The Madden Invasion

Waking up before noon on the weekend is usually something that only happens on special occasions; either I’m home visiting the folks, getting ready for a Raps game on a Sunday, or if something else unique is going on in the city I’ll force myself out from under the warm, comfortable blankets. Well I wasn’t home, the Raps don’t play until Monday, but, thankfully the marketing savvy NFL teamed up with EA Sports and made a trip to the Metro Convention Centre in Toronto. The special event that made its trip to the city was none other than the internationally known – Madden Challenge.

The Madden Challenge, for those of you who have been living a very sheltered and unrewarding life for the past decade, is a competition that pits the best Madden football gamers against each other in a tournament format to find who the Master Gamer truly is and who will hold claim to being the top Madden aficionado in North America. I love tournaments like this because you get a great mix of people involved. There are the entrants who have been training themselves in the basement of their parents house for the past six months, studying the tutorial guide, perfecting the hurry up offense and audibles at the line, all while stunting their social lives for the greater good. They show up wearing dirty jeans, their favourite players’ jersey and have hair that can start a grease fire worse than you’d find at a McDonalds when the fry machine goes up in flames. Then you’ve got the ex-athletes who have never given up the fact that they just weren’t cut it to make it as a pro player, but still have that drive and competitive fire that keeps them around the game, even if it’s in the virtual world. The rest of the field is filled out with players like myself, who meet the two extremes somewhere in the middle, always wishing to have made it to the Bigs, but knowing that not being blessed with 4.0-60 speed or a 40inch vert really hurt those chances, but still someone who’s spent his life on the sports field during the day and with the Nintendo/Sega/PS1/Xbox at night. Unfortunately I missed the preliminary tournaments held at various Rogers locations throughout the GTA over the past few months, or this could have been my big day. Thankfully my boy Kimmerly was able to find a way in. Again, not through the prelims but, the next best way, and a little easier, he got an email from EA Sports and attached was an online entry form. I guess I need to check my junk mail inbox more often.

The game plan for the day of the tourney was to get to the Convention Centre sometime around 10:00am. That way we’d get to see how big the line up to get in was, see what sort of opening ceremony they might have, maybe score some swag, but mainly to root on Kimmerly, our hope for the title. Along with being named top dog the winner would receive $1,000 and a trip for two down to Hawaii to take in some sun, surf and the Pro Bowl, all on Xbox 360 and EA Sports. By being the guy who lent him an Xbox and Madden 07 and the only person in his cheering section, I thought I’d be in a good spot to be that second person getting laid upon landing in Honolulu. I might have been dreaming a bit though, seeing as he just got engaged a couple weeks ago and probably end up taking his girl, but if that was the case we all know he'd be missing out on a lot of fun that would have stayed on the island.

What ended up happening was that my brother and I end up sleeping in, but not by much, getting ourselves up, out of bed and showered, to get us out of the house by 10:30. We swung by Tim Horton’s to pick up a couple of their new breakfast sandwiches that are highly underrated and should be getting a lot more attention. They rival and surpass that of McDonalds in flavor, size and don’t flow through your system within the hour. After grabbing our food I got a phone call from Kimmerly, he was eliminated. What?!?! Eliminated? We weren’t even there yet! The tournament just started no more than a half hour ago.

What had happened was because there were about 100 entrants who also signed up through the online form; the organizers were having games begin at 9:00 in order to bring the group of gamers down to something manageable. Kimmerly was slotted in for his first match-up to happen at 9:00 and picked the highly talented Chargers as his weapon of choice. He would be playing against the Bengals, whose gamer was dressed in, you guessed it; their Chad Johnson #85 jersey. Getting off to a great start the Chargers got out to an early 14-0 lead. After holding strong on defense following a pick and a few unfortunate plays, Kimmerly was able to add another TD late to take the game 21-0. After his first game on the 360 edition and getting accustom to the short 2:00 minute quarters he was feeling good.

The next game would be against the Colts. Now I have nothing against people choosing the best teams when you play them in any sport video game, I’ll always let my opponent pick first, then I can match up with his squad, usually picking someone a little worse, just to make them think they have an advantage. The challenge of winning when you’re not using one of the more commonly picked squads makes it that much more satisfying. There should have been a rule in place that guarded against picking any team ranked in the top three in the game. How great would it feel to be in the final and playing with someone like Jacksonville, praying that Leftwich will come through when it matters most and that the team wasn’t on a down week, and then proving your ultimate skill and winning with someone other than the upper echelon teams? Disappointingly, this was not the case, but would have eliminated the inevitable final of Indy vs. SD or the 300 games of such match-up in between. Nonetheless, armed with the Eagles, Kimmerly was ready to go. As the game mirrored reality, McNabb went down in the first quarter, forcing Playboy Garcia to step in and lead the team to victory. Now he was feeling even better, just running off two consecutive wins, and the last coming against Manning. He was starting to get a little cocky.

