Burger Cup 2012: The Final 32 - Vote Now!

Burgers are about to get serious. The preliminary round of this year's Burger Cup is over. Only 32 burgers remain – and voting is now open in the Round of 32. You can also get your downloadable bracket (for the office burger pool) right here.

So what happened in the preliminary round?

There were shocks galore. Kosher kingpin Biteapitta (seeded #58) unseated student stalwart Lush (#7) by some margin. Meanwhile, local legend Luga will be dancing in the streets after Luga's Villa (#36) made Ronald a sad clown by knocking out McDonald's (#29). In the final shock, Pingod pints-parlour Plan B partied a little harder than Feast (Food by EAST), sneaking past them by the tightest of margins.

This year's final 32 brings a lot of new burgers to the table, almost a third of whom were not in last year's Round of 32. It's a mix of recently opened restaurants (Brussels, Plan B, Frost, 4corners, The Filling Station) and time-tested eateries (Tim’s Texas Bar-B-Q, Hooters, TGI Friday’s, Biteapitta).

And who bowed out early this year? Lush, Kiosk, Eudora Station, La Bamba, The Box, One East, Hollywood, Hard Rock Café and American Cafe (there should be no doubt about the latter two; these venues no longer exist).

Top seeds this year are last year’s champion Blue Frog (#1) and runner-up Fatburger (#4), along with Let’s Burger (#2) and Home Plate Bar-B-Que (#3).

And what are the most contentious matchups for this upcoming round? We'll be watching Grandma’s Kitchen vs. Peter’s Tex-Mex (whose pasts are inextricably entwined, with Peter’s being founded by a former Grandma’s chef). There are also several battles that pit local underdogs again multinational chains (Lily’s vs. Maison Boulud, Vineyard Cafe vs. TGI Friday’s, and Biteapitta vs. Fatburger).

Onward to the battlefield – you have a little over a week to go out and feast on burgers until we call it and declare the final 16!

Click the links to download the bracket and the Beijinger Burger Cup logo.