Wesley “Wesley” Gittens, the second-leading cash earner in Madden Championship Series (MCS) history, opened the 2025 Madden playoffs with an easy victory on Tuesday.
Wesley, a native of Austin, Texas, seeded No. 8, routed No. 9 seed Jalen “Astro” Morrow-Reynolds of Waldorf, Md., 41-16, as the millionaire playoffs began -1.
The result sends Wesley into Wednesday’s quarterfinal match against top-seeded Jacob “Fancy” Worthington of Frisco, Texas. Wesley, who reached the finals of the Ultimate Madden Bowl last year, has one MCS title belt and $618,675 in earnings. Fancy has two championship belts and $459,642 in prize money.
The top two seeds, Fancy and Jonathan “JonBeast” Marquez, received first round byes.
In other first-round action Tuesday, No. 10 David Tampellini of Long Island, NY, defeated No. 7 Peyton “Dez” Tuma of Danville, Calif., 37-30; No. 3 Abram “Abram” Joseph of Houston beat No. 14 Anthony “sYoDrip” Fahy of Coral Springs, Fla., 31-28; and No. 11 Seamus “Kiv” Kivlen of Seattle, held by No. 6 John “MrFootball88” Britt of San Diego 27-24.
Kiv is coming off his record 20th MCS event. sYoDrip, who won last week’s Last Chance Qualifier, is the only player in the playoff field making his MCS live debut.
Wednesday’s schedule:
–Round 1: No. 5 Dwayne “Cleff” Wood of Oak Hill, Fla., vs. No. 12 Tyjhir “TJ” Joyner of Dover, Del.
–Round 1: No. 4 Christian “No Mercy Lambo” Webb of Hagerstown, Md., vs. No. 13 Taylor “BigTay” Hodge of Atlanta
–Finals: No. 1 Fancy vs No. 8 Wesley
–Finals: No. 2 JonBeast vs. No. 10 David
The last two quarterfinals — Abram vs. Kiv and Cleff or TJ vs. No Mercy Lambo or BigTay — they will compete on Jan. 29.
Players are vying for spots in the Madden Bowl, which will be played on February 7 in New Orleans, the same city where the Super Bowl will be held two days later. Singer/songwriter Chris Stapleton, rapper/singer Jelly Roll and country/hip-hop artist Shaboozey are all set to perform at the Madden Bowl.
Madden Championship Series prize pool ($1 million total)
1. $250,000
2. $150,000
3-4. $100,000
5-8. $55,000
9-14. $30,000 — Astro, Dez, YoDrip, MrFootball88, two other players TBD
–Field Level Media