His third game he would be loyal to his favourite team in the leauge and picked the Dolphins in order to go with Daunte and the boys. Again, he’d be playing against the Colts (wow, what a surprise). After falling behind early to an offensive attack that rivals none, Manning was looking to lead his team to the next round. The Dolphins needed to charge back in the second half, and don’t forget, these are not long games with the common player averaging only about five drives throughout. Down 10 with little time left on the clock, Kimmerly needed something and needed it to happen now. Dropping back in the pocket with Culpepper he spotted a separating Chambers who beat his man on man coverage and was in the open field. Bombing a dart downfield, Daunte hit Chambers in stride for the score. Now the Fins were within 3 with only seconds left on the clock. The onside kick was his only option and not an easy task for someone who’s only played the game on first generation consoles. With a small variation in game play and controller layout in the 360 edition, he miscued slightly on the kick and it went directly to the receiving team. His dreams were shattered. My dreams were shattered. No hula girls for us.

The day had only started though, it was only 11:00 in the morning and my bro and I hadn’t even been onto the gaming floor yet. So after meeting with Kimmerly and giving him our condolences we all headed back to where the action was. We had also heard that there may be a few NFL All-Stars onsite helping to promote both the video game and the real thing.

The players originally announced to make the trip to Toronto were Daunte Culpepper and Larry Fitzgerald. Thankfully Culpepper had to drop out because although he’s not 30 yet (he’s actually turning 30 in less than a week) he seems like an old guy. One of those guys who when you’re growing up always looked or acted older than everyone else in the group, being the responsible one (minus the infamous sex-cruise), and who mocks their boys for being so engulfed in things like fantasy sports and video games. This is how Culpepper seems to me. It would have been fun to have him there though just to ask him if he hates Madden after being on the cover in ’02 and then subsequently falling to the annual Madden Curse. I’m not sure if it was the both the NFL and Xbox/EA who made the call, but to replace Daunte they were bringing in none other than one of the greatest hype men in sports today, Ocho Cinco; Chad Johnson.

As soon as we walked into the Convention Centre we knew that CJ was there. A huge group of people were crowded around a few leather couches and hanging over some security tape watching two people play. Another big group was forming into a line a couple hundred deep, anxiously waiting for their coveted autograph from their favourite player(s). Inside the taped off area was two chairs set up, a plasma and an Xbox 360 where CJ was taking on the young Toronto Phenom; a 10-year old boy who was running game on everyone and had come loaded with his own trash talk group filled with brothers, cousins and friends. He was ranked near the top of the bracket and looking to take home the ultimate prize, so he had a little game to back his big talk. This would be a friendly exhibition that would match up with Chad picking the top wide out in the league and the Carolina Panthers vs. the Phenom who was going with Vick and the Falcons. Needless to say, the friendly part didn’t last long. It didn’t matter to Chad that his opponent was only 4’5 and 90lbs; he was making sure the youngin knew who the top dog in this game was. Decked out in his studded Phat Farm leather, lime green tee, and crisp white kicks, CJ’s most glaring accessory was what makes him Ocho Cinco; his black designer sunglasses that only rested on his forehead if he was conducting an interview or the game was getting too close for comfort. As both competitors showed their skill, and CJ does have some serious Madden skills, the game would come down to a late drive by the Phenom set up after he picked one of Chad’s arrant passes. Although a valiant effort by the Pro-Bowler, on this day it would be the 10-year old dancing in the end zone, not Johnson.

After his game against the #1 competitor in the field, it was obvious to everyone that CJ was the perfect guy to be at this event. He has a personality and loves attention, immediately attracting all of the media the instant his game was over. He also loves video games, going back to a console after everything he did throughout the day. He interacted with the crowd throughout the day, either stepping up to play spectators who thought they had game, or to silence the trash talkers in the back row, he was someone who made people focus on him, not knowing what might happen next. His counterpart from the NFL was Larry Fitzgerald, pretty much the exact opposite of Johnson.

Fitzgerald, although sharply dressed and a big man himself, did not attract the same type of attention as CJ from the fans in attendance. Actually, no one even knew he was there until about a half an hour after he arrived. While my brother and I were standing on the wrong side of the taped-in VIP area, watching CJ take on a few loudmouths from the crowd, I kept asking him where Fitzy was. I was looking around all over, but couldn’t see him anywhere. This whole time there was some random guy sitting on one of the black leather couches who didn’t fit the crowd of other people sitting there and who my brother kept calling “that guy from The Wire.” Well after we re-positioned ourselves to the other side of the VIP area I’d be right beside “the guy from The Wire” and now I was getting a good look at this guy. I finally looked to my brother and asked him if he thought that it was Fitzgerald was "the guy from The Wire" and to our surprise, a reporter from The Fan 590 comes and sits down next to him to conduct an interview. We both looked at each other and laughed. Yes, "the guy from The Wire" was Larry Fitzgerald.

