EA Sports' "all-too-familiar" Madden NFL football video game is a "new entrant" into the e-sports arena, according to Rich Grisham of SPORTING NEWS. After years of "dabbling" in variants of e-sports, including on-again/off-again Madden tournaments and challenges, the development team behind the game has added a full-time e-sports producer -- Matt Marcou -- "specifically to build out its presence in the space." Marcou "brings a long history" of e-sports tournament organization to Madden and "has big plans to move it forward." Marcou: "The community has been asking for eSports for awhile. Putting together a program like this is a complicated beast." Madden's first attempt at entering e-sports is a "reboot of the Madden Challenge." By dedicating a role specifically to e-sports in Madden, it is "clear that EA Sports is serious about expanding its presence in the burgeoning genre." While it is "highly unlikely that Madden will ever graduate to the 25 million people watching League of Legends," there is "definitely a space for competitive football" in e-sports (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 11/30).
