Top MLB Rally player wins $10K grand prize

October 22nd, 2020

Game 2 of the World Series was a thriller -- which made it the perfect backdrop for the MLB Rally 2020 Championship on Wednesday night.

As the Rays and Dodgers traded clutch home runs and huge strikeouts during Tampa Bay's 6-4 victory, which evened the Fall Classic at one win apiece, four elite MLB Rally app players were trading bold predictions about the game with a $10,000 grand prize on the line.

In the end, the Rally Championship winner was Ezie Cotler -- aka "HickorySmoke" -- whose score of 23,578 points, earned from making live picks about what would happen throughout World Series Game 2, won him $10,000.

"[I'm feeling] pretty good. Not so bad. A little bit in disbelief," Cotler said after the game ended. "I do want to say congrats to everyone for just being here. … That was fun. That was awesome. I'm definitely gonna keep playing Rally."

Cotler, a New Jersey native and Yankees fan who now lives in Austin, edged out Tyler "SlamDiego" West (19,469 points), Stephanie "royalforever25" Magee (13,548 points) and Jon "Peebs11" Pebelske (12,426 points) to win the Rally Championship.

One of Cotler's biggest picks came late in the game, when he predicted Corey Seager would hit a home run -- for big points -- just before the Dodgers' star shortstop crushed a solo shot to straightaway center field in the bottom of the eighth inning.

The other contestants made some great picks, too, like Magee, who called home runs from the Rays' Brandon Lowe and the Dodgers' Will Smith.

"I'm gonna have to study up and hopefully get back here again," Magee said.

The Rally Championship was streamed live across MLB's social media platforms, featuring the four contestants along with MLB Network host Lauren Gardner and expert analysis from MLB.com's Mike Petriello, Sarah Langs and David Adler throughout the game.

"Who would have thought when I started this at the beginning of the season … that it would lead me to playing in the World Series game?" Pebelske said. "What a ride."

Viewers tuning in to the stream got to see the four contestants talk baseball and Rally game strategy, banter back and forth and answer fans' questions, all in between making their picks.

"This has been a lot of fun. I never would have imagined being part of anything like this," West said. "It's been really cool."

The Rally app is MLB's free-to-play predictive game where you can make live predictions throughout a game to earn points and compete for daily cash prizes. Fans can play the Rally game themselves for a chance at $20,000-plus in daily prizes during the World Series. Go to MLB.com/rally to download the app.

Not only did Cotler win the Rally 2020 Championship on Wednesday, his picks were so good that he also finished third on the overall daily leaderboard among all fans playing the game, winning an extra $1,000.

With the Rally Championship over, what's next?

"Now, I don't know who I want to win this World Series," Cotler said.