SALT LAKE CITY — The Pandemic is officially over ... well, the board game's run in this bracket is at least. We're still social distancing and working from home in real life, but I digress.

The Sweet 16 round of the bracket challenge saw some early favorites like Pandemic and Exploding Kittens fall — again to the classics. At this rate, the bracket should just be titled: What is your favorite classic board game?

Codenames enters the Elite 8 round as the perceived favorite after dismantling its opponent, Sheriff of Nottingham, with 80% of the vote — the most of the Sweet 16 round by a large margin; however, Ticket to Ride, another seemingly favorite, managed 71% of the vote over Connect Four — can't say I'm all that upset, personally.

The closest matchup of the Sweet 16 round was between Risk and Yahtzee. The all-dice game had some early steam as it blew past Agricola and Betrayal at House on the Hill, but it met a worthy opponent in Risk. The world domination game edged past Yahtzee with 51% of the vote to advance to the next round.

In celebration, I taught my 11- and 8-year-old the game, and it ended with me getting elbowed in the nose when my son celebrated a victory in one of the battles — I guess that's better than someone flipping the board off the table and ruining the game. As a side note, I still won the game, even though my son won the real-life battle with my face. We'll call it a draw.

As a reminder, the 64 games were seeded based on its ranking on boardgamegeek.com and slated into the bracket in a similar style to the NCAA Tournament. To see how the games were selected, read the first article of the challenge.

The Elite 8 round of voting will go all through Friday and will conclude at midnight. The Final Four round will be released Monday and the championship round on Wednesday.

#Poll

If you can't see the poll, click here.

#Photo

Board games

To learn more about each game, click on its title, which will direct you to its Board Game Geek page. Maybe you'll find a new game to play.

• Gloomhaven
• Terraforming Mars
• Great Western Trail
• Scythe
• Wingspan
• Puerto Rico
• Orleans
• Agricola
• Blood Rage
• Root
• Power Grid
• Azul
• 7 Wonders
• Clank!
• Rising Sun
• Codenames
• Dominion
• Pandemic
• Quacks of Quedlinburg
• Stone Age
• Cosmic Encounter
• Splendor
• Ticket to Ride
• Viticulture
• Cyclades
• Carcassonne
• Secret Hitler
• Sushi Go Party
• Telestrations
• Arboretum
• King of Tokyo
• Flash Point: Fire Rescue
• Sheriff of Nottingham
• Settlers of Catan
• Shadows Over Camelot
• Evolution
• Bohnanza
• Chess
• Coup
• Betrayal at House on the Hill
• Blokus
• Qwirkle
• Smash Up
• Machi Koro
• Axis & Allies
• Labyrinth
• Dragonwood
• Bananagrams
• Scrabble
• Dungeon Mayhem
• Unstable Unicorns
• Sequence
• Exploding Kittens
• Apples to Apples
• Clue
• Risk
• Yahtzee
• Connect Four
• Sorry
• Monopoly
• The Game of Life
• Candy Land
• Chutes & Ladders
• Cones of Dunshire

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