May Heinous Breakdown: Keystone Light Division

Time is almost up to submit your May Heinous bracket to Sherman Ave for your chance to grasp the Morty Schapiro Cup! To compete for this vaunted prize, not to mention eternal glory, download your bracket and submit it to us at shermanave1@gmail.com. Now without further ado, here's our preview of the Keystone Light Division that Evander Jones scrambled to put together (with the aid of Brother Jürgen) before tonight's deadline.

Leonardo Da Vinci and Peter the Great Da Vinci is among the most diversely talented humans who ever lived (second only to this guy), and archeologists have discovered entire notebooks of Da Vinci's devoted to researching the kinematically perfect beer pong bounce shot. It has also long been rumored that Da Vinci's The Last Supper is actually a depiction of Jesus clearing his table for a game of pong, a crucial plot point in Dan Brown's next novel. Peter the Great, meanwhile, has been listed by reputable academic journals as one of the broist figures in history, thanks in a large part to his latent alcoholism, filicidism, and mustache. Pre-tournament polls placed the team at a close second behind rival Keystone Light Division heavyweights Hemingway and Roosevelt in the "pure man" category. Look for Da Vinci and Peter the Great to either go far in the tournament, or invent helicopters to wage a war against the Turks. Strengths: Science, Being Russian Weaknesses: No freshwater ports, Opus Dei Team Cohesiveness: 8.5/10 First-Round Opponents: Mohandas Gandhi and Chief Sitting Bull -Evander Jones

Mohandas Gandhi and Chief Sitting Bull As of press time, it remains unclear whether Gandhi and Sitting Bull will focus their efforts on sinking cups or writing open-letters protesting the lack of racial tolerance within this year's May Heinous field of contenders. Analysts are excited to see how Gandhi's policy of non-violent civil disobedience will mesh with Sitting Bull's strategy of "Going Little Bighorn" on his opponents' asses, but given both leaders' propensity for getting assassinated, hold little hope for either. Expect Chief Bull to draw on knowledge he gained touring with Bill Cody's Wild West Show, as Gandhi tries to force a victory by boycotting the tournament altogether. Strengths: Crying single tears, Civil Disobedience Weaknesses: Glasses, Bows and Arrows Team Cohesiveness: 3/10 First-Round Opponents: Leonardo Da Vinci and Peter the Great -Evander Jones

Leon Trotsky and Sally Hemings Leon Trotsky aka Snowball was the leader of the Russian Revolution’s Red Army until he was ousted by Stalin, that jerkface. Meanwhile, Sally Hemings gave birth to Thomas Jefferson’s children, despite the fact that she was, y’know, his slave. Um. Strengths: Hemings will be used to the borderline sexual assault that accompanies most beer pong matches, while Trotsky was once rumored to have downed a fifth of vodka while leading the Red Army against 16 invading foreign armies. Weaknesses: The fact that both of these people got fucked pretty hard in their lives (Trotsky in the sense that he was stabbed in the head with an icepick, and Hemings in the sense that she was literally fucked by the President) leads me to place them squarely in the category of “People Who Aren’t Badasses.” Team Cohesiveness: 6/10. I don’t see any reason that they would disagree, except that Hemings might eventually get annoyed by Trotsky’s constant lectures about how she should lead a revolt against her masters and institute an egalitarian paradise and shut him out. First-Round Opponents: Florence Nightingale and Pope John Paul II -Brother Jürgen

