Decision 2021: Burger Cup Preliminary Seeding Underway!

Burger Cup Preliminary Seeding Closes Wednesday at Noon!

Joey Knotts, Contributing Editor | Sep 21, 2021 12:00 pm | Add a comment | 135 reads

You have a mere 24 hours left to help us seed the bracket for our annual Best Burger contest!

If you’re a seasoned voter and need no explanation, simply whip out your cellphone, scan below, and get to voting!

Scan with WeChat to Vote!

As for the rest of you, here’s what to expect for Burger Cup 2021.

While COVID-19 threw us for a loop in 2020, we nevertheless managed to pull off another Burger Fest, as well as crown another Burger Cup champion: first-timer Side Street, who managed to overcome multi-year champ, Slow Boat.

Now this year’s Burger Fest is nearly at a close, and its happening amid a bona fide Beijing Burger Renaissance!

While nine of last year’s Top 100 have flipped their last patty, a whopping 31 new names have taken their place: brand-spanking new burger-slingers, places who added burgers to their menu, or a rare dark horse that didn’t happen to make the list last year.

Among those we said farewell in 2020 were Shanghai import Boxing Cat Brewery; Xingfucun’s beloved That One Place, and Sanlitun’s 1F.

But in their place are a massive array of new contenders, including Burge's Bistro & Bar, Peach by Hulu, Niu Burger, and Kitty & Daniel’s Hollywood Grill & Bar (all of whom you can try at Burger Fest if you come today!).

A few other already well-known newcomers vying for the crown include Commune Reserve; Panorama; Station Grill; Messy Burger and Fat Tiger Burger.

Thus we start this year’s nomination ballot with 120 names. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to tell us which ones deserve to be on the ballot for 2021.

Our nomination round works like this: Simply peruse this massive list of burger places (handily spread into four brackets to maximize competitiveness, below for reference), and choose up to 16 of your favorites in each bracket.

Once you’ve had your say, competitors will be seeded into a single-elimination bracket, where they'll go head-to-head until but one remains.

Democracy in action! But before you cast your ballot, there are some things to consider:

Eat Before You Vote: The fun begins at Burger Fest at Langyuan Station, where you'll have more burgers to choose from than you can possibly fit in your stomach. Come and try as many as you can!

After the festival, the 16 venues with the highest number of votes in each bracket will then be seeded in our 64-contestant bracket, and will face off against one-another until we’ve determined your favorite burger of 2021.

Why the complicated methodology? This is a contest we do not take lightly. We do everything in our power to ensure the ultimate outcome of this exercise – an authoritative list of Beijing's Best Burgers – is both fair and reflective of the wonderful selection available to diners in the capital. So, while cumbersome, our ballot has a lot of material in there so as to weed out ballot-stuffers. (Don't try it, we always catch you!)

So scan away and let us know your favorites:

Scan with WeChat to Vote!

Haven't heard of some of the names on the list? Go try them! You’ve got plenty of time.

Once seeding is complete, we’ll release the 64-contestant contest and you’ll then help us cut it to 32. The bracket is halved every few days until the Oct 1 holiday, where we’ll present you the 16 contenders (and hope that you fill your holiday with yet more burger-noshing).

Here’s a handy voting schedule (each round opens at 2pm and closes at noon):

Seeding Round: Fri Sep 17 to Wed Sep 22

Round of 64: Wed Sep 22 to Mon Sep 27

Round of 32: Mon Sep 27 to Thu Sep 30

Sweet 16: Thu Sep 30 to Fri Oct 08

Elite 8: Fri Oct 08 to Mon Oct 11

Final Four: Mon Oct 11 to Tue Oct 12

Semi-Finals: Tue Oct 12 to Wed Oct 13

Final: Wed Oct 13 to Thu Oct 14