Good evening, it is October 10th, and we finally have closure. 12 bears entered and only ONE gets to go hibernate high on having broken the hold of the Five Champions of Fast Bear History. Let’s take a quick look back at the 2023 season and see who the fattest bear is. I’m your host Cody, and this is The Bearcast.
A quick aside to say thank you Saph for filling in last night and doing all the things that make The Bearcast go. Xae’s the real driving force here! I couldn’t do this without you, thank you so much!
This year we started off breaking records. Going into the finals, we had 1,166,086 votes through the previous rounds of voting, beating out last year before we even made it to the finals! Speaking of voting this year, it seems the masses were largely in agreement. In all prior rounds of competition there were no close races this year. Every bear moving on to the next round did so absolutely unopposed, never losing more than 34% of the votes! It has made this year a bit underwhelming as far as day-of drama goes, but I have to say that in its place we’ve had some amazing stories play out. We had Elektra and her daughter compete together. We saw 902 and Otis have a rematch. We saw relationships tested. We saw old and new clash. It’s been an amazing premise of matches this year and one explore.org should be proud of from a narrative point.
I just wish there was more tension as the votes came through this year is all. That constant checking in until 9:00 to see who would eek out that 52 or 53% is just such an exhilarating feeling as a fan!
But maybe the final will give us that.
In the first corner is a bear with a decade of uninterrupted appearances making his first finals appearance since 2017. A bear that has piled on the weight year after year. A bear with a passionate following. A bear-thlete who will eventually have a spot in the Hall of Fame. A bear who is so proudly large all year long that it earned him his name. 32 Chunk!
Opposing him is the blonde bear behemoth, the ursine usurper, the gal from growltown, ONE. TWO. EIGHT. Grazer!
Both competed valiantly this year to get to the finals almost completely unopposed honestly. Chunk puts forth his great final physique, but since he doesn’t start small it can alienate the delta voters. Meanwhile Grazer maxed out both difference in sizes and overall chonk. We’ve talked at length on the stir that her choice of final pose has made in previous episodes so we won’t belabor the point today. It will be interesting to see if The Fédération Internationale des gros ourses makes a major rule change in the off season though to combat this or if we’re watching Grazer break the game and set a new meta into place for all bear-thletes to come!
Before we get to the results, allow me to break character for one moment and remind you what this is all about. Fat Bear Week is about appreciating nature and what these bears have to do to survive the winter in Alaska. For us, it is all games and pageantry, but for them it is literally life and death survival. If they don’t gain enough fat and caloric reserve for the winter, we might not see them next year. They lose ⅓ of their weight while they hibernate. The bears at Katmai are some of the healthiest in the world and the Conservancy gives us great research opportunities on these magnificent mammals. If you have a few extra dollars to throw to the Katmai Conservancy I’m sure they’d appreciate it. Proceeds from Fat Bear Merch also go to Katmai. If you head to their site on October 14th at 4PM Eastern, explore.org will be having a livestream with the rangers of Katmai. You can learn about the history, what’s to come, and they have an annual Fat Bear Fundraiser! It’ll be great to take part, give them some love; without them, we don’t get to have this awesome competition.
Thanks for listening, and now back to your regularly scheduled Bearcast:
As voting opened, Grazer jumped from the gate as ferocious as ever! She leapt to a strong 70% led and kept pushing it harder and harder. I think she had a personal goal this year to not just win the tournament, but to dominate it in a way no other bear has before! Looking back at her match history, she never controlled less than 80% of the votes in any given round. She trampled Walker with 91%, grounded 747 with 87%, and handled Holly with 81%. Chunk put up a good fight, never falling completely down, but even he was no match. Grazer pulls 82% of the votes in the final round and becomes the 2023 Queen of Katmai. She joins other storied bears like the great 480 Old King Otis, the original queen 409 Beadnose, the hallowed 435 Holly, and the Bear Plane 747. She becomes the fifth crowned bear, and can head to hibernation holding her head high. It’ll be interesting to see if in 2024 she has the next generation in tow or if she’ll make a shot at defending her title.
To Chunk, don’t let it get to you. You still have years of competition left and a strong passionate fanbase. Drop some weight in the off-season and then pack it on and on, and plow your way to the finals in 2024!
Keep an eye on The Bearcast for potential off season specials, but definitely come back in October for the third season, with a new bracket, and maybe new bear-thletes breaking into the top level of competition here at Katmai. Catch this all on The Bearcast!