Only 24 Hours Left to Ensure Your Pizza Parlor of Choice Makes the 2018 Cut

The Beijinger | Oct 18, 2018 1:00 pm | Add a comment | 1714 reads

Four days have passed since last weekend's Pizza Fest and as our bellies slowly deflate, attention now turns to the closing of the Opening Round of this year's 2018 Beijing Pizza Cup. Voting is already hotter than a freshly-baked brick oven pie and the competition will only intensify as we go from close to 100 contenders to a mere 32 at tomorrow noon. That means, if you have a favorite that you'd like to push through to the championship rounds, don't sleep, vote!

As a reminder, the top seeds this year remain the Final Four from last year: Pie Squared, Bottega, Eatalia, and Tube Station (read in-depth pieces about each by clicking through). But that's not to say that a crafty newcomer hasn't tickled your pizza fancy in the past 12 months with their fresh take on the beloved slice. If you'd like to throw them some kudos, nothing says "I love you" more than a hat tip and a vote for them to climb into the next round.

The Qualification Round

In this 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, giving you only 24 hours to whittle your favorites down.

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 (#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 (#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 (#27)
Agrilandia (#32)
Grandma's Kitchen (#37)
Tim's Texas BBQ (#43)
Lakers (#48)
Nasca Cafe (#53)
Fratelli Fresh (#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)