After three months of fierce competition in the first nationwide 10-city tournament from Electronic Arts, Justin Cohen, 20, the Philadelphia Champion, became the National EA SPORTS Madden Challenge Champion on Madden NFL 2003. He beat out more than 5000 competitors who competed for more than three months across the country. Winners from each of the regional tournaments were flown to the new Beaches Boscobel Resort & Golf Club in Ocho Rios, Jamaica for the Madden Challenge Finals. Cohen will attend the famed EA SPORTS Madden Bowl on January 23, held every year during Super Bowl week, in San Diego, California.
The EA SPORTS Madden Challenge ran every weekend from September 7-November 9, 2002 and was the first sanctioned public competition from Electronic Arts in the celebrated 13-year history of the EA SPORTS Madden NFL football video game franchise. More than $20,000, collected from the $5 tournament entrance fee, is being donated to NFL Youth Education Town (YET), an official NFL charity that provides high-tech educational and recreational centers designed to improve the academic, physical fitness and job-related skills of at-risk youth.
The following finalists competed in the Madden Challenge Finals: Richard Lucas, 29, San Francisco Champion; Casey Webb, 15, Los Angeles Champion; Terry Jacobsen, 25, Seattle Champion; Dwayne Harrison, 33, Chicago Champion; Charles Smith, 23, San Diego Champion; Kai Free, 28, Washington D.C. Champion; Robert Hart, 31, New York Champion; Daniel Johnson, 22, Atlanta Champion, Willie Jackson, 17, Tampa Champion and Justin Cohen, Philadelphia Champion. Daunte Culpepper of the Minnesota Vikings, Joey Harrington of the Detroit Lions, Roy Williams of the Dallas Cowboys, Ray Lewis from the Baltimore Ravens, as well as Lance Bass and Chris Kirkpatrick of the pop band *NSync were on hand to compete in a Celebrity Pro-Am. Culpepper won the bragging rights as the best on Madden NFL 2003 among his fellow NFL players.
Winners from each of the 10 Regional Madden Challenge Tournaments were flown to the Beaches Boscobel Resort & Golf Club, the Caribbean's #1 ultra all-inclusive Resort for families in Jamaica, by Air Jamaica, the national carrier of Jamaica. Other EA SPORTS Madden Challenge partners include Blockbuster and G4.
Madden NFL 2003, which shipped on August 12, 2002, is available on the PC, the PlayStation, the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox video game system from Microsoft, the Nintendo GameCube and the Game Boy Advance. As the undisputed worldwide leader in authentic football simulation, the Madden NFL football franchise has sold more than 25 million units over its lifetime. Madden NFL 2002 sold more than 4.5 million units, more than twice the number sold by its nearest competitor.
All phases of the tournament, including the 9th Annual EA SPORTS Madden Bowl on January 23, 2003, will be broadcast on G4 TV. The Madden Bowl, currently the largest interactive sports gaming event, is a major annual VIP Madden NFL competition among NFL players and showbiz celebrities held prior to the Super Bowl.
