The Bracket vote is the theory that in the very early stages of a match, generally the first 5 to 10 minutes, a character who is heavily favored in the majority of prediction brackets is going to have an advantage over his opponent. The idea is that the people who stay up late to cast the opening votes are more likely to have a high-ranking bracket that they want to support, and so once that initial wave of voting dies off the underdog is likely to start performing better.