UK FIFA player Kylem “Lyricz” Edwards – who represented Tottenham Hotspur in the ePremier League – has been suspended for buying in-game coins.
Lyricz has been banned for the remainder of the season, and is one of several players punished by EA Sports for spending real money to purchase FIFA Ultimate Team coins, which goes against the game’s terms of service.
Lyricz – who also plays for UK esports organisation The Imperial – has lost his chance to compete at the eWorld Cup Play-Offs, reports goal.com.
The player apologised in a Twitlonger post, saying: “I want to start off by apologising to everyone at Imperial, Stark and all the players competing in the global series. This is the first time in my career I’ve been truly backed by an org and I’m really sorry for tainting what was a great year.
“It was a desperate thing to do, I set myself up really badly to start the year financially and made a stupid decision to try and compensate for it and now I pay the ultimate price.”
“It was a desperate thing to do, I set myself up really badly to start the year financially, made a stupid decision to try and compensate for it and now I pay the ultimate price.”
Kylem “Lyricz” Edwards
Lyricz’ decision to spend money on in-game coins was of course worthy of a ban. That cannot be disputed. However, it does also raise questions around the financial requirements of being a pro FIFA player.
Many of the top players will have the best virtual footballers in the game, some of which either require obscene luck to obtain in a virtual pack, or many, many Ultimate Team coins to purchase via the in-game auction house.
Some players have spent thousands of pounds on in-game packs to get the best footballers in FIFA and members of the community have questioned the need for this.
Bro you shouldn’t have to spend to compete there should be an open account for all that take part once your qualified. Keep doing you and come back stronger
— redwarrior1979 (@peterjdoolan) April 24, 2019
Ea gone mad! In what Esport do you have to pay out to compete. Someone could spend 500 quid and pack icons where as the next could spend 3k and have the same luck. So EA value luck as a competitive edge. ?????????????????????????????????????
— FifaFutBros (@FifaFutBros) April 24, 2019
I don’t get how buying coins to build a super team to qualify is cheating but spending £15,000 on fifa points to build a super team to qualify isn’t. EA need to realise what they’re asking pros to put into fifa is way too much. People can’t afford it so obviously use sites
— ŃĘVÊŔMÏŃĐ (@wolveslad27) April 23, 2019
EA has added some squad restrictions for the last two online qualifiers of FIFA 19, so that players can only have a maximum of two icon footballers, one 95+ rated non-icon player, two 90-94 non-icon players and the rest of the players must have a rating 89 or lower.
This will make it easier for pro players to acquire a squad in the future, but a financial sum will be required to afford players like the Icons (such as Pelé, Ronaldo and Maradona).
Special thanks to Jack Stewart for his expert FIFA knowledge
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
