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Electronic Arts took the wraps off its newly created esports initiative at E3 2016, revealing plans for a major tournament series with a million-dollar prize pool and community level support for users who want to stage their own events.
Peter Moore, the new "chief competition officer" for Electronic Arts, touted the new Madden NFL Championships comprising four "EA Major" events for a combined $1 million prize pool. An eight-player elite tournament in Madden NFL 16 will also kick off today and run through E3 2016, hosted by Stan Verrett of ESPN.
Major events will have two tiers of competition below them, low-level challenger events and a mid-tier premier class.
"We want to make stars of all our players," Moore said, "with new competitive modes and weekly contests," in the games themselves, he said.
EA Sports will not be the only titles in the esports series; Battlefield 1 was also shown as Moore outlined the plans.
