Madden Bowl Winner Fined for Inappropriate Tweets
By Rob Gordon 12 February 2017
Madden Bowl winner Chris ‘Dubby’ McFarland receives a $3,000 fine following his win at the eSports competition, due to inappropriate content posted to his Twitter feed.
The world of eSports is, slowly but surely, gaining a larger standing in the public eye, with proof of this coming from the recent announcement of an official NBA eSports league. However, as the world of eSports grows ever more popular, so does the level of scrutiny on those taking part in the most high-profile tournaments. This is something that Madden Bowl winner Chris ‘Dubby’ McFarland has found out the hard way, having just been fined $3,000 from his $75,000 prize by Electronic Arts.
The fine comes due to McFarland’s breach of EA’s code of conduct, with the Madden player posting inappropriate content to his personal Twitter feed. Alongside the fine, McFarland has also been docked 100 Madden NFL Championship Series points. According to EA, the company has “high expectations” for all of its competitors and expects “positive, responsible conduct to be demonstrated,” which resulted in the $3,000 fine.
A message for the Madden community. pic.twitter.com/K3irT84bOZ
— Madden Ultimate Team (@EASPORTS_MUT) February 9, 2017
McFarland has since deleted many offensive tweets from his Twitter feed, but copies of the comments made have already been shared far and wide on the social platform and beyond. Parts of the Madden community discovered a long history of McFarland using racial slurs on Twitter, with more details available via Polygon.
However, it appears as though the fine in question is not down to prior use of racist language, but due to comments made “during and directly after the competition” took place. Therefore, the $3,000 could in part be down to how McFarland responded to criticism of his prior comments online, with the eSports player not reacting well to the negative feedback he was receiving once the use of racist language was discovered.
The controversy surrounding McFarland is yet another problem in the long list of growing pains for eSports, as the competitive gaming scene becomes more and more mainstream. It’s fair to say that the eSports community has sometimes been lenient on offensive language from players and spectators, where racist, sexist, and homophobic comments have been routinely rolled out as trash talk against others. Although companies such as Twitch and Blizzard and even League of Legends developer Riot Games have been trying to take steps to curb toxic culture, critics say that there is still lots of work to be done.
The fact that eSports is now in the public eye certainly means that those in charge of leagues will be trying to keep controversy to a minimum. Mainstream sports figures are getting up to speed with competitive gaming, as shown by Mark Cuban’s comments on eSports. To keep eSports growing, the community will perhaps need to shed its nasty underbelly – at least when it comes to top tier competitors.
