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Short and sweet — the bears are the judges.
The field
The fieldSixteen real Katmai bears — families, adult females, sub-adults and adult males — fill the official 2026 Fat Bear Week bracket from explore.org. First-round matchups are within divisions; quarterfinals crown each division champion.
Making picks
Making picksFill your whole bracket before picks lock — every one of the 15 matchups, including quarterfinals, semifinals and the final, just like March Madness. Your round winners carry forward automatically as earlier results come in.
The deadline
Picks lock when the first matchup starts: September 22 at noon ET. Until then you can change any pick as many times as you like. After the lock, your bracket is frozen and the scoreboard takes over.
How winners are decided
You only make picks once — everything before the September 22 noon ET lock. After that, results follow the real Fat Bear Week contest: explore.org's official voting runs September 22–29 (no voting September 26–27), and each matchup winner is whoever wins the real vote. The bears decide, not us.
Scoring
Each round win is worth that round's points: first round 1, quarterfinals 2, semifinals 3, championship 4. A perfect bracket scores 32 points. Ties share the glory (and the bragging rights).
Sharing
Every player gets a public share page showing their name and picks — never an email or login. Before the lock, shared pages only show how many picks you've made, so nobody can copy your bracket.
Ready? Fill your bracket before the first salmon is caught.