Up to the Madden-ing challenge

Sometime today, George Movesian boards a plane to Hawaii, heading out to the general vicinity where everyone's gathering for this weekend's NFL Pro Bowl.
And George has John Madden to thank for the freebie.
The 21-year-old Van Nuys resident who's trying to get into the field of computer network repair is representing L.A. for this week's EA Sports Madden Challenge, played out over three days starting Thursday. His goal: Squash a field of 31 other regional winners and grab the $100,000 first prize, which comes with bragging rights as the biggest "Madden NFL '06" remote controller.
The best news we've heard about all this is George doesn't take himself, or his chances, too seriously.
"I play it as a hobby, not as hard as some of the others do," he said before heading out for the championship. "It's just for fun."
In a tournament-style bracket, Movesian won eight games in a row to beat out about 300 contestants at the L.A. Madden tour stop at Hollywood and Highland a few months ago. That was the one and only Madden tournament he entered.
"I only went because it was close," the one-time Cal State Northridge student out of Burbank High admitted. "A lot of these guys actually travel around the country to play. I'm not going to do that. Know what I mean?"
We know.
George's secret weapon: Ball control. It's one of the reasons he's known as "Tick Tock," because of how he milks the clock when he has the cyber pigskin. It's a nickname that he considers "kinda stupid" -- he'd rather be known as "Executioner," which is the name he uses when he's gripping online against other "Madden" players. But he admits clock management is how he's going to eventually execute his opponents.
"If I have the lead, the other guy knows he's in trouble," said George. "I'm good at controlling and not giving it back. When you control the clock and score, they other guy gets desperate since they haven't had the ball in awhile. They get worried. It changes their game on offense. Just like in a real game. This is really a lot of mental game work."
George says he got hooked on the Madden stuff as a 10th grader, and buys the new "Madden" version every year. He notes that the '05 verison emphasized speed, while '06 and '07 are more about size -- which is something you'd better know going in. (And also know he's going to use the New England Patriots players, since everyone else uses the Atlanta Falcons -- just a better matchup for him).
He says he spends only about an hour a day working on his skills but still has school (at ITT) and work (teaching computers to students at a day-care center in Glendale) to fit into his day.
George says the odds of him pulling off a victory this week aren't his concern.
"I just gotta win five games," he said.
Boom. Bam. Just like that.