Hey guys,

If you're looking to show off your March Madness picks, you won't find a better place than our GameSpot vs. SportsGamer March Madness Showdown over at SportsGamer. Here you can fill out your bracket for all the world to see, and GameSpot users will be taking on the SportsGamer folks to determine just who has the better crop of March Madness prognosticators.

I've already made my picks. Feel free to give them a look, laugh heartily, then make your own.

GameSpot pretty much got owned during the Super Bowl Showdown (well, except for Aaron putting Shanker down... hard), so it's time for us to rally up and show them who's boss. Personally, I don't think they've got a chance.

Brian

1) Possibly? I'm no lawyer but that seems like the likely situation. Not sure if it would return as MVP, however.

2) Not on your life.

Hey everyone,

We've got our match-ups for the GameSpot vs. SportsGamer SuperBowl showdown. I've sent PMs to all participants with the procedures, but here's the deal just in case you missed it. We'd love it if you can play your game this weekend so we can have results ready to go at the beginning of the week. Here's the match-up list:

GAME 1

Shadimoscouplos

XBL: bowdown2shadi

Vs.

GameDragonX

XBL: GameDragoonX

E-mail: GameDragonX@yahoo.com

GAME 2

DouglasBuffone

XBL: BUFFone4488

Vs.

McLovin

XBL: PRIMET1ME7

E-mail: McLovin719@gmail.com

GAME 3

BoricuaProdigy

XBL: Boricua Prodigy

Vs.

Shodown

XBL: spitfire817

E-mail: shodown19@yahoo.com

GAME 4

Master_Shane

XBL: bob99991

Vs.

Nvincible

XBL:

WiLL 2 iLL o(360)

E-mail: WJPVLC@yahoo.com

GAME 5

nygiants1080

XBL: N0 S0UP 4 Y0U

Vs.

SPACEMONKEY

XBL: SPACEMONKEY 1

E-mail: pam062000@utd.edu

Now that you have your opponent, you have two options to get the game going:

•- Add your assigned opponent to your XBL friends list and then, once you are both online at an agreed upon time (you'll need to set this up via XBL messaging), challenge him to a "ranked" match. Only ranked matches will count in this contest, because that's the only way we can have game statistics e-mailed back to us here at GameSpot HQ to verify the results. More on that in a bit...

•- Alternately, we'll have a "GS vs. SG" lobby running all this weekend on the Xbox 360 version of Madden NFL 08. You can arrange to meet in that lobby and once again play a ranked match.

Because this is a Super Bowl match-up, we'd ideally like to have one player using the Patriots and the other, the Giants. If you can't agree on who will play as whom, we'll accept games that feature just the Patriots (or just the Giants for that matter). Also, we're encouraging sim-style Madden play here so, please, don't go for it on fourth down unless you absolutely must! ;)

Now, here's the bit that's important: In order to verify the results of each game, we want to have the game results and statistics e-mailed to us. As you know, Madden 08 allows you to easily and automatically do this with just a few clicks of a button. Here's the step-by-step process to have the stats of your game information e-mailed to us:

1. From the Madden main menu, select the "Go To Online" option.

2. From the Madden online menu, select "My Madden", then "Settings" and then select "Configure".

3. Set Email to me at briane@gamespot.com

4. Set the Forward Stats option to yes.

5. That's it! You can use the B button to exit the Settings Configuration screen.

At the end of your online match-up, EA will send an email on your behalf to briane@gamespot.com with the stats from the game. If you want to follow-up with a screenshot of the game, you're welcome to. In addition, we might try and contact you via PM to get your thoughts on the game after it's happened, so stay tuned to your PM inbox after your game is played.

Ideally we'd like to get all the games played this weekend so we can highlight one new GameSpot vs. SportsGamer match-up each day on our Super Bowl feature page. Keep in mind, however, that only verified-through-e-mail games will be highlighted (and the winner eligible for an emblem on their GS profile). So if you don't follow the steps above, you're crap-outta-luck.

Thanks for participating and good luck to everyone!

Brian Ekberg

I've got XBL tags for everyone but shadimoscouplos. If your XBL handle has changed, let me know.

Okay, we've got our list of participants on the GameSpot side:

- shadimoscouplos

- DouglasBuffone

- BoricuaProdigy

- Master_Shane

- nygiants1080

And we've got five challengers on the SportsGamer side, looking to take you fellas on. Stay tuned for a more detailed PM from me (today or tomorrow) which will outline how and when this will go down, how you can report the results to us, and just whom you'll be playing.

Thanks for entering, guys. I think this will be fun and I hope you all win! ;)

Brian

What about people who punt on first down and put their kicker in at fullback? shaunmc

You're fired.

Next week will see GameSpot's week-long celebration of all things Super Bowl XLII. To mark the occasion, we've challenged the folks over at SportsGamer to determine just who is the dominant group of Madden NFL 08 players. We're looking for five GameSpot Madden experts who are willing to take on five of SportsGamer's best Madden players in one-on-one match-ups of Madden NFL 08 for Xbox 360.

If you are interested in participating, reply to this thread or PM me and I'll choose five folks to represent GameSpot as our Madden NFL 08 experts. We'll work together with the SportsGamer folks to help set up your game against your SG rival and we'll count on you to recap the game (preferably with a screenshot which will help us verify the final score).

What's in it for you? Well beyond sheer bragging rights, winning players will receive a special emblem for their GameSpot profile. But remember, in order to be eligble, you're going to have to prove you won, preferably with the aforementioned screenshot.

Oh, and one more thing. If you're a nano-blitzing, go-for-it-on-every-fourth-down, never-punting, putting-your-tight-end-in-at-fullback cheeser, we cordially invite you to not reply. We're looking for good old-fashioned sim players here who want to have fun and prove definitively that the best sports gamers can be found right here at GameSpot.

Ten Madden experts. Five games of Madden NFL 08. Only one site will win. Who wants some?