In a very strange turn of events, EA forced two professional FIFA 20 players to settle their match with a game of Rock Paper Scissors after experiencing server issues. The FIFA games have long been one of the most interesting and robust sports video game series. Despite some fans being upset by the amount of glitches in FIFA 20, it has still become a very successful entry in the popular series.
This month EA has experienced series server problems. There were three separate days in February that EA experienced massive server failures, and they drastically impacted the playability of some of the company's most popular games. While FIFA 20 players were able to access offline features, this meant they were incapable of playing online against friends or random opponents. The larger issue is that all of these server issues occurred during the weekend, which is when most people spend time playing games. At the moment EA has not explained exactly what the issues were caused by.
VG247 reports that server issues recently caused an undue amount of stress for two professional FIFA 20 players. The two were both competing in a professional league, and had made it into phase 2 of the qualifier. Problems arose however when the two attempted to find each other on EA's servers and subsequently failed. As the two were unable to do so, EA forced the pros to decide the match by playing a game of Rock Paper Scissors. The loser of the match Shaun Galea took to Twitter to explain the situation.
Many on Twitter and Reddit were confused by EA's choice to force the two to decide the match in such a way. Some felt that the players should have both refused, but this could have potentially gotten them both knocked out of the tournament. Ultimately, this seems to be a case of misjudged quick thinking on the part of EA. A real sports match would have been delayed for causes outside of the players' control, but it seems EA doesn't feel the same way.
EA has never been the most popular of video game companies. Many critics have accused the company of being greedy or of publishing half-finished games. Its recent server issues have done nothing but add fuel to the fire for most fans. It has become even worse now that these server issues have caused problems for professional players trying to compete. Hopefully in the future EA has a better way to help FIFA 20 players in this situation.
FIFA 20 can be played on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Source: VG247 and Shaun Galea