Wesley cruises to win in Madden playoff opener

Wesley "Wesley" Gittens, the second-leading money earner in Madden Championship Series (MCS) history, opened the 2025 Madden playoffs with an easy victory on Tuesday.

Wesley, an Austin, Texas, resident seeded No. 8, routed No. 9 seed Jalen "Astro" Morrow-Reynolds of Waldorf, Md., 41-16, as the $1 million playoffs began.

The result sends Wesley to a Wednesday quarterfinal match against top-seeded Jacob "Fancy" Worthington of Frisco, Texas. Wesley, who reached the Ultimate Madden Bowl final last year, has one career MCS title belt and $618,675 in career earnings. Fancy owns 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 on Tuesday, No. 10 David Tampellini of Long Island, N.Y., 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, edged No. 6 John "MrFootball88" Britt of San Diego 27-24.

Kiv is appearing in his record 20th MCS live event. sYoDrip, who won the Last Chance Qualifier last week, was the only player in the playoff field making his live MCS debut.

The Wednesday 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

--Quarterfinal: No. 1 Fancy vs. No. 8 Wesley

--Quarterfinal: No. 2 JonBeast vs. No. 10 David

The last two quarterfinals -- Abram vs. Kiv as well as Cleff or TJ vs. No Mercy Lambo or BigTay -- will be contested on Jan. 29.

The players are vying for spots at the Madden Bowl, which will be played on Feb. 7 in New Orleans, the same city where the Super Bowl will be held two days later. Country 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 (total $1 million)

1. $250,000

2. $150,000

3-4. $100,000

5-8. $55,000

9-14. $30,000 -- Astro, Dez, YoDrip, MrFootball88, two more players TBD

--Field Level Media