A month ago, with celebrity guests gathered, a red carpet walk, musical performances, and a party atmosphere, disaster struck the Madden Bowl. The pinnacle of the Madden competitive season fell victim to the esports equivalent of a rain delay – a PSN outage that postponed the event and prevented the grand final from taking place.
After a near five-day PSN outage, EA was left scrambling to find a way to finalise their 2024-2025 season before coming up with a unique solution – The Madden Bowl would head to London, England for the first ever international edition of the event.
Overseas for the first time on March 3, Jacob “Fancy” Worthington, on track for a record breaking season, took on Jonathan “Jonbeast” Marquez in the rescheduled Madden 25 MCS Madden Bowl.
Image Credit: EA
Fancy Wins The Rescheduled Madden 25 MCS Madden Bowl
Madden has been around for over three decades, and the MCS for 10 years. While the NFL proper has long ventured overseas with international games in London and Berlin, its simulated counterpart has rarely escaped the United States, with only the occasional event in Mexico or Canada.
Madden is EA’s flagship sporting game in its Americas markets but hasn’t quite made the dent internationally, where football and EA Sports FC dominate the scene. Ironically, perhaps, it was EA Sports FC that offered the salvation for the Madden Bowl’s emergency – the ePremier League played the weekend prior and was able to lend its studio and staff to fill the gap.
The game kicked off with Fancy getting the ball, not his preferred spot – ideally a player wants possession to kick off the third quarter. Still, an early defensive stop, holding Jonbeast to three, meant Fancy had an advantage.
Then, with Jonbeast searching for the go-ahead score, Fancy’s Deion Sanders picked off an errant throw intended for… Deion Sanders. After the game, Fancy explained how crucial the defensive play of Prime Time was:
“Brian Thomas card I made didn’t really make any plays for me. He actually, he probably should have picked one but something happened. But Deion had two picks and basically the game sealing pick too on the streak so yeah Deion had a huge game for me for sure.” – Fancy on 21 making two picks in the Madden Bowl
Image Credit: EA
The biggest difference between Jonbeast’s play and Fancy’s offense were the risks they were taking. Jonbeast was content to air it out, forcing the ball in – and leading to a few turn overs. On contrast, Fancy was taking a risk running the ball, a statistically less effective way to move the chains in Madden. Unless you have Saquon Barkley on your team, as Fancy explained:
“That Saquon item is really, really good on Ultimate Team right now. But yeah, my kind of my game plan was like I saw the way he was playing defense, it was kind of backed off. He wasn’t really hovering the gap with his user. And I knew, like, he was going to run, like, this certain type of defense. And I kind of knew, like, a run would be free, like, four or five yards every single time.”
So I just honestly I never really tried inside zone either until I kind of got into the game and I realized like I can just get like five yards here and there just by calling it and just ended up like busting a huge run.” – Jacob “Fancy” Worthington
Despite the confidence, Fancy’s win came down to a nail-biting 31-28 finish, with Worthington taking the knee in the fourth to round out the victory.
For Fancy, the win meant he’s the only Madden pro in history to take home three Major titles in a season – a feat that may never be replicated. It’s a nice boon on top of the $250,000 in prize money. For Jonbeast, well, he’s still the number two seeded player in the world, and a target to aim for next year. And for Madden, despite PSN outages, an ocean of travel, the game still goes on.
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