EA Looking to Save Madden 21 with Draft Competition

When it comes to sports simulations, FIFA seems to have the formula down pat. Aside from their horrible slip-ups with FIFA 20, including shooting and heading hiccups, the football simulator has seen consistent success. 

In the US, where football refers to the American iteration, series like EA Sport’s Madden NFL and 2K Sports’ NBA 2K are more popular with gamers. Recently, the NFL and EA Sport’s Madden franchise has taken its features to the next level with a special Draft competition built into their annual Madden Championship Series (MCS).

The (real-life) Draft takes place close to the halfway mark of the NFL’s off-season, which makes it one of the most exciting elements of the (real-life) league. Pundits and franchises keep an eye out on the NCAA’s top recruits, like this year’s Trevor Lawrence and Penei Sewell. Some sportsbooks that offer NFL betting odds even take wagers on which teams will draft which players. 

From a fan perspective, it’s often a nail-biting experience to see whether their team will draft a solid pick. Those who feel confident with their team’s picks might place a futures wager on their team to take the division, while others might prefer to redo the Draft themselves in a virtual setting. In the Madden Bowl: Draft Edition, elite gamers can even draft the perfect team and compete for a first-place prize of $150,000.

The Madden Bowl: Draft Edition Added to MCS

This year marks the first iteration of the Draft Edition series. Each year, the MCS organizes a nine-month competition that first crowns a single team or player to represent each of the NFL’s 32 franchises. From there, one player representing each franchise enters the Championship Series, which is a single-elimination round that culminates in a winner-takes-all match.

The champion doesn’t just win a virtual Madden title and thousands in prize money—they’ve also crowned their team (and real-life franchise) as the virtual champions of the sport. The Draft Edition is the latest installment that requires players to draft a team (in one of three gameplay modes) before entering three rounds of competition.

Each team has three players, one of which is the captain responsible for drafting players with various restrictions imposed. It requires players to make smarter decisions with leaner resources—and it’s proved wildly popular. The first series concluded on May 4, with Team Henry taking first place.

A Hail Mary for Madden 21

Even though the Madden Bowl: Draft Edition was a blowout success that will continue as part of the MCS, it looks like developers at EA Sports may have been looking for a little redemption. The latest iteration plummeted in terms of reviews and ratings, posting only a 4/10 on Metacritic shortly after its release in August 2020.

Shortly after, fed-up gamers took to Twitter to popularize the hashtag ‘NFLDropEA’ to encourage the league to sever ties with the developer. As the exclusive owner of NFL rights, EA Sports alone can create simulations using the likeness and names of real-life players.

Similar to FIFA 20, which was harangued for a series of basic glitches related to heading and jumping, Madden 21 was also criticized for basic flaws. The details were flawed, with banners reading Madden 19, while the gameplay was outright non-functional.

Fans of similar simulators, such as NBA 2K, are desperate for the NFL to cancel their contract with EA and re-sign again with developer 2K—though the basketball series hasn’t been without its issues, either. For now, it looks like the Draft Edition may be the NFL’s solution to gamers’ discontent with EA Sports.

The Draft Edition includes high-quality production features. These include in-game player intercom functions, which allow players to communicate during play. They’ve also worked closely with their own broadcasting team to enhance the gameplay experience, and even revamped personalized kits sent to the homes of gamers competing in the Draft Edition Bowl. This allowed viewers to get a visual of players as they compete live.

For the time being, these new features seem to be enough to keep gamers interested in Madden 21, despite its flaws.