MORGANTOWN — Noah Johnson, AKA “NoahUpNxt” in the gaming universe, is considered one of the best players in the entire world in the Madden football (NFL) franchise video game competitive scene. Currently, Johnson is the second-seeded player in points in the rankings for the 2022 season.
Johnson is a freshman economics student at WVU, from Ellicott City, Md. He does everything all of the other students do when it comes to academics. However, his daily routine outside of the books may take a slightly different turn. Like many people, Johnson loves to play video games. The difference? He does this as his job.
Johnson said he picked up video games at a young age, often coming home from school or sports that day, and playing when he could.
“I started playing Madden when I was 8 or 9 years old, just playing with some buddies after school and stuff,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t until I was about 14 or 15 when I realized I was pretty good at the game and that I could take it somewhere.”
So he decided to put his name into some of the bigger-prized, higher-skilled tournaments that Madden developer Electronic Arts sponsored itself. Johnson quickly learned that it would take some practice to reach his goals.
“The first couple times I got my head beat in, but you just gotta keep on playing,” Johnson laughed. “Eventually, I just kept getting better from there.”
Originally, Johnson was enrolled at the University of Maryland for college. He even represented the school in the collegiate-level Madden event, Level Next. However, Maryland’s lack of an eSports program had Johnson second-guessing his decision after he met Joshua Steger, director of eSports at WVU.
“Maryland didn’t have an eSports program and when I met Josh, he told me he wanted me to attend WVU,” Johnson recalled. “I visited Morgantown for the first time ever and a week later was moving into my dorm.”
Then came time for the competitive Madden season to kick off. Johnson was simply trying to finish the best he could in every event to gain ladder points. Each player gains ladder points based on what place they come in during the various events throughout the season. Your points determine your seed and then going into the last event of the season, the Madden Bowl, players play for the grand prize pool of $1 million, with $250,000 of that going to the first-place finisher.
In the second event of the season, the Madden Ultimate Thanksgiving tournament, Johnson finished first overall, earning a prize of $75,000, virtually guaranteeing himself a spot in the Madden Ultimate Bowl final event. This was Johnson’s second first-place finish of his career.
So far, he’s has taken first place in four competitive Madden events, including the Level Next Madden National Championship. Johnson represented WVU in the collegiate tournament and put on an impressive display. Winning the title for WVU really put Johnson’s name out there for a lot of people who didn’t know who he was or what he was achieving.
Career tournament wins include:
Madden 2020 challenge Champion
Madden 2021 Level Next National Champion (WVU)
Madden 2021 New England Patriots club champion
Madden 2022 Ultimate Thanksgiving champion
The most recent win came during the current Madden competitive season and was the last event until the finale at the end of January. Johnson will compete against the best Madden players in the world for a share of the grand prize pool of $1 million and the highly coveted championship belt that is awarded to the winner of every single event, finale or not.
Only being freshman, this is just the beginning for NoahUpNxt. As well as the beginning for WVU eSports as a program. You can watch Noah play his matches on the official EA Sports Madden Twitch channel. You can follow Johnson @NoahUpNxt on Twitter to follow his journey. The Ultimate Madden Bowl 2022 will begin Saturday.
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