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MTV's Musical March Madness Final Four Preview: Tokio Hotel

With a rabid fanbase on their sides, TH seem to be a lock for the championship game.

Who: The improbable champions of the East region in [article id="1635328"]MTV's Musical March Madness tournament[/article], Tokio Hotel are the lowest-seeded band left standing in the tournament, and, to be quite honest, they almost didn't make it at all. Yet they continued to knock off higher-seeded bands, and with each victory, they slowly emerged as a squad to be reckoned with. A straight finesse team, TH rely mainly (some would say exclusively) on the outside shot -- rangy point guard Bill Kaulitz has a deft jumper -- and when the 3's are falling, they're as tough to beat as anybody. Though they may be small inside (Gustav Schafer does not clean up on the boards), they have speed, agility and a precision-guided long-range game on their sides. Can they win the whole thing? At this point, we suppose anything is possible.

How They Got Here: In one word, impressively. TH entered the tournament on an at-large bid, seeded 16th in the East, and were placed in a first-round matchup against #1 Coldplay. They shocked the world by pounding Chris Martin and company 81-19, then rolled Radiohead in the second round. With a pair of high-profile wins under their studded belts, Tokio took on fourth-seeded Vampire Weekend in the Sweet 16, and despite VW frontman Ezra Koenig's objections, they advanced easily, winning 63-37. Their toughest matchup came against #3 Owl City in the Elite Eight, and though both acts boast rabid, ready-to-vote fanbases, Tokio Hotel came out on top again, by an equally large number. In fact, none of Tokio Hotel's tilts have even been close, which either means they're a juggernaut or they've yet to be tested. We're betting on the former.

The Outlook: Can we just go ahead and pencil them in for the championship game? With an insanely dedicated international following, Tokio appear to be the team to beat, though we've yet to see if they've got the guts to win a close one. Then again, with as powerful a fanbase as they've got, it's entirely possible they'll never even be in a close one. They flourished as the underdogs, but how will Tokio Hotel handle the pressure of being the top dogs? We'll just have to wait and see -- and their Final Four matchup against Coheed and Cambria should be a pretty good test. At the very least, it will set the Internet on fire.

Throughout the day, we'll be breaking down the four bands still standing in MTV's Musical March Madness tournament. Voting on the Final Four opens Friday (April 2) on the Newsroom blog and runs until Sunday night.

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