EA To Cancel Remaining Madden Qualifiers in Wake of Jacksonville Shooting

In the wake of the horrific incident at the Jacksonville Madden Qualifier this past weekend, EA has released an official statement regarding their other upcoming events, with CEO Andrew Wilson making the announcement on their official website.

First and foremost, it is an unthinkable tragedy that Taylor Robertson and Elijah Clayton, two of our top Madden competitors, lost their lives in this way. They were respected, positive and skilled competitors, the epitome of the players and personalities at the heart of our community.  Their love of competition was evident through their participation in our events over the past few years.  We are committed to supporting Taylor and Elijah’s families through this difficult time, and we send our deepest sympathies to their loved ones, to those injured yesterday, and everyone affected.

A message from Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson: https://t.co/1lAIhcWLaG

— Electronic Arts (@EA) August 28, 2018

The event was a qualifying tournament for the Madden Classic, our first Madden EA Major competition of this season.  While these qualifying events are operated independently by partners, we work with them to ensure competitive integrity and to gather feedback from players.  We have made a decision to cancel our three remaining Madden Classic qualifier events while we run a comprehensive review of safety protocols for competitors and spectators.  We will work with our partners and our internal teams to establish a consistent level of security at all of our competitive gaming events. 

It seems that until the issue of security at esports events is looked at more closely, EA will not be holding their remaining Madden Classic Qualifiers. Whether other companies and organizations follow suit remains to be seen, however clearly something must be done to prevent this from happening in the future.