ST. LOUIS – March Madness just ended for college basketball fans, but St. Louis is still fighting for bragging rights in one unique bracket challenge.

A Twitter page called “Flags That Go Hard” launched its first March Madness-inspired competition last month. Its bracket challenge features flags of countries, states, province and cities from all over the world.

Now in its “Final Four” stage of voting, the St. Louis city flag had advanced past some stiff competition and has a chance at the title. The “Final Four” consists of the flags for the city of St. Louis, state of New Mexico, the country of Kazakhstan and a former flag for the country of China from 1889-1912.

St. Louis takes on New Mexico in the “Final Four” round. With more than 10,000 votes cast and nearly 24 hours remaining, St. Louis is leading with nearly a 70-30% edge over New Mexico.

Throughout the bracket challenge, the St. Louis city flag has also rattled off the following victories:

  • Round 4: St. Louis over Alexandria, Egypt (83% to 17%)
  • Round 3: St. Louis over Buffalo, New York (86.9% to 13.1%)
  • Round 2: St. Louis over Amsterdam, Netherlands (61.6% to 38.4%)
  • Round 1: St. Louis over Roswell, New Mexico (62.9% to 37.1%)

The organizer launched the competition on March 12, just days before the start of the NCAA March Madness Tournament. It’s a 64-flag single-elimination bracket. Voters have two days to choose a favorite in each bracket.

The four quadrants of the competition were all a little bit different. St. Louis was placed in one for “cities.” The other three quadrants were “states/provinces/regions,” “countries” and “historical flags.”

According to the Missouri History Museum, the St. Louis city flag has a solid red background with two wavy bars that symbolize the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. There is also a yellow disk containing a blue fleur-de-lis. St. Louis adopted its current flag in 1964.

The March Madness-inspired challenge is expected to end within the next few days. The latest Twitter challenge follows a similar one in January, labeled vaguely in good fun as a “cities” bracket. St. Louis made it all the way to the championship round there before a defeat to Chicago.