Joke ousts defending champ Drini in Madden Bowl quarters

Raidel "Joke" Brito beat defending Madden Bowl champion Drini "Drini" Gjoka 12-7 on Friday in the quarterfinals of the Madden NFL 20 Bowl. In the other Friday matches, Dwayne "CleffTheGod" Wood defeated Justin "Lil Man" Barone 13-10, Daniel "Dcroft" Mycroft topped Noah "Noah" Johnson 10-3, and Pavan "Pavan" Lakhat beat Shay "Young Kiv" Kivlen 13-6.

CleffTheGod will oppose Dcroft in the first semifinal on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET. Pavan will square off with Joke in the second semifinal at 6 p.m. ET, and the final will immediately follow. All of the Saturday action will air live on ESPN2.

The $220,000 event, forced online this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, began last week with 16 players competing in a round-robin group stage. The champion will receive $65,000, and the runner-up will earn $25,000. Joke, a 26-year-old from West New York, N.J., took a 10-7 lead on Drini, a 20-year-old from Washington, D.C., by kicking a 58-yard field goal with two minutes left in the first half. The only score of the second half was a sack for safety of Drini's virtual quarterback, Eli Manning, with 1:41 left in the game.

CleffTheGod got an 80-yard Michael Vick-to-John Ross touchdown pass to take a 10-0 lead on Lil Man, a 31-year-old from Toms River, N.J., early in the third quarter. CleffTheGod, a 24-year-old from Oak Hill, Fla., is one win away from his second consecutive major final, as he lost the Madden NFL 20 Challenge title match to Noah.

Dcroft, a 19-year-old from Mukilteo, Wash., topped Noah, a 17-year-old from Ellicott City, Md., by scoring the game's only touchdown. A 70-yard Aaron Rodgers bomb to Tyreek Hill with 3:09 left in the third quarter broke a 3-3 tie and produced the final points of the contest.

The loss comes three months after Noah became the youngest ever winner of a Madden Championship Series event when he captured the Madden NFL 20 Challenge. Pavan, a 19-year-old from Yuba City, Calif., overcame a 6-0 halftime deficit to get past Young Kiv, a 22-year-old from Edmonds, Wash.

Pavan, the Madden NFL 19 Club Championship winner, still trailed 6-3 before scoring the game's first touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter, a 4-yard pass from a virtual Michael Vick to a virtual Torry Holt. All matches are available for streaming on the EA Sports' Twitch and YouTube channels plus the ESPN app.

Madden NFL 20 Bowl prize pool 1. $65,000

2. $25,000 3-4. $20,000

5-8. $10,000 -- Justin "Lil Man" Barone, Noah "Noah" Johnson, Shay "Young Kiv" Kivlen, Drini "Drini" Gjoka 9-12. $7,500 -- Henry "Henry" Leverette, Wesley "Wesley" Gittens, Jordan "Millz" Thompson, Michael "VoLTeRaX" Bryant

13-16. $5,000 -- Reginald "Boogz" Brown, Zack "Serious Moe" Lane, Mark "Schemin" Samuels Jr., Daniel "Rage" Loftin --Field Level Media

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)