There's only about thirteen hours left before registration opens at Madison Square Garden, the host of the 2007 Madden Challenge NY stop, and I'm as excited as ever. I have been preparing for this event since August 14th, the day Madden 2008 came out. This event, located in the heart of New York City, is a sold-out 256 man event and it has been rumored that some of Madden's finest players will be in attendance; expect an appearance by several recognizable faces from the Madden Nation bus: Billy "Da Secret" Wolf, J Rhoads, and countless others. As a member of the DPAD Madden crew, I am not only covering the event, I am playing in it as well, facing my Madden heroes who I have sought to play against for quite some time.

Attending the 2005 Madden Challenge New York stop, I was an extremely young and undeveloped player. The event took place on a Friday, and a few of a friends and I ran from school to attend the event at Chelsea Piers. All of my friends were eliminated in the first round of play, but I, the most unlikely of us all, rose up over my opponent and won the first round. My luck didn't stop there as I continued to beat opponent after opponent, shocking my friends in the process. I was finally stopped and finished in 5th-8th place at the event. The spectators and fellow players were all standing around me as I was one of the youngest in attendance, only fourteen at the time. Missing out on the 2006 event due to school, I made it my goal to come back and play in this year's event.

With school beginning in early September, my practice regiment was slowed down tremendously from around ten to twelve games a day to only two or three. I had to find a way to stay on top, without interfering with my schoolwork. Coming to the realization that games versus opponents online take approximately 45 minutes with the standard five minute quarter rule-set, I decided to look up the Madden Challenge rules and I came to a shocking realization. Quarters in Madden Challenge play are only two minutes in length and are played on the ALL-MADDEN setting (ALL-PRO is the standard online format of play). I put online play to the side for a while and started playing the CPU, who played as the Patriots.

The team I used most at the time were the Indianapolis Colts; I felt as if they were unstoppable with two spectacular catch receivers in Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne. Peyton Manning was also vicious in nature with an amazing 99 overall rating. I really had no running game at the time and upon re-entering online play, I was blitzed over and over.

Around late September, I came to realize it was time to put down the Colts, and try out a few other teams. I started playing with the Bengals, Broncos, Panthers, Raiders, Redskins, Giants, Patriots, and Chargers. I was extremely reluctant to play with the Chargers as I had no running game whatsoever and their highest rated receiver at the time was in Jackson, with a 84 overall rating. Gates was my go-to guy when using the Chargers and I was double covered and intercepted time after time.