Voting Now Open: Roll on This Year's Pizza Cup!

With the waft of pizza still floating gently on the breeze and the collective groans of the overfed after two days of packed Pizza Fest action heard far and wide across the sleepy Beijing landscape, it's officially time to dig into the veritable cheesy center of this year's pizza competition: voting in this year's Pizza Cup.

Voting is now live for you to vote for favorite pizza destination; the spot that has comforted you in times of emotional turmoil, filled your belly when hunger hit, or ruined your favorite shirt because of an overly hasty attempt to stuff your longing face.

The hungry masses queue for pizza

The month-long competition will be entirely WeChat-based and includes six separate rounds that will narrow down the competition until an ultimate champion is crowned on October 19. To vote, simply scan this QR code and be whisked away to the voting page (this same code will be reused for each successive round so feel free to save it):

This year sees the largest ever number of competitors taking part, indicating that Beijing's love for all things pizza is only growing. Compared to last year's 88 competitors (87 of which are returning), there'll be 109 venues at the starting line for this year's Pizza Cup. Those 109 vendors are sorted into four brackets, of which the top eight in each at the end of the initial voting will move onto the official Round of 32.

Pizza: best served by someone else

Also as with last year, every pizza will be going head-to-head but there'll also be a few separate mini-contests to rank variations that don't necessarily fit under the standard banner of "pizza" but are pretty damn close – things like Baozza, jianbing pizzas, calzones, and the like. We'll announce that bracket later on so we can crown the kings of the pizza-related fusion alternatives.

More than 10 percent (14 to be exact) of the overall 109 vendors are complete newbies, only rising between now and last year's competition. Those are (*indicates attendance at the Pizza Fest):

*Alley Ale Taproom
*Four Ace
*Leos Pizza
*Max Pizza
*Radici
789 (A-Life)
Atta BJ
BK's Tavern
Buddy Bar
Doppio Sete Pizza
Ebeiguo
Flying Kangaroo
Le Fromager de Pékin
Yun Brew

Plus seven additional venues that were previously unranked or added pizza to their menu since our last Pizza Cup concluded in November of last fall:

*Jushi Pizza Just in Time!
*Legend Beer
Botany
Miss Pizza
Napa
Panda Brew
Tribe

As we noted above, this year's survey will be entirely WeChat-based so as to minimize chances of ballot stuffing. You can read more about the precautions we'll be taking to maintain a fair fight here.

We hope those of you that made it out to this year's Pizza Fest had a blast - we sure did, and are already looking forward to what next year will bring. For now, loosen your belt and get to voting!

Images: the Beijinger, Uni You

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