Facebooks Gets The Thumbs-Up From Haters, Takes Final Spot In Worst Company Not-So-Sweet 16

After more than a week of bloodshed, half of the contenders that dared to dip their toes into the Worst Company wading pool (stocked with laser-equipped piranha and some ill-tempered guppies) have been carried out in Consumerist-branded body bags. The 16 fighters that remain are bruised, but not broken, and one of them will soon be crowned with the coveted Golden Poo.

Above is the full bracket as it stands right now.

Coming into today, there was only one Round One match-up still to decide:

FACEBOOK VS. DIRECTV

Sure, DirecTV has more customers than almost every cable company and it’s been hiking up rates, threatening blackouts (and following through on its promise to ditch The Weather Channel if it asked for too much money), but it would have taken an awful lot of angry DirecTV customers to beat out Facebook, especially following yesterday’s news that the acquisition-happy social networking site had made the head-scratcher of a deal to buy virtual-reality gaming system company Oculus. That $2 billion purchase is not sitting well with many folks who don’t like the idea of that kid from Squid and the Whale and Zombietown monkeying with what is one of the most highly anticipated tech products to come along in a while.

A 76% victory for Facebook is substantial, but is it enough to push the company past its Round Two opponent, Comcast? After it’s total destruction of Yahoo early in the competition, the cable/Internet giant is the presumed favorite now that two-time reigning WCIA champ EA has been knocked out of contention.

OTHER ROUND TWO BOUTS TO LOOK FORWARD TO

Facebook v. Comcast won’t be the only Round Two showdown to grab voters’ attention. Comcast’s proposed merger partner Time Warner Cable pulled the upset of the tournament by narrowly defeating EA in the first round; can it repeat that success against well-heeled tournament newcomer Koch Industries?

We’ve never had any viable fast food contenders in the bracket before, but McDonald’s easy win over Target showed that there is some beef to this Big Mac. The real power of its special sauce will be tested when it goes up against JPMorgan Chase in the second round.

SeaWorld came out of nowhere to utterly destroy Johnson & Johnson in Round One, but will perennial semifinalist Ticketmaster make the theme park pay a high fee for that victory?

These questions and many others will be decided by Consumerist readers when Round Two voting begins Thursday morning.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist