The Shady Side Of Kurt0411

Kurt "Kurt0411" Fenech may have only started playing FIFA competitively in 2016, but the professional gamer has had a lifelong love of football. Born in the Southern European island country of Malta, Fenech grew up in a family that revered football, heavily supporting the Inter Milan team that remains Fenech's favorite team to this day. While Fenech dreamed of becoming a professional player in his youth, he dropped football from his list of extracurricular activities in elementary school once he realized it wasn't possible to go pro.

The football enthusiast found a different way to get into the sport at a competitive level: FIFA. Fenech entered professional FIFA competitions in 2016 to test himself against top players, and over the years he continued to grow and compete as an independent player. While he's a major name in the world of FIFA esports, it isn't for his grit and determination. 

Fenech has made his displeasure with the current state of FIFA known multiple times and built a career based on flinging insults and spewing hate. This approach has landed him in a variety of questionable situations. Here are some of Kurt0411's shadier moments.

Of all the controversy that mars Kurt0411's name, one of his more recent transgressions has produced perhaps the biggest scandal yet. Kurt0411 has been vocal about his disdain of Electronic Arts and the FIFA brand for well over a year, roasting both on his social channels and even posting a video of himself spitting on official EA merchandise. While most of his attacks and vitriol were aimed at EA and the FIFA series in general, some of his actions targeted specific EA employees.

EA seems to have had enough of Kurt0411's behavior, and made a dramatic move to punish him for his toxic choices. While the company had previously banned him from tournaments and league play, EA took things a step further by banning Kurt0411 from playing any and all EA games, as well as banning him from accessing any of EA's online services. In a statement tweeted by the company regarding the massive ban, EA explained Kurt had continuously harassed members of EA and "crossed a line of decency," which it determined put him in breach of EA's terms of service.

Kurt0411 was hit with his permanent ban on Feb. 24, 2020, and had his original FUT Founder account permanently shut down. While he was briefly silent on the matter, a video uploaded to his YouTube channel on March 2 titled 'Moving Forward' indicated he was anything but sorry. In fact, he was so unapologetic that he went on Twitch and continued streaming the game from a brand new FIFA 20 account the very same day.

EA was quick to act. Kurt0411 went on Twitter the next day to reveal EA was supposedly already on his scent and ready to ban his new account, forcing him to cancel a scheduled morning stream of the game. Kurt0411 ran into a close-call during one of his alt-account streams when an official message from EA popped up on screen, making him think he had been banned again. While this message turned out to be nothing more than a standard pop-up explaining the FUT currency of the game, it wasn't until the stream ended and Kurt0411 went off air that his secondary FIFA account was hit with an unsurprising permanent ban.

Online streaming platform Twitch entered the fray as a result of Kurt0411's company-wide ban from EA games and services. When Kurt0411 got his brand new FIFA account suspended permanently, he discovered his entire Twitch account had been banned as well. Standard procedure with Twitch partners is that they're privately contacted to explain why their ban was sanctioned. On March 3, however, Kurt0411 went public on Twitter to share the details of his ban, and placed blame for the Twitch complaint on one particular EA employee

Supposedly, this employee was also responsible for copyright-strike attempts that were filed against Kurt0411's YouTube channel. Those attempts failed to take down his YouTube channel, however, and this Twitch ban also fizzled out. After just over one day since receiving the ban, Kurt0411 had his Twitch account fully reinstated. While his Twitch and YouTube accounts seem safe for now, it remains to be seen what exactly Kurt0411 can do with either of them considering he still isn't allowed to play EA games.

It's possible to sympathize with the hot-tempered pro gamer over the (possibly) less-than-justified takedown attempts on his Twitch and YouTube accounts. Still, it's easy to see how the blame lies squarely with him on his years-long beef with EA and the FIFA franchise. Kurt faced numerous temporary bans and suspensions from EA throughout 2018 and 2019 for misconduct and toxic behavior. Things seemed to calm down once he received a final warning from EA in March 2019.

That calm didn't last long. On Nov. 1, a clip surfaced from a VOD of one of Kurt0411's Twitch streams that showed him, among other things, spitting directly on the EA logo on an official EA scarf. When EA caught wind of it, the company issued a statement banning Kurt0411 from all FIFA 2020 competitions. Kurt0411 went to Twiter with a response, saying EA "should be ashamed of the product you put out" and concluding with "I have no idea what's going to happen moving forward, all I know is this "esport" has officially died."