Now that we knew both stars were there we were anxious to see the relationship between the two wide outs. What we were surprised to see was that there was absolutely no relationship there at all. No pounds or hugs from CJ to Fitz, no sitting down and catching up on old times, just a simple what’s-up head nod, a little discussion between the event coordinator and the two men – probably saying that they’d keep the game to just a half - and then a game of Madden that was absolutely dominated by CJ as it looked like this was Fitzgeralds third time playing the game (the first time came after buying his new Xbox 360 and Madden 07 last fall and the second came after he found out he was coming to Toronto to appear at the Madden Challenge). Although not made from the same eccentric mold that gave us Ocho Cinco, Fitzgerald looked like a genuinely good guy and a great ambassador of the game.

After they finished their game, Chad quickly gets escorted just outside the VIP area where they have the autograph table set up. The celebrity autograph could possibly be one of the most awkward and bizarre encounters that we put ourselves through. After waiting in line for more than two hours with a bunch of other people who are there with brand new jerseys, hats, programs, footballs and the dream that they’ll finally get to meet the person they’ve been idolizing, you get up to the front of the line where you come face-to-face, or more appropriately, face-to-lowered head with the star. The encounter lasts no more than 3-seconds, doesn’t contain any discussion whatsoever, and you’ll be lucky if the person who’s doing the signing even looks up to see who’s came to show their support. Then you’re rushed out of the area by security and you’re left thinking ‘What? All that waiting and dealing with some of the most annoying people you’ll ever meet for THAT?’ This was what many disgruntled parents were muttering under their breath after waiting in line with their wide-eyed children for an autograph from the Bengal’s star receiver. I didn’t feel the need to get any autographs, that time in my life had passed, but when Fitzgerald got to the chair and had about twenty people only come for his autograph I felt kind of bad for him and thought it would be a good time to see if I could ask him a question. So I jump in line and grab a photo card from one of the event staff and walk up to the table. You could tell that Larry was hoping to move me along quickly as he was already pre-signing a few cards to move things along a little faster, but I had other things in mind. When I got up to him I gave him a hand shake, passed over my card and then asked him how he was enjoying Toronto. He replied that it was a little cold, but that he was liking his first trip to the city. Then I asked if he had gotten the chance to make it out to any of the twenty bowl games that they played at his new home field in Arizona this past Bowl Season. He told me that he was lucky enough to make it out to the Boise St game and that he hoped the Cards would be making some history in the near future too, but hopefully not having to revert to any trick plays in order to do so.

This made me feel good. At least if I was going to wait in line (which I really didn’t have to do) to get an autograph I was going to speak to the person who was signing and make it a little more personal. Fitzgerald then finished his session and headed back to the leather couch to watch CJ play a few more games.

The final highlight of the day came when the emcee for Madden Challenge Crew, the guys who were employed to pump some energy into the event, called the NFL stars over to the DJ booth because there was a Canadian boy who thought he had some freestyle skills and wanted to challenge CJ. Being the competitive guy he is, Johnson obliged willingly and it was on. Here’s a link to the Chad’s freestyle. Let’s just say that he was a smart man and chose to stick with football instead of the hip hop world. “The Source” represented Toronto well and although his freestyle skills were a little too quiet to capture on video, he rhymed his way past a Pro Bowler. When the crowd separated, CJ quick-stepped his way back to the video gaming consoles, eager to whip another opponent in something he knows how to dominate in. While they were walking away, a huge crowd swarmed around Johnson, while following closely behind, Fitzgerald attracted no attention. It still seemed like no one even knew who he was.

After eye balling the tempting Jump-N-Bounce, my brother and I grudgingly decided not to end a few tykes’ lives and went to play a little target practice and display our football skills. Once the crowd cleared and we had the game all to ourselves we threw our arms out and had some fun imitating the pros. Both CJ and Fitz came by during our time at the exhibit and both showed why they catch the ball, missing the targets every time they attempted a pass.

Now that we had pretty much done everything we could at the Madden Challenge - watching CJ get beat both by a little kid in Madden and then by a Toronto rapper, watching the saga that was the civilian-like Larry Fitzgerald and displaying our football prowess - it was time for us to call it a day. We stuck it out longer than all the other media outlets, longer than Cabbie and his boys, Cybulski and McCormick. Why did we do it? Well, we’re gamers at heart, sports fans through and through and, well, when they’re giving away a trip to Hawaii, it’s always good to make sure you’ve exhausted all your possibly outlets, unfortunately, we’ll be watching the Pro Bowl from the comfort of our downtown apartment in the now frigid Toronto winter. Hey, at least we tried.

-JW