The Madden Curse
by John Gonzalez
Video games.
I know. Pure genius.
I've decided to become a professional gamer. As it turns out, this
is an actual vocation, the digital equivalent of competitive
eating. In
Japan, professional gaming leagues are a big deal - the
matches or contests or whatever they're called are broadcast on TV.
Here in the States, the concept of professional gaming is beginning
to catch on. The Championship Gaming Series, for instance, which
was launched earlier this year by DirectTV, now has six franchises,
including the Carolina Core and the LA Complexity. Plus, gaming
legend Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel has signed on as the league's
official spokesperson, and he will also do the league's color
commentary. That's just like getting
Michael Jordan to sit in the
booth for
NBA games … only, uh, different. What's best of all,
though, is that the Championship Gaming Series has promised to give
away more than $1 million in prizes during the inaugural season. I
could really use $1 mil. And how hard could the competition be? For
the most part, the league is dominated by teenagers and
20-somethings. Did any of them set the Ms. Pac-Man high score at my
grandfather's bar? No. No, they didn't.
In fact, I was something of a gamer during my youth. It's been a
while since I've played regularly, but it has to be just like
riding a bike, right? As a kid, I was weak and small. But with a
controller in my hand, I was a giant, capable of smashing my
opponents at will. I was exceptional at sports games, particularly
football. No one could throw the 100-yard pass in Tecmo Super Bowl
the way I could. Unfortunately, no one plays Tecmo Super Bowl
anymore. Instead of returning to that, I'll have to engage the
competition through Madden, the industry standard for football
games. The goal is to train for a few months by playing online and
against my friends. Then I'll enter the EA Sports Madden Challenge
(the annual tournament that crowns the game's champion), win the
$100,000 first-place prize, and restart my life.
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