Carnage in Bracket D! Upsets in Pizza Cup Moving Into Sweet 16

It looks like someone has shaken the pizza box: This was no ordinary Round of 32, but a stuffed-crust kind of round – stuffed with drama that is. And the Sweet 16 promises to be just as packed with cheese.

But before we get there, let’s clear the dust and figure out just what the heck happened here.

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Two major upsets in Bracket D have seen two newbies, Frasca and The Pizza Show, push aside more established competitors to take their place in the Sweet 16.

The Opposite House's Frasca (ranked 5th in Bracket D) handily nudged aside local fave Baozza, ranked 4th. But in even bigger newbie news, The Pizza Show knocked out heavyweight and former champ Kro's Nest by the narrowest of margins, less than the width of a standard pepperoni slice.

Now, both head into even tougher contests, with Frasca up against perennial contender Great Leap Brewing, which made mincemeat of Paddy O'Shea's in the Round of 32. The Pizza Show faces an equally daunting challenge matched up against hometown heroes Jing-A, who easily cast aside Domino's last round.

Speaking of international chains, it’s clear our readers prefer home-grown brands over the major pizza conglomerates. In addition to Domino's, Pizza Hut and Papa John's also lost out in this round (to Annie's and La Pizza, respectively). The only international chain to make it through to the Sweet 16 is Marzano, which narrowly outpolled Hulu to remain alive.

As we move on, it’s worth noting that three of the 16 top pies are brand new this year. What’s more, four of the five former champions are still alive – reigning champ Pizza Saporita (2019); Pie Squared (2017); Bottega (2016), and Gung Ho (2014, 2015, 2018).

Now, onto some voting stats: with the growth of the Beijinger’s Chinese edition, an increasingly large percentage of voters were Chinese; 72 percent to be precise. When analyzing the data by nationality, it's clear that both Chinese and laowai agreed on the results of all 16 matches, showing that people recognize a great pizza no matter where they're from.

Now, let’s take a look at the full brackets for the bound-to-be cut-throat Sweet 16:

Bracket A
Pizza Saporita意块披萨 vs Pizza Marzano比萨玛尚诺
Annie's安妮意大利餐厅 vs Tube Station站点比萨

Bracket B     
Q Mex Bar & Grill库迈 vs La Pizza那匹萨
Pie Squared方派 vs Forno意角

Bracket C     
BOTTEGA意库 vs The Local
GUNG HO!叫板！比萨 vs Pyro Pizza火鬼餐吧 

Bracket D
Great Leap Brewing大跃啤酒  vs Frasca, The Opposite House
Jing-A Brewing Co京A  vs The Pizza Show披萨秀

More pizza parle

And now on to some of the other bits and pieces from the Round of 32. Our Power Index of Italian F&B brands shows just how far these brands have to go to really penetrate the pizza-loving population of Beijing. Even the most recognized brand – S. Pellegrino – was only recognized by a little more than 1 in 3 pizza lovers. Here’s the full ranking followed by what percentage of our voters recognize the brand:

• S. Pellegrino: 38 percent

• Lavazza: 37 percent

• Illy: 29 percent

• Barilla: 28 percent

• Acqua Panna: 23 percent

• San Benedetto: 23 percent

• Birra Moretti: 22 percent

• Cinzano: 17 percent

• Parmalat: 15 percent

We also asked about crust preference. Thin crust spanked the butt of thick, topping our survey of most popular crusts with 28 percent of the vote.

In the interest of pizza memology, we also asked you to caption this picture:

What did Beijingers say about this pizza-lovin' critter?

Here were some of your responses:

What do you mean it’s not gluten free?

They forgot the dam wood chips!

Thank god they didn’t leave the pineapple one.

There's always that uncle at family banquets

Still more appealing than Pizza Hut

Brunch at Luga’s

Them city beavers make some of the best pizza

And finally, we asked you if you agreed with the statement, "Only Italians should be allowed to make pizza." The vast majority (90 percent) of readers disagreed. Here's a sampling of what they said:

False, it helps to have some non-Italian processes in place to make sure pizzas actually get made on time.

False. Pizza is a food made with love to be shared, therefore anyone with love in their heart should be allowed to make it.

Only an Italian nickname is required.

False..I’ve had many delicious pizzas from various pizza restaurants where the chefs were not Italians. Also I know a lot of good pizza chefs personally, one of them is my mom and she definitely isn’t Italian. lol

Pizza belongs to the universe so anyone, including aliens, should be able to make it.

When it comes to Pizza, everyone is Italian!

Meanwhile, the minority who agreed with the statement also had their say:

True, because only Italians  know the real taste of Italian pizza

Only Italians make pizza. The other inventions I don't call them pizza.

Sure, seems like a decent jobs program for those guys.

Fine arguments all around.

Now, to wrap things up, we asked you to rank the pizzas that did not make it through to the Round of 32. Here are the results, and thus their final standings in the 2020 Pizza Cup:

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