King James

Simply put....it must have been in the cards for James to be crowned the next Madden king. Whether it was all the stars lining up, divine intervention, heaven smiling, or whatever cliche you may chose, the crowned champion enjoyed more lives than most cats. You could feel the sentiment for James growing when he was playing Goldie and everything that could happen for Goldie to lose, happened. And James just took each opportunity and cashed it in towards a victory. Costly turnovers and a PI on Goldie's during the overtime allowed James escaped with a thrilling 60-57 win over Goldie to advance to the Elite 8. James next opponent was defending champion The Realist who was fresh off a 77-49 lambasting of GTP's Tommy Gunz. The Realist seemed unbeatable throughout the tourney. Going 3-0 in his round robins and nabbing a number 4 seed in the AFC. The defending champ started out by mopping of JMiller of the EMFL 59-21, then moved on to knock off the MWMBA's Champ 66-46. The field of 32 saw The Realist lining up against Lbut, who he soundly defeated 61-41 setting up the Elite 8 matchup vs. Big Game.

Big Game (l) and Gooch (r) pose with the championship trophy.

You could imagine that James was mentally drained after the exhausting win over Goldie in the sweet 16, and things would not get easier facing the defending champion, who was arguably playing the best ball in the room. The Realist jumped out early on Big Game leading by as much as 38 points at one point in the game. The one weakness that the defending champ may have had exposed itself, for Realist inability to recover the onside kick saw his lead dwindle from 38 points to 14. From there it became anyone's game. And once the capacity crowd noted that what appeared to be a blowout became a contest, all the attention in the room seemed to be diverted to the two games that were arguably the best ever played at Nationals; Big Game James/Realist contest, and DaSecret/Booker T.

As stated earlier, most of the attention had drifted away from the James/Realist contest because Realist had such a big lead. But as strange as it seemed, this game shall go down in history as one of the all time great moments in Nationals history.

What was also incredible about this game was two prolific scoring machines going at it, with both being unstoppable. Never in the history of Nationals had two opponents scored in excess of 100 points in a game. That would change on this night as James trailed Realist 104-97. Sounds like a basketball score right?

The frenzy in the room would go to new heights when James tied the game at 104 late in regulation setting the stage for one of the most dramatic finishes in Nationals history.

Big Game fields questions from the media after the win over Gooch to claim the National Championship.

With the game tied at 112, Realist appeared to be going in for the game winning score when an interception by James turned the room upside down. It was sheer pandemonium as a couple of plays later James went deep and drew a pass interference at the 3 yard line with less than :20 secs remaining in regulation. At this point...game is over, Realist is upset, and James moves on right? WRONG! James, not realizing he did not have a time out remaining took a knee.....? James later said after the game he was thinking of not leaving The Realist anytime on the clock to score because he could score from anywhere on the field in one play. So the plan was for James to run the clock down to one second, call timeout and kick the GW FG. However, James was out of time outs, and the clock expired with the game tied at 112. Just as the room began to sing in unison....na-na-nah nah.......na-na-nah nah!......Hey-hey-hey! - GOODBYE....everyone became astonished as the clock dwindled down to zero, wondering what in the world was James thinking of?

But again, it was simply James tournament to win. After James fumbled the ball on his first drive in overtime...The Realist stood up, bowed, and blew all his "haters" in the room a kiss. No sooner than he could sit back down, he threw a costly interception that ricocheted off the Titan receiver and into the hands of a Falcon defender. From there James marched deep into Realist territory to kick the GE FG in OT.

Just prior to the close of that game, the Nationals crowd was treated to another game that was arguably just as good as DaSecret and Booker T provided us all with a barn burner that went down to the wire.

The Elite 8 games proved to be the apex and climax for Nationals 6. It would have been extremely difficult for another game to live up to the drama and excitement those two game provided. Throw in the fact that Gooch was handing it to a Falcon-less Sandman, and this made for perhaps the best Elite ever witnessed.

And while the Elite 8 was probably the best ever, because the championship game pitted two friends from basically the same camp, it may have been one of the most lackluster title games played. Nevertheless, it was all James needed to add his name to some of the greatest players of all time such as Realist, Ellis, Tillery, Candyman, and cREATOR. And now, Big Game. Yea, he has game alright.....Big Game. Real Big Game.

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