This week at 5-7, we’re looking back on the hugely successful Madden NFL Pro Bowl, the Polgz victory in the Bolts Chel Challenge and the impressive purse for the Fornite Championship Series.
Featured image: NFL
Madden NFL returns to the Pro Bowl
The NFL season is now over with the Los Angeles Rams’ Super Bowl winning, but the weekend before the final game against the Bengals, it was the Pro Bowl that highlighted. Over the past few years, the majority of fans have agreed that skill competitions are more entertaining than the match itself, because players do not want to risk injury by participating in this exhibition match. Perhaps this was the spirit of entertainment that the NFL added last year to the Madden NFL video game, as a few players competed for titles and the title of champion.
The result: The broadcast broke all single-game viewing records in Madden NFL history with over 3.5 million viewers, more than one Stanley Cup game last year!
So it’s no surprise that we’re repeating the experience this year, this time in duo mode. Cincinnati Browns Run Back Nick Chubb and Los Angeles Chargers Safety Derwin James faced Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson and Cowboys player Micah Parsons. The event was hosted by talented Charissa Thompson, Chad Ochocinco Johnson, and 2020 winner Marshawn Lynch.
The game started with a beautiful tribute to the recently deceased NFL great, John Madden, and soon the game kicks in and you can clearly see the competitive side of the players. But during the second half, as Derwin James and Micah Parsons faced each other, we felt amicable tension on stage. We made fun of each other, jumped out of a chair during beautiful games, it was a treat for the viewers. The game ended on a Super Bowl worthy note, with 4 seconds left in the game and one point behind, a three-point kick from Micah Parsons saved his team with the win.
The event also aims to break the Guinness World Record for largest video game show, which was achieved with a score of just over 47,300 square feet. While waiting for the official rankings, we can already congratulate the NFL on a successful second year of the NFL, and hopefully on a third next year; Given the success of the first two matches, it would be surprising if this annual match was avoided next year.
“Mama, we did it!”
Official Guinness World Record 📚#Madden 22 | # dora pic.twitter.com/uZr83JiiRd
– Madden NFL 22 (EAMaddenNFL) February 6 2022
Returning in person to challenge Bolts Chel
After more than two years of playing NHL competitions online from his comfort
Yes, NHL players can look forward to the return of in-person tournaments in the studios of a professional NHL Tour team. After a dominant performance, it was finally Ethan “Bolgars” Bulgar who took home a prize pool totaling $6000.
Congratulations to Polgz for taking this awesome description home from Tweet embed #ChelChallenge 🏆 pic.twitter.com/4yN0PqB7p0
– Full Sail Armada (FullSailArmada) February 12 2022
Given the gradual return to normal, I expect a strong return to other NHL team competitions such as Minnesota Wild, Toronto Maple Leafs and Washington Capitals, which all had their own leagues prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Montreal Canadiens have announced the Winter Games, which will include an NHL22 component.
To read the full summary of the event, you can read the lines of my colleague Julian Coudrey here.
A “booster shot” of the competitive landscape in Fortnite
After several months of waning interest from competitive Fortnite players, studio Epic Games is trying to inject a dose of “hype” into the professional scene. In fact, after the World Cup in 2019 which attracted a lot of attention with prize money of more than $100 million, the competitive landscape has received great success, like many others, largely with the effects of the pandemic.
Frustration with the state of the game has also been raised by many famous players, criticism that Epic Games has attempted to respond to with several updates and the arrival of the Champion Series Chapter 3, Season 1, not to mention the prize pool of more than three million dollars. It remains to be seen if this grand prize will attract famous player duos to the esports scene, and whether the event will live up to the expectations of the competitive Fortnite community.
For all the details about the Fortnite Champion series, you can read our Laureen Peers contribution here.
