2018 Pizza Cup Now Open for First Round of Voting!
Now that the Pizza Festival has come to a glorious conclusion (and you've had a chance to expand your palate), we have officially opened balloting in the 2018 Pizza Cup! *celebratory trumpets sounding*
For our sixth time ever, we are asking you to choose Beijing's Best Pizza via our World Cup-style contest had all of the posturing and balls been replaced with cheese and groans of satisfaction. Our top seeds this time around remain the Final Four from last year: Pie Squared, Bottega, Eatalia, and Tube Station.
You can start voting now by scanning this QR code:
The Qualification Round
In the Qualification Round, you will be asked to select 32 best pizza venues, which will battle it out in this year's cup. All you need do is scan the list and check off your favorites. There's plenty of newbies on the contestant list – 1 in 7 are competing for the first time.
Each competitor has been seeded into one of four brackets designed to balance the strong, the less-than-strong and the newbies so that all have a fair chance of making it to the next round.
We urge you to vote on personal experience only – choose your favorites, and don't go by name recognition alone. Choose as many or as few as you like.
The Qualification Round is open until this Friday, Oct 19. That gives you plenty of time this week to try those you haven't yet sampled and come back to cast an educated vote.
Next, we enter the knockout stage where competitors go head-to-head to see who makes it to the next round.
Knockout Round Schedule
The Round of 32 opens Fri, Oct 19 and closes at noon Tue, Oct 23
The Sweet 16 is announced Tue, Oct 23 and closes Fri, Oct 26
The Elite Eight is announced Fri, Oct 26 and closes Tue, Oct 30
The Final Four is announced Tue, Oct 30 and closes Fri, Nov 2
The Championship round is announced Fri, Nov 2 and closes Mon, Nov 5
And finally, our winner of Beijing's Best Pizza 2018 will be crowned on Monday, Nov 5!
Here are this year's competitors (their final ranking in last year's cup is in parentheses):
GROUP A
Pie Squared (#1)
Gung Ho! Pizza (#5) * Pizza Fest Participant
Great Leap Brewing #45 (#9)
Pizza Marzano (#13)
Pizza Saporita (#19)
Mao Mao Chong (#23)
Bene, Sheraton Grand Dongcheng Hotel (#29)
Flypizza & Hoodakdak Chicken (#34)
Stuff'd (#38)
Pizza by LMPlus (#44)
Passby Bar (#49)
Jazz-Ya (#54)
Legend Beer (#58) * Pizza Fest Participant
Le Fromager de Pékin (#63)
Botany (#70)
Four Ace (#75)
Ebeiguo (#81)
BK's Tavern (#85)
PBD Pizza Bar (#90)
Whale's Pizza (#98)
Prego, Westin Financial Street (#102)
Fellas (previously unranked) * Pizza Fest Participant
Lievito (new)
Pizzagram (new)
GROUP B
Bottega (#2)
Annie's (#6) * Pizza Fest Participant
Pyro Pizza (#10)
Luga's Villa (#14)
Papa John's (#20)
Paddy O'Shea's (#24)
Eudora Station (#30)
Mio, Four Seasons Hotel (#35)
The Rug (#40)
Domino's (#45)
Mr Pizza (#50)
Scott's Family Ristorante Italiano (#55)
789 (A-Life) (#60)
Leos Pizza (#64)
Max Pizza (#72)
The Veggie Table (#78)
Via Roma, Kempinski Hotel (#82)
Yun Brew (#87)
Peter Pan (#91)
Mix's Italian Grill, Crowne Plaza Zhongguancun (#99)
Kitchen Igosso (#104)
Hisewel Brew-pub (new)
NBeer Pub (previously unranked) * Pizza Fest Participant
QS (new)
GROUP C
Eatalia (#3) * Pizza Fest Participant
La Pizza (#7)
Ramo (#11)
Yummy Box (#16)
Pizza Factory (#21)
Tavola (#26)
VSports (#31)
Bocca Della Verita (#36)
Pizza Hut (#42)
Lily's American Diner (#47)
Pizza Buona (#51)
Radici (#56)
Buddy Bar (#61)
Tribe (#65)
Miss Pizza (#73)
1st Floor (#79)
Mrs Shanen's / Green Cow Cafe (#83)
Nine Road Pizzeria (#88)
Casalingo (#92)
Charlie's (#100)
Byone (#105)
Andy’s (new)
Joe’s Bar & Kitchen (new)
Peiping Machine (previously unranked)
Red Rose (new)
GROUP D
Tube Station (#4) * Pizza Fest Participant
Kro's Nest (#8)
The Local (#12)
Q Mex (#17) * Pizza Fest Participant
Tiago (#22) * Pizza Fest Participant
Xian at East, Beijing Hotel (#27)
Agrilandia (#32)
Grandma's Kitchen (#37)
Tim's Texas BBQ (#43)
Lakers (#48)
Nasca Cafe (#53)
Fratelli Fresh, Renaissance Capital Beijing Hotel (#57)
Jushi Pizza Just in Time! (#62)
Panda Brew (#67)
Elisa's (#74)
Atta BJ (#80)
Loft Eatalicious (#84)
Assaggi (#89)
Pizza Now (#94)
Pomona (#101)
Blufish (new)
La Villa (new)
Pinvita (new)
Uno Bar & Grill (new)
So what are you waiting for? Get to it!
Image: Giphy
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