Kurt0411 banned from EA services after ongoing “abusive and threatening” behaviour

Electronics Arts has announced Kurt "Kurt0411" Fenech is banned from playing its games and accessing its services following a long-running conflict between the developer and controversial streamer.

In a message shared on social media and written out below, EA explained the situation and what led to the decision to ban Kurt entirely after initially banning him from attending current and future FIFA events.

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.

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.

We are open to feedback, and constructive criticism is always welcome. We encourage anyone who would like to share their thoughts on our games and services to visit our official EA Forums, as well as our Trello Boards and Discord channels. When feedback crosses the line to threatening, personal attacks, we will take action to move it out of our communities.

It ends with a link for players to report cheating, abuse or harassment via the EA website.

It didn't take long for Kurt to respond to this news, asking EA to show examples of threatening behaviour that EA claims he has taken part in. He went on to claim the reasons behind his ban was “deeper than anyone thinks” and a move by EA to censor him in favour of other FIFA streamers.

Previously, he was banned from competing or attending FIFA events following a clip of him saying “Fuck EA” before spitting onto a scarf with the EA logo on it was shared. Following the incident, EA employees were hacked by those who supported Kurt and posted fake images suggesting he had been unbanned.

Kurt's decade-old FUT Founder account has been closed by EA and he will be unable to create new accounts.

FIFA 20 has been under fire by multiple people and not just Kurt. Fnatic's Donovan "Tekkz" Hunt said no one enjoys playing the latest installment of the game while being interviewed at the FUT 20 Champions Cup Stage IV earlier this month.

To see how it got to this point check out our timeline of all the controversies and incidents in the war between Kurt and EA.