (8)
Jing-A (2) vs Paddy O'Shea's (7)
*Common Burger @ ARCADE by Hatchery (3) vs *Bodensee Kitchen (6)
Let's Burger (4) vs *Caravan (5)

Bracket D

*Side Street (1) vs *The Bell (8)
*Fatburger (2) vs Stuff’d (7)
*The Great Outdoors (3) vs 4corners (6)
Arrow Factory (4) vs Lily’s American Diner (5)

Whatever your taste, your duties are not behind you, burger lovers. A third of you told us you eat lunch out at least five days a week, so make sure to squeeze in a burger (or five) and cast a ballot in the next round, which closes on Monday, Jun 25.

The voting schedule as it remains:

Burger Cup round of 32: Jun 22-25
Burger Cup Sweet 16: Jun 25-28
Burger Cup Elite Eight: Jun 28-July 3
Burger Cup Final Four: Jul 3-6
Championship Round: Jul 6-9

Follow our burger-related content via our 2018 Burger Cup tab, here: thebeijinger.com/2018-beijing-burger-festival.

Images: the Beijinger