![]() Richard and Elizabeth, who are cooperating with the FBI, could not be reached for comment. Richard and Elizabeth's legal battle, which went on for a decade, produced hundreds of pages of court records and medical documents that offer a window into David's life leading up to Jacksonville, especially the way his mental health care became an issue between his parents. Richard and Elizabeth Katz divorced in 2005, when David was 12 and his brother, Brandon, was 15. ![]() IN THE MIDDLE of the night, with his Xbox controllers locked up in his mother's bedroom in Columbia, Maryland, an adolescent David Katz squeezed his hand into a fist, gathered his rage and punched a hole through the bedroom door. "It wasn't much longer than five to 10 minutes," Brown says, "before the first shots were fired." But whether it had happened days, weeks or months before, or in that very moment, something inside Katz snapped. Eventually, Brown punched in the winning touchdown to advance, and the game ended without incident. He was unable to do anything with the extra opportunity. "Good stuff," Brown responded with a laid-back nod, acknowledging Katz for exploiting the rule change. The rule, though, had recently been changed. His opponent, Reginald "Boogz" Brown, calmly paused the game, expecting the play to be overturned by a tournament official because he thought pro players had to be trailing in the second half to use an onside kick. The next day, playing in the single-elimination tournament under the name "SatiricBulb," Katz tied up his game in the second half and then recovered the ball after a surprise onside kick. He just glowered at Alston with that cold stare. Afterward, when Alston offered his hand, Katz didn't reciprocate, he says. On the opening day of competition, Katz won twice during pool play and lost once, to Dennis "Evil Ken" Alston, a Madden pro from New Jersey. In Jacksonville, at the pizza joint hosting the tournament, there weren't even enough gamer chairs to go around. At a recent Dota 2 competition, for example, the winning team pocketed more than $11 million in a single week. Madden might be an iconic brand, with 130 million games sold, but the setting in Jacksonville summed up its minor league status in the otherwise burgeoning billion-dollar esports industry. He would wear the same thing on the tourney's second day. After driving 11 hours from Baltimore with little more than the clothes on his back and - unbeknownst to his competitors - a small cache of handguns, Katz appeared at the tournament wearing mirrored sunglasses, a purple Ravens backpack and a blue and gray plaid shirt. "Don't worry about it," he snapped, turning away.ĭuring the past few years, playing as "Bread," Katz, 24, had started to make a name for himself in Madden circles, both for his gameplay and his odd behavior. But when a fellow gamer tried to engage Katz in small talk on the first day, Saturday, by asking what upcoming Madden events he was looking forward to, Katz cut him off. Inside a small, noisy game room in the back of Chicago Pizza and Sports Grille, they laughed, drank, talked trash and battled for $5,000 and a coveted spot at the Madden Classic in Las Vegas this fall. The latest version of the iconic game had been out only a few weeks when the small, tight-knit group of elite pro Madden players - a "brotherhood," they called themselves - reunited at the Jacksonville Landing open-air mall downtown. 25-26, during the first Madden NFL 19 esports tournament of the season. Subscribe today!ĭAVID KATZ HAD a blank, chilling countenance, a vacant stare his own father once described in court as "looking right through you." To his fellow competitors, it seemed out of place in Jacksonville, Florida, on the weekend of Aug. This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's Oct 1 Gaming Issue. The Madden tournament shooting in Jacksonville - an inside look at what happened Further Madden tournaments in the series have been canceled.You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser The August 26 shooting left three people dead, including the alleged shooter. 100 percent of the funds will go to the families of the victims. EA itself donated $1 million, and is currently asking for more donations from the wider community. In response to the shooting, EA created the Jacksonville Tribute Fund in partnership with the National Compassion Fund and GoFundeMe. More details about the specific programming of the event will be shared soon. You can stream it above or through any of these locations: Jacksonville Tribute Livestream: Where To Watch The Jacksonville Tribute livestream takes place Thursday, September 6, starting at 5 PM ET and running through 6:30 PM ET.
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