With four successful years in the books, the notebooks that is, the fifth was the first real landmark year in The History of Madden. Each year the tournament had progressively gotten better and the fourth to fifth year was the biggest jump of them all. After the Madden 08' Tourney, which was the most well constructed tournament of them all, came the Madden 09' tourney in August of 2008, which was even better constructed.
The Madden 09' Tourney saw the introduction of many new and important aspects to help the tourney run much more smoothly. The first addition was the introduction of a staff of officers to help Billy run the tournament. Billy still held his position ad head tourney director and President of All Operations and still held much of the workload, but 3 more officers took on roles. The next Madden Staff member would be Jimmy, who would become the Tourney Treasurer considering he would always hold all money. Dave would become the Director of Seating Arrangements, considering he would always somehow gets construed into not playing for a number of hours and sitting in the same seat the whole tournament. Lastly Ant Dellavale, out of all comical purposes would become the Tournament Shrink/Health Inspector considering his infatuation with the Madden Health Risks imprinted on the game. These four would be the officials making all decisions needed for the tourney. Then an honorary member would be named, PJ Miller would become the Honorary Food and Beverage Director, in charge of all edible goods for the tourney.
The tourney also made another progressive jump, topping the previous year's 24 participants, making it 29 in the 09' tournament. It was also the first time we had a cousin of a participant in the tournament. It was also the first time there was multiple cousins of a participant in the tournament. Nick Porta had his cousin TJ and his other cousin Tony enter the tournament, and no one would forget either of them. TJ, would miss his Aunt Suzie's funeral for the Madden Tourney. This showed how committed the cousins of Porta really were. Tony on the other hand would be remembered for more infamous reasons. Tony, using the Miami Dolphins faced elimination at Phil's House. Playing PJ Miller frustrated Tony. Tony's game was not going very good and he started to swear and curse up a storm. Billy who was watching the event happen before his eyes would have an epiphany and text Phil and Dave a message that will forever be remembered. "This kid Tony is Bad News". Stemming from this text message, he would become known by all as "Bad News Tony".
Memories of the 09' Tourney were a dime a dozen. The Phil-PJ series took place as they played each other 3 times, once in every bracket, the first occurrence of this in Madden History. Another memory would be the close round of 16 game and almost defeat of Billy. Billy was the number one seed following his 08' tourney win and would face Marc Carrier the 16th seed. Billy was poised to win yet another tourney using the New England Patriots yet again in the 09' Tourney. Marc would take the lead though very early and after a fumble and interception in the first half Marc went up 14-3 by halftime. Billy would have to put together an untouchable 2nd half to end any thought of an upset. Billy would come out in the second half and have an impressive drive right off the bat to make it a 4 point game. By the 4th quarter Marc added another FG to make it 17-10. Marc would then stop Billy on a turnover on downs in the opening minute of the 4th, which looked to be the final blow in this battle of wits. Yet Marc, facing a 3rd and long after two stops, would choose to pass the ball and Billy and his Pat's would take full advantage. Asante Samuel would be accredited with the interception on this 3rd and long and give the Patriots great field position. Billy would go on to score a TD with the clock ticking down to the final moments and seemingly send the game into OT. Yet a gutsy Billy would choose a play out of the goal line formation after Marc had already chosen FG block. Billy would throw a quick pass to Laurence Maroney in the flats to take the lead 18-17 and end any talk of an upset. Billy would then go on to dominate all comers in the winner's bracket. Billy would defeat Phil with ease in Phil's own house, Pacillo in the semi-final, and beating Mike Catena by plenty in the winner's bracket final, which put him in the championship series on an undefeated streak yet again for the second year in a row.
Probably one of the most memorable, scratch that, the most memorable incidents in the History of The Madden Tournament's 5 years would be the NWO takeover. Billy, had a group known as the ALLIANCE which consisted of Billy and Ant Dellavale. The ALLIANCE at this point was a dominant force in the world of Madden and any organized tournament or event. Dave Dicrisi, otherwise known simply as "The Kid" would lead this takeover. Dicirisi would gather 20+ participants in the Madden Tourney to rally against the ALLIANCE. "The Kid" as he liked to call himself took over the bracket boards, writing NWO all over them and writing NWO next to each member on the bracket. Dicrisi would also draw a number of pictures to give visuals of the rebellion he was leading. The whole rebellion ordeal came to a climax at the championship of the tourney.
Pacillo would fight out of the loser's bracket to defeat Jimmy yet again for an uncounted amount of times in Madden History, sending him to the elimination bracket. Pacillo would then take on Mike Catena and send him to the elimination bracket as well. Jimmy won the elimination championship game beating Catena and would go on to the Loser's bracket championship against Pacillo once again. Jimmy needed to beat Pacillo twice, but Pacillo only needed to defeat Jimmy once, which he did once again. Pacillo was dominate in this tournament due to the "Pacillo Strategy". This Madden strategy was based on possession and clock management. Pacillo would get the ball and drive the field using every second of the play clock on every play, often frustrating the opponent into doing things they wouldn't normally do, thus giving him the edge. Pacillo would go on to face Billy in the championship of the 09' Madden Tournament. Billy dominating throughout the entire tourney would tend to believe this championship would be the easiest of all for him after he defeated Pacillo earlier in the day.
Billy had another thing coming though. The NWO leader, "The Kid" had rallied his forces to Jimmy's house to root against Billy in hopes of a Pacillo upset. Pacillo needing to win three games before he lost two was calm, cool, and collected behind his 20+ fans in Jimmy's basement on a cool summer night in August. Pacillo, with his Pacillo Strategy would frustrate Billy in the opening championship contest and go on to defeat him in their second meeting of the tourney much to the cheers of the NWO.
The second game of the championship, taking place immediately after would be another close one. Coming down to the wire, Billy seemed to figure out a solution to the "Pacillo Strategy and hit two TD passes to Wes Welker and Randy Moss down the field to win the game. At this point, most of the NWO faithful including Jimmy himself left Jimmy's house. Billy needed one more game for a repeat as Madden Champion, which had never been done before in Madden History. Billy would go on to mercy rule Pacillo in this third game and take what was his. This tourney win made it back to back championships, as well as 3 in 4 years. This also made Billy the most winning Madden player in history taking over in most wins, championship wins, and least losses in Madden's 5 year history.
This might all change though, because with a new year comes a brand new Madden Tournament. Madden !0' is poised to be the best Madden yet and the 6th installment of the Madden Tournament franchise will most certainly not disappoint.
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