Anyone that showed up to Universal Studios in Hollywood to watch the Madden Challenge finals easily discovered that this year was far different than in years past. Because the competition would later be produced in to a television series available on ESPN and Gameplay HD, the tournament was treated more like a video taping rather than the traditional Madden Challenge. Was it worth the sacrifice? GotFrag.com caught up with final four contender Jet Steele and runner-up Justin “Chow” Chow to see if this year was a boom or a bust.

Chow, a tournament veteran who reserved his spot in the finals with his regional win in San Diego earlier in the year, was quick to pick up on two main differences: the downtime between matches and the small delay between the console and the plasma televisions that were used (plasma lags when playing video games).

“It was just a little different, always sitting there and waiting for a long time,” the Virginia native said. “The screen is a little delayed so it was pretty tough to make the adjustment to that.”

According to Chow, viewers at home are going to see a pretty good show, but not the Madden ballers at their finest.

“People aren’t going to see us at our best,” Chow said. “It diminishes the game play a little bit. There are some sacrifices that we’re making so that we can get on ESPN.”

Was it worth it? Chow seemed to think so.

“When I finally get to see the show, I think it will be really good and worth all the time we used to film it,” Chow said.

He added that he was going to stick to his game plan going in to the finals with Eric "Problem" Wright unless it started to fail him.

Chow cruised to the finals where he was crushed by the dominating Problem for the championship. On his way, Chow recorded convincing wins over Bledsoe, RG (a close game) and Jet Steele. Unlike many of the other top Madden players, Chow hit the ‘net to play online games in order to prepare for the Madden Challenge.

“I played a lot of people online so I could read a lot of defenses,” Chow said. “It’s all about knowing which gaps to hit and hitting them.”

Jet Steele is no stranger to the small screen after appearing earlier this year on ESPN’s Madden Nation Season Three. Jet said that the experience of playing in front of cameras was valuable, but it wasn’t giving him an edge at this year's Madden Challenge.

“What Madden Nation did for me is give me a chance to play in front of the camera and compete for $100,000,” Jet Steele said. “But that was all the way back in the summer. All these guys have caught up to me by now.”

The new style of Madden Challenge is something that Jet said has to happen because the game and its community is simply getting too big.

“Madden is moving on to bigger and better things (appearing on ESPN),” Jet said. “Yea, It’s a lot of waiting but we just have to deal with it.”

It was a good year for Jet after appearing virtually out of thin air. His stock went up after appearing on Madden Nation; making it to the final four of the Madden Challenge didn’t hurt his new reputation as well. Perhaps he has bursted on to the scene after working a lot with one of the game’s greatest: Billy “Da Secret” Wolf. Jet said he plays Billy just about every day and picked either Secret or Problem to take the entire tournament.

“When everyone found out that Secret was going to the finals, they were all scared,” Jet said. “He got a few breaks this year, I won’t lie, but he also had some tough breaks in the past so I think this is the way of having it all even out.”

Jet expected to do well in the tournament, but not final four well.

“This is a tough tournament,” Jet said. “These are the best kids in the world.”