The Rise of 2k20 and Madden at PDS

%28Photo%2FSean+Do%2FUnsplash%29

(Photo/Sean Do/Unsplash)

Will Sedgely, Print News Associate

For the last month or so, I have been involved in a Madden 20 Xbox league. Started by senior Andrew Ciccarone, the league was meant to relieve quarantine-related boredom and has brought 16 members of the PDS community together because of our collective love for sports and video games.

The makeup of the leagues is simple. For the Madden league, there are eight divisions with 32 teams. We, PDS Students, control 16 of these teams in four divisions. We play a 16 game regular season, playing against both the computer, which controls the other 16 teams and each other. These games range from a variety of scores. Sophomore Michael Carroll’s average victory margin is approximately 50 points, including a brutal takedown of senior Cal Caputo. As we can’t see each other in person, for the most part, we resort to face timing each other during the games and to even“talk trash” about one another. Cal Caputo, notably, loves to talk during his game about his most prized possession, Christian McCaffrey. Our first season culminated in a Super Bowl between the Carroll brothers, won by Michael Carroll, which unfortunately had to be simulated as the two share one controller and were unable to play each other. Currently, we are almost into the playoffs of the second season, in which Michael is once again the favorite.

While the league has admittedly lost some of its steam recently, it has undoubtedly been successful in bringing us together. I, personally, have interacted with people that I had never even talked to before because of this league. We have all been energized and united by this league, which I hope will continue in one way or another.