FIFA Pro Kurt Banned From All EA Games and Services Following Latest Attack

EA FIFA pro player Kurt‘ Kurt0411’ Fenech has been banned from playing all EA games or accessing EA services, the company announced. The unprecedented move comes after a months-long public feud between Fenech and EA which the company says“cross a line of decency into very personal attacks and breach our Terms of Service.” Fenech tweeted out about his ban by publishing the email EA sent him notifying the permanent closure of his account. In a follow-up Tweet, Fenech wrote "End of the day I have never said anything I shouldn't have. This is just deeper than anyone thinks. They didn't want me competing at events cos [sic] they were scared I'd win them, now I'm the 2nd biggest streamer of their game and they're scared I'll overtake their golden boy."

Incredibly stuff honestly...banning me from their esports events wasn’t enough, trying to get my Twitch and YouTube channels banned wasn’t enough, they now shut down my 10 year plus Fut Founder account. No words pic.twitter.com/EqAVWprTI5

— Kurt (@Kurt0411Fifa) February 24, 2020

Fenech has been an outspoken critic of EA for the past two years, escalating in a series of social media attacks on the company and antagonizing EA employees. During one livestream Fenech was caught on camera calling an opponent a "son of a b**ch" who "can't beat me, even on this piece of trash game. F*** you, EA." He also spat on an EA logo stiched onto a scarf. EA responded to these repeated attacks by permanently banning Fenech from all FIFA esports competitions in 2019 and beyond. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-ign-fifa-game-review-ever&captions=true"] Following Fenech’s ban, several EA FIFA staff Twitter accounts were hacked as part of a “targeted attack,” according to EA. The hacks were also part of a larger social media attack on EA staff members over criticism of FIFA 20. Fenech seemingly supported these hacks on his social media account. Fenech has continued to attack EA on his various social media channels and video platforms like YouTube and Twitch. One popular attack on EA by Fenech is to call the company “rats” and even released a diss track titled ‘Little Rats’ with another FIFA esports player Amenyah. Despite the ban and repeated warnings from EA, Kurt has seemingly continued to take jabs at the company which has resulted in the permanent ban from EA games and services. You can read EA's full statement and reasoning for the ban below:

“In November 2019, after a series of Code of Conduct violations as part of the EA SPORTS FIFA Global Series in which he threatened employees and other players, Kurt0411 was banned from competing or attending any EA SPORTS FIFA 20 Global Series events or future competitions. Since that time, Kurt has continued to post abusive and threatening messages and videos about EA employees and competitive players on social media and he has encouraged others to do the same. His messages have crossed a line of decency into very personal attacks and breach our Terms of Service. We will not tolerate threatening behavior. As a result, today Kurt0411’s EA account will be banned from playing our games and accessing our services due to these serious and repeated violations. We build games and communities for players to have fun. Creating a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone without fear of harassment or abuse is a vital part of that. Our Terms of Service include a Code of Conduct that we ask players to abide by to keep our communities healthy and safe. We have an ongoing focus to create communities where everyone feels safe and respected, including in-game toxicity reporting tools as well as new moderation tools. And, we will continue to add more features.”

In the past, pro gamers have been permanently from games and services but for infractions like cheating. One recent, high-profile permanent ban is the case of Jarvis “FaZe Jarvis” Kaye who was banned for life from Fortnite after it was revealed he used an auto-aim cheat tool in the game. EA has made building healthy communities a major part of its strategy to remove toxicity from the game community. The company says it encourages players to share constructive criticism on sites like EA’s forums, Trello Boards, and Discord channels, but also says that “When feedback crosses the line to threatening, personal attacks, we will take action to move it out of our communities.” IGN has reached out to Fenech for comment. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him on Twitter.

source https://www.ign.com/articles/fifa-pro-kurt-banned-from-all-ea-games-and-services-following-latest-attack