Games have glitches, and if your game was made by EA, your game probably has a lot of glitches. It’s practically one of the facts of gaming at this point, with EA now infamous for releasing barely-playable and often unfinished titles.
FIFA 20, the latest installment of the wildly popular FIFA franchise, has more than its fair share. Giuseppe Guastella, the five-time FIFA world finalist, found himself knocked out of the North American qualifiers because of a glitch.
Guastella, who plays for the LA Galaxy’s FIFA team, found himself in a penalty shootout with the loser facing elimination. In the game-deciding kick, Guastella knocked the ball off the left post and into the net: but the game decided that the ball hadn’t gone in, despite clearly being in the back of the net.
https://twitter.com/Guastella11/status/1234208495483797504?s=20
“EA needs to fix these serious issues with the game. To begin with, NA qualifiers are postponed due to a worldwide server hacking,” Guastella ranted on Twitter, clearly incensed. “I’m playing in a decisive game, winner moves on loser is out. I kick my last PK, it goes in and does not register.”
Guastella discusses in a follow up tweet that the admins of the tournament came over and, despite seeing the obvious glitch, refused to overrule the game. If FIFA says it wasn’t a goal, it wasn’t a goal, no arguments.
“How can anyone take the game seriously when EA can’t take the game seriously and fix these elementary school issues? If this was any other top-tier professional competing in another esports game, things like this wouldn’t happen!”
You absolutely can’t blame Guastella for being upset at this. He spent his Sunday away from family to compete in a tournament and undoubtedly scored his goal. It was an obvious glitch that the admins should have overruled (though, to be fair, that likely would’ve been a controversial ruling as well).
In other tournaments, glitches will lead to replays. Guastella wasn’t even demanding to be handed the victory and was only wanting to replay the shootout for accurate, glitch-free results. As Guastella states, how can we take the game seriously when glitches at the top level are just accepted as part of the game?
The community seems rather united in this ruling being garbage, with many discussing the game as not being esports ready or even completely playable. We’ve included the video in the tweet below – what do you make of the decision?
