It’s March, and that means madness — so I grabbed 16 random pens from my (somewhat vast) collection and ran a little elimination “fight to the death” to see which one comes out on top. The bracket was generated with a random number generator (16 numbers between 1 and 640), and then I whittled the field down round by round using the same priorities I use when I’m judging any pen: nib performance first, then form and function, then aesthetics, and finally an overall favourite in the grand final. Along the way, there were a few easy calls (yes, the Hongdian N10 was always going to beat the Noodler’s Triple Tail for me), and a few genuinely hard matchups — like the Faber-Castell Ondoro versus the Sailor Pro Gear, where an excellent steel nib goes toe-to-toe with gold. The final came down to the Asvine C80 versus the Waterman Carène, both inked with Lamy Black on 80gsm Rhodia. The Asvine is ridiculously good value and wonderfully smooth, but the Carène is just… special. That unique nib feel, the snap cap, the way it sits in the hand — for my taste, the Waterman Carène wins March Madness 2026.