Thousands of voters from around metro Atlanta have spoken! Very few surprises have ensued! And now, Round 1 in Urbanize Atlanta’s first-annual Best OTP Downtown Suburban Smackdown tourney is officially in the books.

Who’s going to prevail in this March Madness-style tourney recognizing the best in OTP city centers? Only time (and votes) will tell.

A quick recap of the first eight matches, with more than 4,800 votes tallied so far:

• In tourney action last week, No. 7-seed Duluth showed Stone Mountain the exit with 57 percent of almost 800 votes.

• Woodstock (5) easily dispatched south metro competitor Newnan, capturing 65 percent of votes.

• Marietta (3) booted Cobb County brethren Smyrna from the tourney without breaking sweat.

• Tucker (9) pulled a slight upset and scooted by higher-seeded Norcross.

• Lawrenceville (4) showed Conyers the exit in a lopsided weekend match.  

• In a relatively close contest, Suwanee (6) edged Serenbe to keep hope alive.

• Roswell (2) strode confidently past historic downtown Covington this week.

• And in a face-off that garnered the most votes yet, No. 1-seed Alpharetta zoomed by upstart Trilith to conclude Round 1 action.

So now, good people of metro Atlanta: meet your Elite Eight!

As a reminder, reader nominations determined the field of 16 earlier this month. The eight competitors left standing represent a wide swath of the OTP universe, with Gwinnett County’s downtowns standing particularly strong.  

Stay tuned, as Elite Eight matches will begin very soon, followed by the Final Four. The hallowed Championship comes next week.

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(Urbanize Atlanta)