Christian Lomenzo has a pithy strategy for playing Madden NFL: “Get my best player the ball.”
The 20-year-old Tampa native used that adage to beat the odds and become the EA Madden NFL 19 Challenge champion in March.
Lomenzo, a student at Florida Polytechnic University, entered the tournament as a relatively unknown competitor. He left with a victory, bragging rights, a $35,000 grand prize and a chance to defend his title at the Madden Bowl tournament later this month.
“I honestly didn’t feel like there was any pressure on me,” he said. “People expected me to lose because I was the underdog.”
Every year, video game company Electronic Arts hosts gamers for a three-day tournament at its headquarters in Redwood City, Calif. Gamers qualify by competing online against opponents from across the country. Over three months, players vie to reach the leaderboard, which dwindles from 128 to 64 to 32 to 16. This year’s finalists, including the defending champion and four other former tournament winners, were then flown out to EA headquarters, where they competed head-to-head.
Lomenzo had to adjust his tactics on the fly during the tournament’s early rounds.
“I had to pick up on my opponent's tendencies and see what they didn't like as far as what I was running on offense or defense,” he said. “Then I tried to exploit their tendencies.”
Once down to the final four, Lomenzo watched film on his opponents to familiarize himself with their styles of play.
During the championship game, Lomenzo’s strategy became a bit more nuanced than just tossing his best player the ball.
“The strategy was to have a balanced attack on offense and a balanced defense,” he said. “Some zone coverage, some man coverage, some blitz.”
But it was a short pass to Joe Mixon (Lomenzo’s best player) that sealed his victory. Mixon caught and ran the ball for a 70-yard walk-off touchdown in overtime.
From unknown to #MaddenChallenge Champion! ????@Chritobin's WALK-OFF TD in overtime to seal the victory & hoist the MCS Belt pic.twitter.com/4OLs8MZM06
— Madden League Ops (@MaddenLeagueOps) March 18, 2019Lomenzo began playing Madden in 2016 but didn’t start competing seriously until March 2017. He currently logs between two and eight hours a day on the game.
His recent victory earned him a spot at the Madden Bowl in late April, when he’ll travel back to Califronia and compete for a grand prize of $40,000
Based out of Lakeland, Florida Polytechnic University boasts a relatively robust e-sports program, which the university uses as a vehicle to display student talent in a competitive and entertaining way.
“We promote e-sports to create a campus culture in tune with our student’s interests,” said Matthew Santalla, a Florida Poly e-sports coach and student. “E-sports is cutting edge like much of what we do here at Florida Poly, and it’s a unique way to bring competition and entertainment to the university’s culture in a way our students love.”
E-sports is booming as a spectator sport around the world. The global e-sports market is expected to exceed $1 billion in 2019. Teams at Florida Poly compete in Overwatch, Rocket League, League of Legends and Rainbow Six Siege.
