Behind the Madden World Syndicate

EA Sports' Madden Challenge boasts a field of thousands of competitors, all playing for a chance to win a trip to Hawaii to compete in the finals for a grand prize of $100,000. ESPN created a show called "Madden Nation," which is a reality TV show revolving around regular "Madden NFL" competition from some of the best gamers in the country. While Madden culture is at an all-time high, it wasn't this way in 1992. And it certainly wouldn't be this way today if it weren't for people like Israel Charles.

Israel Charles is the founder of the first Madden league and the commissioner of the Madden World Syndicate, which is an organization that represents the other Madden leagues and organizes tournaments. He is the founder of the original nationwide Madden Tournament, the Madden National Championship. It all started as nothing more than a guy's night out.

"Back when the game was on Sega Genesis, it was hard to find competition," Charles explained. "I dominated everyone I played. Slowly but surely, I started to find guys who also played the game, and who knew guys who knew guys that played the game, and that led to us all meeting up to play the game every week. It was like our poker night."

The five-to-six hour-long marathon sessions evolved into the creation of the PlayStation Football League (or PFL) in 1996 after the game moved to the PlayStation platform. The league consisted of 12 guys, all from the Ft. Lauderdale area, who would meet up every week to play. Shortly after the first season, Charles began to look for other leagues online.

"I always looked for Madden sites online, but there was never very much and there were no console-based leagues, so I decided to start one," said the Ft. Lauderdale resident. Charles took a class on HTML coding, learned how to use web software, and created the Madden World Syndicate (or MWS). The site grew quickly, but the most popular attraction was the message-board.

"It's a community of Madden lovers," said Charles. Of course, the introduction of the message board introduced a flurry of trash talking. "We had guys saying, 'Oh your league is trash, we would own you guys' and, 'our league is easily the toughest one around.' After a year of that, I wanted to put it all down and actually find out who was the best," Charles said.

This led to the first national championship tournament, which was held in Atlanta. Thirty-two "ballers" came from all over the country to compete in the MWS-sponsored tournament. "It was great, having all of these different players, who had never met, coming together to really find out who was the best," Charles said. "The only problem was that different guys played by different rules, which got confusing."

Charles solved that problem by creating an official rule set and posting it on the MWS website. The MWS followed the first national championship tournament by hosting the tournament every year at different cities, helping other people create their own leagues under MWS rules, creating an online PlayStation Football League, and by developing a weekly radio program, hosted by Charles and PFL Online Commissioner "3rd and Long," dedicated to Madden gaming.

The national championship tournament continued to be the centerpiece of the MWS and it has attracted more competitors every year. As the gaming community grew, the world's best gamers started to gravitate towards the MWS. The majority of the winners of EA's Madden Challenge and a handful of contestants on the "Madden Nation" are MWS products and came up through their ranks. "We have only hardcore ballers in our leagues," Charles said. "It's the competitive nature of the players that makes them successful. I don't care if it's a spitting contest, they just want to win."

As the stakes of playing become higher and there were thousands of dollars to be won at tournaments like the MWS National Championship and EA's Madden Challenge, the priorities of gamers started to change. "We have players who practice (for) six hours a day, devoting their whole lives to it," Charles said. "Careers have been lost, families have been broken up, and lives have been messed up because of people who take the game too seriously."

Gamers occasionally look to Charles, or Swammi as he's known in the Madden world, for advice on achieving balance. He's had to post several articles about balance on his site, which include tips such as:

• Instead of Sunday worship at church, you spend Sunday worshiping the lab.
• You would rather work in the lab than enjoy a Friday dinner or movie with that special lady.
• You find yourself at church scripting your first 15 plays on the church bulletin.

Balance isn't a problem for Charles, a 41-year-old high school music teacher, or for the participants of the original PFL, which is preparing for its 10th season. "I have my priorities straight. God, family, and my career come first," he said. "No game is more important than my beautiful wife."

The Sports Gospel According to Mark is sponsored by BetOnSports.com. BetOnSports.com gives you the greatest sports action to bet on. Wager on football, cricket, boxing, rugby, horse racing, and more. Mark Chalifoux is also a weekly columnist for SportsFan Magazine. His columns appear every Tuesday on Sports Central. You can e-mail Mark at [email protected].