EA doled out a ban to Kurt “Kurt0411” Fenech, a competitive FIFA player and streamer with a history of unsportsman-like behavior.
The ban isn’t Fenech’s first, but it’s likely his most severe as EA’s decision sees his account prohibited from playing any game from EA’s entire catalog, or accessing its online services.
In a public statement, EA cited Fenech’s behavior following his November 2019 ban from FIFA 20 events as the reason for the decision, behavior that included post “abusive and threatening messages and videos about EA employees and competitive players” and encouraging his online following to follow in his footsteps.
Its a significant ban that’s drawn quite a bit of attention, but both aims to discourage similar conduct toward EA employees and show public support for the community management staff and other developers that draw undeserved ire online from the toxic corners of online game communities.
“When feedback crosses the line to threatening, personal attacks, we will take action to move it out of our communities,” reads the statement shared to Twitter.
“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.”
Fenech shared a reaction to the ban on Twitter, ultimately saying he was unremorseful for the behavior that EA ruled as ToS violating, instead saying the ban stems from EA not wanting him “competing at events cos 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. But when everything is said and done we’ll beat them trust me.”