While Kurt0411 received plenty of warnings and suspensions throughout his career, his permanent ban from all FIFA 2020 tournaments was major news. It shocked fans of esports and the entire FIFA community, but it was even more shocking to fans of the controversial gamer. A week after his permanent ban, Eurogamer reported numerous personal Twitter accounts belonging to FIFA team members had suffered "targeted attacks."

Numerous personal Twitter accounts tied to employees of EA and FIFA community managers displayed obviously fabricated messages of support for Kurt0411, with some of the hacked posts even stating the permanent ban placed on him had been lifted. Obviously, he wasn't unbanned, and the accounts that had been tampered with were soon deleted according to a statement from EA. 

FIFA community managers are no strangers to being targeted or personally attacked online, but the string of account hacks and their obvious connection with the drama surrounding Kurt0411's ban was certainly a step above anything these EA employees had experienced before.

Kurt0411 doesn't just have a history of toxic behavior, he also has a years-long history of bans. The first major ban came in October 2018 when EA issued a two-month suspension for 'abusive behavior.' The ban made it almost impossible for him to earn enough wins to qualify for the 2019 eWorld Cup. Kurt0411 was so fed up with the ban he announced he would be retiring from competitive play.

Of course, that retirement was nowhere near permanent. Kurt0411 came back, and went on to continue doing what he knew how to do best — play FIFA competitively, and get really angry about it online. History repeated itself, and in March 2019 Kurt0411 received another tournament ban from EA. This ban was accompanied a "final warning" message from the company, which Kurt0411 shared to his Twitter account on March 25. The company cited his conduct at the FUT Champions Cup as the reason for this action, asserting that he had violated numerous sections of their Code of Conduct.

Kurt0411 doesn't just start drama with EA and fellow FIFA professionals. He has also had numerous toxic run-ins with professional gamers from other communities. One of the most notable incidents involved Call of Duty pros Seth "Scump" Abner and Matthew "FormaL" Piper when Kurt0411 ended one of his streams by sending all of his viewers to FormaL's channel via the Twitch Raid function. 

When FormaL didn't acknowledge the raid or surge of viewers, members of the new audience called him 'ungrateful' and filled the chat with Kurt's alien emote, among other less than kind phrases. FormaL was playing live with Scump at the time, and Kurt0411 decided to drag both of their names through the mud on Twitter. While Kurt0411 called them out and vowed to never raid a Call of Duty streamer again, FormaL's only response to the entire fiasco was to simply hit the "like" button on Kurt0411's tweet.

Kurt0411 also swung outside of his weight-class by trying to start beef with the biggest professional gamer out there — Ninja. On Twitter, Major League Soccer shared an interview excerpt from the world renowned gaming icon. Responding to whether he could compete in FIFA 20 against professional eMLS players. Ninja responded: "I mean, (Chad) Ochocinco challenged me like a year ago and I never took him up on that. Who knows, actually, give me like a week in that game bro and I'd be good."

This set off notoriously hot-headed FIFA professional Kurt0411, who immediately went to Twitter to craft a response meant to put down Ninja. His tweet served as an equal jab at FIFA itself, though, calling the game out for having delays and broken mechanics. Two birds with one stone!

One of the shadiest moments of Kurt0411's professional FIFA career didn't happen on his Twitter or one of his Twitch streams. Instead, it unfolded on one of the largest public stages of all. The eClub World Cup in Paris for FIFA was marred by controversy in 2018, with two major scandals making headlines after the tournament ended. The first scandal involved accusations of match-fixing due to the lethargic play-style of two competitors during a match in the finals.

The other controversial event centered on Kurt0411. During his match in the semi-finals against fifaustun, Kurt0411 was frustrated with the tactics his opponent used to repeatedly earn kick-off goals. Kurt0411 was so frustrated, in fact, that when fifaustun earned another goal on him, Kurt stormed off stage and refused to continue playing until tournament officials forced him to return to his seat until the match was over.

Kurt0411's ego might be the only thing bigger than his hatred for FIFA and the company behind it. The player has referred to himself as the "best FIFA player" on numerous occasions, but when faced with a massive tournament failure or a significant ban from EA, he decides to hang it up and "retire" completely. One such incident came in August 2018, when Kurt0411 shared plans to retire from competitive FIFA play for the foreseeable future.

That future, it turns out, was less than a month away. In September, just a few weeks after he had announced his retirement, Kurt0411 announced his decision to come out of retirement on YouTube to 'save FIFA.' Kurt0411 would then retire again in the wake of his two-month ban from competitive FIFA play in October.