The excitement and unpredictability of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs and Final Four could be seen by the results of this season's EuroLeague Bracket Challenge. Not one of the 4,050 entries got everything right!
Only 40.47% of all entries managed to correctly choose the winners of all four playoff series. While more than 90% of contestants picked Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul and CSKA Moscow to win their series, some 35.90% selected FC Barcelona Lassa to eliminate Anadolu Efes Istanbul and 26.49% guessed that Panathinaikos OPAP Athens would knock out Real Madrid.
The possibilities of a perfect bracket dropped greatly after the first semifinal at the Final Four in Vitoria-Gasteiz. Just 297 contestants, or 7.33% of the total submissions, correctly chose Efes to win a semifinal, which it did against favored Fenerbahce. Conversely, 54.37% of brackets tabbed CSKA Moscow to reach the championship game, which it did by knocking off defending champion Real.
All told, just 557 – or 13.75% - of all brackets prophesized that CSKA would win the title. Many fewer, just 175 brackets – or 4.32% – predicted that Will Clyburn would be the Final Four MVP.
Congratulations go out to the three brackets with the most points! "Niko" scored 395 points to win the grand prize – a voucher worth €2,000 to fly on Turkish Airlines. He came from behind to win with bonus points accrued by selecting Clyburn as MVP and 8 points as CSKA's margin of victory. The final score of the championship game was, indeed, an eight-point difference, CSKA 83-91 over Efes. In second place was "Daria", with 374 points, which earned €1,000 in cash. "Aris" placed third with 372 to win a pair of tickets to the 2020 EuroLeague Final Four.