When filling out brackets on major outlets like ESPN or Yahoo, no one ever really reads the fine print. One of the qualifications is that those who play must be 18-years old to be eligible for the grand prize. It’s typically not a big deal…but this year, it became an issue. Why? Because a 12-year old won ESPN’s Bracket Challenge, but isn’t eligible for a prize.
The Daily Herald out of suburban Chicago is reporting that 12-year old Sam Holtz is ESPN’s Bracket Challenge grand champion, finishing with 1,830 points. Holtz somehow missed just six games throughout the entire bracket, and nailed every game from the Sweet 16 on. It’s an impressive feat for Holtz, but one that won’t result in him winning a trip for two to Maui or a $20,000 Best Buy giftcard. Below a video of Sam and his friends as the championship game ended, celebrating the hollow victory of a job well done.
ESPN’s Kevin Ota praised Holtz’s efforts
“The great thing is that this kid beat all these experts out there. He beat all of our commentators, all these celebrities, all the college experts. That’s what makes this so awesome. The prize really is secondary.”
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“That’s what makes this thing so fun,” Ota said. “You have 11.57 million people who have a chance to win this, and it’s a 12-year-old kid who has one of the number one brackets.”
ESPN will be sending a swag bag to Holtz for his victory despite his ineligibility.
Yeah, it sucks for Holtz, but ESPN pretty clearly stated the qualifiers to be eligible for the grand prize. And it’s not as if he would have automatically been given the prize – the top 1% of all brackets are entered into a drawing for the prizes. At least he’ll always be able to hang his hat on the fact that he beat out 11.5 million other people in a Bracket Challenge. That’s pretty cool for a 12-year old, despite the lack of a major prize for him.
