Madden NFL 2006 [X360]

Talk about a good start to the weekend. This Friday, EA Sports will award a cool $100,000 to the top Madden NFL 06 player in the country. And it's in Hawaii, to boot.

In search of 32 of the finest Madden gamers on the Xbox platform, the 4th annual EA Sports Madden Challenge traveled to 32 cities to crown regional winners and advance them to Friday's competition for the six-figure grand prize (did we mention it's six figures?!). Yahoo! Video Games caught up with 17-year-old Eric Velarde of West Covina, California, who won the San Diego division.

Yahoo! Video Games: Congratulations, Eric. Can you believe you might just win $100,000 on Friday?

Eric Velarde: I know, it's crazy. My parents were always asking me, "Where are video games going to get you?" Well, at the very least they're getting me to Hawaii. And I'm bringing my mom, too, as all regional winners get two tickets.

YVG: Do you consider yourself a serious gamer?

EV: Yes, I'd say so. I have an Xbox, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 2.

YVG: What games are you playing now?

EV: Obviously a lot of Madden! About three or four hours a day at this point. Other games I play are Fight Night Round 2; I'm also good at SOCOM 2 and SOCOM 3 for PlayStation 2. I play online a lot.

YVG: Have you been practicing Madden online via Xbox Live or against the game's A.I.?

EV: Online, mainly. I play every day against a good friend in Ohio, who is also one of the 32 competitors in Hawaii, which is cool.

YVG: That's wild. Are you going to let this competition come between you? That's a lot of money.

EV: [Laughs] No, we're actually trying to help each other out. We don't use the headset for trash-talking. It's to strategize, you know, what we're going to do on certain plays, and so on. We try to find new things with the game, studying defensive and offensive maneuvers, and so on.

YVG: Would you give him some money if you won? What would you do with it all?

EV: I think we have an agreement whereby we'd give each other $5,000. As for the rest, I'd buy a car and invest the rest. And probably give some money to my parents, too.