Finals for ‘Madden’ champ
Springfield native repping Pats in Los Angeles
After winning a live eSports tournament at Gillette Stadium, Springfield native Tony Goad is heading to Los Angeles to represent the Patriots in the finals of EA SPORTS Madden 17 Club Series. Basically, the man is living a teenage boy's dream come true.
“I'm not just doing it for the Pats,” Goad told the
Track. “I'm also doing it for Springfield. When you say you're from Massachusetts, everyone usually assumes you're from Boston. Springfield is a smaller city, but we're here, too.” At 9 p.m. on Saturday, Goad will face off against seven other finalists, each of whom are NFL fans who won their respective club tournaments. In addition to Goad playing for the Pats, the players will be repping the Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills, Seattle Seahawks, Jacksonville Jaguars, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs.
They'll all be vying for a prize pool of $50,000, as well as the chance to qualify for the 2017 EA SPORTS Madden Championship in May.
Full disclosure: Goad doesn't live and breathe Patriots, as most of us might hope. But he is prepared to bring another championship back to New England.
“I'm not a Pats fan,” he said, later admitting that his favorite active NFL player is Dont’a Hightower. “I have high respect for the organization. They're our home team, and I admire how they carry themselves.”
Don't misconstrue Goad's lukewarm attitude towards the Patriots as general apathy towards football.
“Oh no, I'm a football fanatic,” he said.
Goad actually played football — the real, not virtual kind — for a couple years in high school. He insists experience makes for the foundation of Madden greatness.
“Most of the top competitors (in Madden) have actually played football,” he said. “It fills a void when they can't play it in real life.”
The tournament at Gillette was the first live event Goad ever played. And he prepped for it like any football team might, minus the monster fitness regimen.
“For most of my matches, I spent time studying all of my opponents, just in case,” Goad said. “Most of them have done live tournaments before, which are broadcasted. I watched those videos so I could see any tendencies they had.”
At the finals in L.A., which will be broadcast live on the NFL Network and EA Sports' social media outlets, Goad is hoping to make his hobby pay off. A number of talented eSports athletes can make a decent living from playing video games, and he would love to become one of them.
“I'm just riding the wave,” Goad said. “It would be an incredibly cool job, and I wouldn't mind to get to that next level. … So far, it's looking good for me.”