Hello and welcome to the inaugural edition of the Spartans Wire Michigan State GIF Tournament!!
GIF tournaments are nothing new on the ol’ interwebs, but I can’t recall an MSU-specific tournament, so I’m just going to ride with the idea that this one is the first one.
A few notes before we jump into this.
A. The GIFs were chosen through nominations on social media and through searches on the internet. A number of GIFs were locks for the tournament, but we did have to do some searching and whittling to fill out the bracket.
B. This bracket has 32 GIFs in four regions. Why 32? Well, 64 is a lot and would have wiped out the entire history of MSU GIFs. I’m sure we missed some in this tournament that can be used in future tournaments.
C. The voting will be done exclusively on this website. The layout is super simple. There will be a pair of GIFs on a page, a description and a speedometer slider. Just click that speedometer and drag it to the side you think is the winner.
D. This entire tournament will be in slideshow format. Yes, I know. Slideshows. The reason for this is simple: the way this type of story (one that is very long and fill of images/GIFs) would layout on a single page would be a disaster. We have auto-inserted boxes w/ scores and other news, etc. that would get in the way and things would get separated and every adjustment made requires another adjustment down the line. Separating them all on individual pages will make it look better and be so much easier to put together.
E. Voting will be open until midnight eastern time the day after the region was posted. So the Dantonio region, which goes up on Monday, will finish at midnight on Tuesday into Wednesday.
E. Voting for all regions will be open until Friday night at midnight, eastern time.
F. This is just a way for us all to have fun and waste a week of sports-less summer, so keep it cool. The seeding was not done scientifically. It’s an entirely subjective experience. And it’s fun. So have fun!
Click here to vote on the Izzo Region!
Click here to vote on the Dantonio Region!
Click here to vote on the Green Region!
Let’s get to the White Region!
#1 “You Choked” vs. #8 Connor Cook Ride ‘Em
Just listing out the GIFs made me realize how damn strong this region is. It’s headlined by one the favorites of the entire tournament, a truly sublime GIF.
I think I screamed in my living room when this happened. Justin Layne, you king. First off, the situation was great. It was a rainy dog fight and MSU was beating Michigan and Michigan couldn’t do anything and they finally, FINALLY get an open receiver for the big play they needed and McDoom just flat dropped it. The camera of course trains right on him and Justin Layne is there to let him know what happened. And Layne isn’t showboating or acting like he had anything to do with the play not working. He’s letting McDoom know it’s all his fault. And the face he makes after the choking gesture is just perfect.
It goes up against a GIF I found for this tournament that is random as hell, but funny.
I was wondering how the hell this GIF wasn’t insanely popular and then I realized “Oh, Spring Game.” That mere fact alone, that this didn’t happen in a real game, drops this from one of the greatest MSU GIFs ever to a tournament bubble team. Still, it’s funny enough to squeak into the tournament to be the sacrificial lamb to Justin Layne.
#2 Geiger Windmill vs. #7 The Reach
The heavy hitters just keep coming. I’m very intrigued to see if we get a #1 vs. #2 matchup in this region. It’ll be a slugfest. The #2 seed has every right to be a #1 seed.
I really enjoy in this version of the GIF that the scoreboard shifts to “final” mid-GIF. That’s fun. This of course was one of the craziest and most improbable wins in MSU history, capped off by as good as a kicker celebration as you’re going to get. The moment was huge. The GIF is great. The night was memorable. It’s a truly great GIF.
It takes on a strong #7 seed . . .
What a play, what a moment, what a win. This is such a great camera angle too. Watching LJ Scott somehow Jedi the ball out of the way of that last defender is incredible. It loses points because it’s merely a GIF of a great moment, not a great GIF. Truly great GIFs are memorable on their own and when they can be combined with great moments, like the Geiger windmill, that’s when the GIF score soars.
#3 “Yes!” vs. #6 “Nope”
I didn’t even plan for this matchup to happen, but I’m so glad it did. I think the #3 GIF is amazing, but we’ve got a real chance at an upset here.
First off, this was during the heat of an absolute ass kicking of Michigan and that matters. Secondly, this was immediately a thing. The large swaths of college football Twitter that are also in wrasslin’ Twitter seized this moment as Travis Jackson repping for Daniel Bryan, doing his signature “Yes!” celebration/chant. It was and is very funny. Third, this became a moment at Michigan State. It continued through the football season and became a national sensation during basketball season. There were articles written on it, Daniel Bryan said it blew his mind, it was all great and fun and one of the best years of Michigan State sports ever.
And man, a big lineman just squatting up and down doing a “Yes!” chant to nobody in particular is objectively hilarious.
It takes on a very strong #6 seed . . .
Aside from the obvious there’s a couple things that make this GIF great. First, this is like an hour after we saw Kyle Ahrens get stretchered off the floor with hurt ankle. Like, we were all super sad and emotional not long before this and MSU was losing and it was just all so frustrating until it wasn’t. And there was Ahrens, back on the bench talking smack.
Secondly, and it’s related to point A, Kyle Ahrens jacked up his ankle to the point that he had to be stretchered off the floor, then was back on the bench not too long after that. There is a damn near 100% chance this head shaking disapproval is fueled by some pretty powerful painkillers. Maybe it’s not. Maybe Ahrens doesn’t feel pain. But that swaggering nope seems like it is riding on the backs of something to make Kyle not feel his ankle anymore.
#4 Sparty No vs. #5 Pastor Gabriel T. Brown
Another strong #4 vs. #5 matchup to close out the first round. I think despite its greatness, the #4 seed has an uphill climb to victory.
It’s not my job to tell you who to vote for, but I want to explain how this GIF ended up in the top half of the bracket. First, it’s a great GIF. Sparty’s unchanging expression matches the disapproving head shake perfectly. Second, this thing is so popular. When MSU football screws something up like they inevitably will, this GIF will populate social media. It’s the premier representative for the “Sparty, no” comment. And despite it seemingly always having a negative connotation, it deserves our respect.
But it’s going against a beastly #5 seed . . .
I hope so much that Gabe Brown turns in to the MSU hero I think he’ll be. After one year he’s got the chance to be many peoples’ favorite MSU player ever if his career pans out. He’s that type of character. This GIF is a perfect encapsulation of Bubba, AKA Pastor Gabriel T. Brown. Also, Dan Fife sneakily makes this GIF better. Does this man ever laugh at anything? I think MSU was up by 30 on LSU at this moment . . . if not it was a similar situation. The game was in hand I believe. I guess Fife didn’t even react to the Kenny Goins shot against Duke, so we can’t really be surprised here.
