Kurt Fenech has been banned from competing in or attending any EA SPORTS FIFA 20 Global Series events or future scheduled competitions by Electronic Arts (EA).

Fenech, known online as Kurt0411, is one of Malta’s most successful international esports competitors and rose to stardom locally when he won $20,000 in London during the world championships for reaching the semi-finals.

The incident that led to his banning occurred during a FIFA livestream where he equalized the score towards the end of the match and started shouting “f*** you EA” following which he picked up a scarf with an EA logo and then spat on it multiple times.

According to a statement put out by EA, Kurt was disqualified for “repeated EA SPORTS FIFA Global Series Code of Conduct policy violations”.

They explain that “the integrity of the EA SPORTS FIFA Global Series is very important to us as we deeply value respectful, professional and inclusive competition”.

“These characteristics help maintain a healthy community brought together through competition.”

They explain that the rules and code of conduct help them “cultivate positive play”, and that they are diligent in ensuring that their competitors hold themselves to high behaviour standards.

“In many instances we believe in second chances, striving to be fair and to give competitors warnings and suspensions before advancing to more drastic action.”

In fact, this was not the first time Fenech was punished.

He previously received a two-month, five qualifier suspension on October 18, 018 for an inappropriate video posted on, and a “Final Warning” on March 25, 2019. The disqualification came after the videos posted on October 10, 2019, and October 19, 2019.

 

Kurt Fenech defiant towards “tyrant”

In a statement on social media, Fenech said that he is in a “state of shock”, and insisted that EA enforce their rules on “whoever they want for whatever they want”.

“The only way for me not to get banned was to not make any videos and enver stream again. A tyrant doesn’t like it when someone says something they don’t like and holy s*** I’ve said plenty they don’t like.”

He explained that he is a “pretty emotional guy” that says “the first thing that comes to my mind, and in today’s world that is deemed a crime”.

“Have you seen the state of your game,” he exclaimed, “or are you too busy going through my VOD’s writing down stuff you can find to ban me? Or too busy leaking my personal information? Do you expect me to sing your praises?”

“No, the truth is none of you should still be on the job and you should be ashamed of the product you put out.”

He went on to question what was said that was so unacceptable considering that the streaming website he was using had not banned him, pointing out that the only difference between what he had done and almost everyone else that plays video games is that he had a live camera on him capturing his every reaction.

“Truth is that they don’t want me competing because they’re scared I’ll say something about their broken game live at their event.

“I wanted to compete this year, especially for you guys. I feel as good as I have ever felt and I am sure that I would have done tremendously well. The toughest part is that they banned me after I went through hell and successfully qualified for their event.

He concluded by thanking his supporters for their kind words, and insisting that “this “esports” has officially died”.