Two professional FIFA 20 players had to decide who would be the winner of a qualifying match for a tournament with a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors over the weekend.
Red Bull's Shaun Galea and free agent Hasan Eker were competing against each other to qualify in the FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) Champions Cup Stage V on February 29, 2020. Unfortunately, EA's online services experienced many problems over the weekend (now apparently resolved), which meant that both players failed to connect to the servers and each other twice.
Statement on FUT Champions Cup Stage V Qualifier match between Brandsha56 and Hasoo. #FGS20 pic.twitter.com/g0Rt62iSQV
— EA SPORTS FIFA Competitive Gaming (@EAFIFAesports) March 2, 2020
As EA's statement on the matter says, "a double-failure to connect and compete in a qualifying tournament match results in a loss for both participants. This is to prevent connection issues from being exploited as a competitive advantage." However, rather than both automatically lose, the two pros took matters into their own hands and played Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide the winner.
I cannot believe it !! @EASPORTSFIFA @EAFIFADirect We literally had to play a rock paper scissors becauce we couldn’t find each other to invite in an EA LICENSED QUALIFIER . WTF !! I am done
— Shaun Galea (@brandsha56) February 29, 2020
Stehe 3-1, da ich mich im Rock Paper Scissors erfolgreich durchsetzen konnte! pic.twitter.com/PvBcQ8EXqx
— Hasan Eker (@eker_haso) February 29, 2020
Eker won with three rounds to one. However, EA let both players go on to play more qualifying matches afterwards, but neither of them advanced any further in the tournament. EA's statement says that it's "reviewing this really unique situation to understand what occurred and try to prevent this from happening again, especially as both competitors competed in subsequent matches with clean connections."
This game of Rock, Paper, Scissors is far from the only issue that FUT Champions Cup qualifiers experienced over the weekend. Giuseppe Guastella, a pro FIFA player for LA Galaxy, failed to qualify for the North American qualifiers after a last penalty kick wasn't registered as a goal despite it clearly being one.
Guastella provided video proof and released a statement that asked, "how can anyone take the game seriously when EA can't take the game seriously and fix these elementary school issues?"
This is unbelievable from @EASPORTSFIFA. I’m out of the North American qualifiers because of this. pic.twitter.com/RQtSx3hQ98
— Giuseppe Guastella (@Guastella11) March 1, 2020
FIFA pro and head coach for AS Roma Esports, Nathan Horton, also released a statement that expressed his disappointment over the state of FIFA 20 esports. He says that some of the issues with the game have simple fixes and that "blatant cheating needs to be eradicated" from FIFA 20.
Please read: Some thoughts on the recent qualifiers. To any pros struggling and feeling in a bad place with how their season is going, make sure you look for help if you need it ❤️ pic.twitter.com/BXRjjHFJyG
— Zel (@Zelonius) March 1, 2020
Due to the server issues, EA did extend the Weekend League for 24 hours to give players a chance to qualify for the tournament.
In further FIFA 20 controversy, last week EA permanently banned pro player Kurt Fenech from all of its games and online services. EA says that Fenech crossed “a line of decency into very personal attacks and breach our Terms of Service.” A number of EA FIFA staff Twitter accounts were hacked in retaliation to Fenech's ban.
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[poilib element="accentDivider"]Chris Priestman is a freelancer who writes news for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.