Competitive Madden NFL 19 Kicks Off With The Muthead Season 5 Finals

On Saturday, August 18, the first Madden NFL 19 Championship Series Premier event of the new MCS season is going down. It’s the Muthead Season 5 Finals and will be broadcast on Muthead’s Twitch channel beginning at 1 p.m. ET as 12 competitors duke it out for their share of the $20,000 prize pool. 

Madden NFL 19 has been out for just over two weeks, since it debuted on EA Access for Xbox One on August 2. During that short two weeks, Madden’s top competitors have been in the lab figuring out their new schemes, determining which Madden Ultimate Team items are essential for a competitive lineup, and learning the ins-and-outs of the Madden 19 gameplay updates. To get to this point, the competitors played out a full season of gameplay on Madden NFL 18, but the final will be the first high-stakes competitive event played on Madden 19.

Among the 12 competitors set to duke it out for their share of the $20,000 prize pool are Drini “Drini” Gjoka, Eli “True” Clayton, Hassan “Gos” Spall, and Raidel “Echo Fox Joke” Brito.

The competitors submitted their salary cap rosters for the event earlier this week, and a few of them shared some insight with me on the top MUT items in their lineups.

Drini

• WR Tyreek Hill – 84 OVR – Power Up
• WR D.J. Chark – 74 OVR – Core Rookie
• FS Sean Taylor – 90 OVR – Legends

“Hill is the fastest player in the game (92 speed) so not having him puts you at a big disadvantage. Chark has high speed, is tall at 6'3”, and is low cap. Very great budget WR you can use on the outside or the slot. Taylor is the best DB in the game, just a complete playmaker. He can force fumbles and get interceptions a regular player wouldn’t make. He costs a lot of cap, but it’s worth it to have him on the team.”

Of the 12 competitors playing in the Muthead Season 5 Finals, eight of them have a Tyreek Hill item slotted into their lineups. Hill is basically the glitchiest of glitchy MUT items in competitive Madden, mainly because of his ridiculous wheels.

True

• FS Sean Taylor – 90 OVR – Legends
• SS Ed Reed – 92 OVR – Limited Edition
• WR Randy Moss – 91 OVR – Legends

“My top three are Sean Taylor, Ed Reed, and Randy Moss. I haven’t actually used them yet or played salary cap but they all have great stats and good speed. Sean Taylor is tops when it comes to hit power (90 Hit Power) and Ed Reed will be the field general. Randy Moss goes without saying. I run a pressure defense to try and force my opponent to make a mistake.”

True said it himself, the Randy Moss item goes without saying, with 90 Speed, 91 Catching, and 91 Jumping, he’s nearly unstoppable.

Joke

• RB Ezekiel Elliott – 87 OVR – Power Up
• CB Jalen Ramsey – 92 OVR – Team Diamonds
• CB Xavier Rhodes – 93 OVR – Power Up

“Big time players make big time plays. I feel the past two years I’ve gone away from how I used to play, which was controlling the game and mixing in the run. I’ve become too pass-heavy the last two years. Trying to make more of an effort to run the ball.”

This Jalen Ramsey item might be the best CB in MUT right now. He’s got 90-plus ratings in Play Recognition, Man Coverage, Zone Coverage, and Press Coverage. Ramsey’s been in the news lately talking trash about some of the NFL’s quarterbacks, but his game backs up his talk. Look for this item to be picking off passes left and right on Saturday.

Gos

• WR Randy Moss – 89 OVR – Legends
• CB Jalen Ramsey – 92 OVR – Team Diamonds
• CB Xavier Rhodes – 93 OVR – Power Up

“Randy Moss is going to be a vital part of my offense, and I'm always sharp on O. Xavier Rhodes and Jalen Ramsey are going to be a huge, huge secret weapon to what I'm running on defense.”

Gos has something up his sleeve, and I can’t wait to see what it is. Can’t really argue with his decision to spend cap space on Moss, Ramsey, and Rhodes.

*note the Xavier Rhodes pictured is from the Team Diamonds program and is not the Power Up item.

Tune in to the Muthead Season 5 Finals so you can pick up on gameplay tips, find out which MUT items are really lighting up the stat-sheets, and get a first look at some competitive Madden 19 gameplay. Take some notes, get in the lab, and then dominate your pals. We all want to get better at Madden, so why not learn from the pros?

–Matt Franciscovich (Follow Matt on Twitter @MattFranchise)

Madden NFL 19 launches August 10. Pre-order the Hall of Fame Edition for three-day Early Access and loads of MUT content. Stay in the conversation by following us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and EA Forums. Sign up for the Newsletter today to receive updates on Madden, and other EA news, products, and events, all season long.