Atlas's favorite country bracket - Preliminary round 1

[Crumpets]

A few months ago we did a "Atlas's favorite state" competition, and I thought it would be fun to do one with countries. Since it's a lot harder to do a list of nearly 200 countries and have people pick 100 at a time, or have a separate thread for each country, I decided to make a bracket.

I'm including 198 countries - the 193 UN Member States, 2 Observer States (Palestine and the Vatican), and three non-members which are recognized by more than just a few other countries (Taiwan, Kosovo, and Western Sahara). Since it's impossible to do a bracket with 197 countries, I'm going to have four preliminary rounds to narrow the number to 128.

This poll has 50 countries from which to choose your top 32 to go on to the round of 128. I'll make three more such polls in the coming days. The countries are arranged by population in decreasing order.

Countries included in this round:

[Kingpoleon]

So the more you vote the less it's worth.

Brazil, Germany and Thailand.

[dax00]

1.Norway      
2.Germany       
3.Netherlands
4.Vietnam
5.Monaco
6.Saint Lucia
7.Thailand   
8.Czech Republic
9.Singapore
10.The Bahamas
11.Sweden
12.Belgium
13.Trinidad and Tobago
14.China
15.Barbados
16.Nepal

[muon2]

I voted for the ones I've been to: Brazil, Russia (as USSR), Germany, Slovenia (as Yugoslavia), The Bahamas, Monaco.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

oh, atlas, picking the rich white countries as usual

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

I forgot to check: are users allowed to see the current results before voting?

[Crumpets]

I forgot to check: are users allowed to see the current results before voting?

Sure, it might actually be helpful to ensure a clear top 32 and bottom 18 without having to do tiebreakers.