Florence Nightingale and Pope John Paul II Florence Nightingale was famous for being really nice. She basically founded nursing. Pope John Paul II was the Pope of the Catholic Church until he died and was succeeded by a man who may have been a Nazi. During his long tenure, he helped overthrow Communism in Poland, survived an assassination attempt, and drove a Popemobile. As if that wasn’t boss enough, he is currently 2/3 of the way toward becoming a saint. Strengths: Pope John Paul II survived an assassination attempt, which is more than his opponent Trotsky can say, and Florence Nightingale spent the majority of her life caring for wounded soldiers on gory Crimean battlefields. Their ability to win depends on whether you think their demonstrated hardness can be easily translated into alcohol resistance. Weaknesses: Weaknesses are pretty obvious here, given that this is a beer pong contest, not a “which one of us is holier” contest. The number of combined beers drunk by this pair in their lifetimes is probably less than five. Team Cohesiveness: 9/10. Both of these people are pretty nice and holy. I predict them getting along well, and if their ability to survive wars and revolutions develops into an ability to survive copious amounts of shitty keg beer, their chemistry will only improve. First-Round Opponents: Leon Trotsky and Sally Hemings -Brother Jürgen

Ernest Hemingway and Teddy Roosevelt Hemingway and Roosevelt bring forth even more masculinity than Chuck Norris giving the Dos Equis Man a reach-around. The resulting Norris/Equis facial would not even compare to the payoff provided by these two titans of testosterone, quite possibly the two most virile men this great nation has ever produced. Hemingway's years of grizzly bear hunting, drinking, and misogyny have primed him for this year's beer pong tournament, while Teddy Roosevelt remains the only American politician to not even take a shred of shit for being a progressive. Even if shot mid-game, expect the President to not only finish the game, but guzzle every remaining brew in sight. Strengths: Graduating Oak Park River Forest High School, Wrecking Shit, Rough Riding Weaknesses: n/a Team Cohesiveness: 10/10 First-Round Opponents: Winston Churchill and Frida Kahlo -Evander Jones

Winston Churchill and Frida Kahlo One continuous eyebrow says it all. These teammates have pluck, but it will probably take either a miracle or American military involvement to stave off a crushing defeat at the hands of Hemingway and Roosevelt. Churchill has famously proclaimed that his team shall "pong on the beaches, we shall pong on the landing grounds, we shall pong in the fields and in the streets, we shall pong in the hills, we shall pong in the basement of ZBT, and we shall never surrender," but sources claim that the prime minister was "totally wasted" on scotch at the time, and promptly chundered in a wastebasket at the conclusion of his speech. Kahlo frequently attempts to use her unibrow to distract opponents, but it's unclear how her uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form will translate into sinking cups. Strengths: Cigars, National Resolve Weaknesses: Polio, Unibrow Team Cohesiveness: 3/10 First-Round Opponents: Ernest Hemingway and Teddy Roosevelt -Evander Jones

Thurgood Marshall and John McCain The maverick team of Marshall and McCain are the wildcard contenders within the Keystone Light Division. Both are fighters, McCain surviving two presidential campaigns and torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese (not sure which is more taxing), while Marshall endured an equally torturous nineteen years on the Supreme Court with Justice Rehnquist. Marshall gained fame in the early 1960s as Solicitor General, arguing that rebuttal shots were a blatant violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment, and McCain is a fierce proponent of beer pong finance reform, urging all beer pong hosts to limit expenditures on beer to a maximum of $15 per case. McCain has also been known to surge towards the end of his beer pong matches, usually hopeless mires of sectarian violence, in an attempt to claim victory. Strengths: Jowls, NAACP Weaknesses: Vetting VPs, Escaping capture Team Cohesiveness: 7/10 First-Round Opponents: Isaac Newton and Leopold II -Evander Jones

Isaac Newton and Leopold II You can't spell "douchebag" without "chode,"* and both Newton and Leopold II are both chodes and total douchebags. Newton, for instance, not only stole the entire idea of differential calculus from Leibniz, but was extraordinarily proud to die a virgin. Leopold II of Belgium, however, was presumably too busy inventing waffles and brutally running the Congo as his own personal fiefdom/plantation to pay much attention in math class. It remains to be seen whether these two will use their pent-up sexual/racial aggression to their pong advantage, but one thing's for certain: they'll be total dicks about it no matter what. Strengths: Extracting personal fortune from the natives, describing gravity and motion Weaknesses: Getting one's dick wet, public relations Team Cohesiveness: 8/10 First-Round Opponents: Thurgood Marshall and John McCain -Evander Jones

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