Every tournament starts with someone, somewhere, holding a flawless bracket. It never lasts – and it's not bad luck. The numbers were never on its side.
The maths is brutal
Fill a 64-team knockout purely at random and the odds of a perfect bracket are roughly one in nine quintillion – a nine followed by eighteen zeros. Even with real knowledge sharpening every pick, you're still stacking dozens of coin-flips on top of one another, and it takes exactly one upset to end the run. That's why a perfect bracket is a headline, not a target.
Chasing perfection is a fast way to lose. Building a bracket that's merely better than your friends', though, is entirely doable – and it's the only game actually worth playing.