The Blaguard, from Adams Morgan , is the 2020 Barred in DC Bar Madness Champion, defeating Shaw bar Ivy and Coney Monday 48-44.7% in the most voted Barred in DC Twitter poll in history. The 2,909 votes almost doubled the previous record in 36 fewer hours.

The #16 seed survived an opening round play-in game to even make the tournament (for favorite bar), and then went on a tear until its narrow comeback victory over a #3 seed (down 34% after 350 votes/30 minutes, 21% after 700 votes/75 minutes; it narrowed the gap from 10:30a-11:30a completely to tie after 1150 votes/135 minutes). For more details on The Blaguard and the other 3 bars that made the Final Four, check out the preview.  All the credit goes to the amazing efforts by The Blaguard to rile up and mobilize its fans/regulars, the so-called #BlagFam, who voted in numbers (at least two confirmed Twitter accounts created expressly for purpose of voting). If you’re wondering why The Blaguard was seeded so low, well only half of the six voting committee members had even been there before, which downgraded its slot.

As for the tournament, aside from the intensity of The Blaguard’s fans, I was almost most surprised that Bluejacket (which I’m a fan of) ended up being one of top 12 favorite bars in town and a lot of people have never been to The Raven Grill, one of the older classic dives in town. I was not surprised that stellar bars like Hill Prince, Tunnicliff’s Tavern, and Beuchert’s have not been visited as many people as they deserve.

Based entirely on 1) how far the bar went in the tournament, 2) how they fared in their loss, and 3) adjustment for playing the #BlagFam, here’s a ranking of the top 41 bars in the tourney. From what I gathered from the polls, there are many who haven’t been to many of these bars, so I hope you can visit when everything is safe again.