The Multiverse - Stardate: -309747.945 - At long last, the laser fire has cooled and the plasma blasters have fallen silent as the inaugural SolarWinds' Sci-Fi Bracket Battle comes to a close. From the initial 34 iconic science fiction characters from television, film and literature and with nearly 5,700 votes cast over the past three weeks in thwack, only a single battle-scarred figure still stands.

That icon is Spock, Star Trek's first officer of the USS Enterprise.

Spock faced down the omnipotent Q in an all Star Trek Final Judgment battle, using his logic to take on Q's seemingly all-powerful nature. But before each finalist could enter the ring, both Spock and Q each had to handle a murderer's row of resurrected challengers:

• For Q, this line-up was comprised of Neo, the Infinite Improbability Drive, the Borg and Number 6.
  
• Spock, on the other hand, had to out think Darth Vader, the 10th Doctor, Kaylee and River Tam.

At the end, however, Spock's logic prevailed against the fallen and his current challenger, leaving him the champion of a war-ravaged cosmos. Spock stands alone...

The first annual SolarWinds Bracket Battle featured a tournament-style battle royal between science fiction icons, including characters from Star Wars, Star Trek and Firefly. Driven purely by community votes, the Bracket Battle led to heated discussions across SolarWinds' thwack community and beyond, with fan bases taking to Twitter, Facebook and other message boards to defend their chosen champions.

So what changes are in store for the SolarWinds Bracket Battle 2.0? Stay tuned to thwack to find out -- 2014 is a new year, and a new group of challengers, possibly from an entirely new genre, will seek the crown and victory.