Curbed Cup Final Four results: Underdog North Austin (NACA) heads to the championship!

The Curbed Cup, our annual award for the neighborhood of the year, kicked off last week with eight neighborhoods vying for the prestigious (fake) trophy. After a that week’s heated competition and a couple of upsets, four neighborhoods emerged the first round victorious. This week Final Four battled it out, with two teams—both north; sorry, South Austin—emerged for the final showdown next week. In the meantime, here’s the Final Four blow-by-blow.

Round Four of the cup saw a match between two underdogs—North Austin (NACA) and MLK-183. Both teams, the 7th and 8th seeds, came out swinging in the first round, beating last year’s winner and runner-up: East César Chavez and Downtown, respectively.

NACA was pumped up heading into the semifinals and handily dispatched MLK-183 to move on to the final round.

The other Final Four round saw another East-North matchup, with neighborhoods North Loop and Cherrywood being practically across I-35 from each other and having some similarities in housing stock and neighborhood attractions.

Newcomer Cherrywood fought admirably, but in the end, Curbed Cup vet North Loop took the round to advance.

The Curbed Cup 2017 final will start at 10 a.m., Monday, Dec. 25, and polls will be open through 10 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 2.