FIFA 22 needs to change its FUT Transfer bans: Castro is not alone

EA SPORTS appears to have an automatic system in place for FIFA 22 that permanently bans players from the FUT Transfer Market, but after suspending Twitch streamer Castro1021 for “coin distribution,” it’s time to revisit that process. 

Just recently, Dexerto spoke to one of the Turn 10 Studios developers who worked on the Forza Horizon games, and they told us a lot of these processes used to be manual and have since been outsourced to companies not working for the development team.

In that game, they have very specific rules for online bans with a tier system. First off, they will send out a warning, then a maximum three-day suspension, and later take further action – such as a permaban – if the user has a history of repeated offenses.

It all sounds a lot more reasonable than a permanent ban out of nowhere, doesn’t it?

It’s not just Castro: Automatic FUT Market bans are an issue

Now, it’s unclear as to whether the FIFA series runs with an automated enforcement policy, but it certainly looks that way. Let’s take a look at the evidence.

Think of it, Castro is a massive Twitch streamer who plays – more or less – every single hour of FIFA in front of an audience. That audience is also over 3 million followers strong, so the chances of him distributing coins is highly unlikely as he would be caught very quickly.

If a developer was handling this case, there’s no way they would rush into such a long suspension involving what are really serious accusations.

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After the alert appeared, live on Twitch, he said: “What?! Permanently banned? I just dropped 300k FIFA points on Black Friday and you think I’m coin distributing?!” Correct – he spends thousands of dollars on purchasing FIFA Points every week, which undoubtedly gets more eyes on the promo events.

The real reason behind the ban is likely to be the fact that he’s purchasing FUT Champs Red Player Picks cards off the market, for high prices. So, after considering the situation and possible cause of the suspension, Castro’s actually doing a cleaning-up job in the absence of FUT market control.

These cards should never be available to any player in the game’s economy, as they are earned through playing Weekend League matches and are apparently untradeable. If EA has a problem with people picking them up and trading them, there needs to be an effective plan in place to ensure they can never be sold.

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Their strategy for FUT Transfer Market bans is out of control. It needs to be dealt with because too many innocent players are being caught in the trap.

Numerous cases have surfaced in 2021, since FIFA 22 was released on October 1, which show players being accused of coin distribution, FUT market trading on a large scale, and other serious offenses in violation of the company’s policies.

FIFA 22 Market bans – Players react

In March, it happened to RunTheFUTMarket on FIFA 21.

In other cases, players have been hit with the alert out of nowhere.

Others have been banned for listing players popular in SBC solutions, which is just baffling.

These are just a handful of examples, of course, but you would think EA’s social channels being swarmed with messages about FUT Market bans would be enough to reassess how these cases are being handled or processed.

The situation for Castro1021 will be easy – contact EA directly as he is one of the community’s biggest talents. It will likely be resolved in a day or two, if that. For those who just grind away on FIFA 22 Ultimate Team as a hobby and have been accused of coin distribution, what’s the answer?

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If anything, these Twitch streamers, when affected, have a responsibility to stand up for the player base. Castro had initially tweeted about the problem and it was met with widespread support by fans of the franchise, but it was swiftly deleted. Perhaps this will increase his chances of being unbanned, or he felt it was a bit reactionary.

No matter the case, it’s clearly not just affecting big creators with a following of a few million people. It’s stopping casual players from playing the game – and for that reason, EA needs to revisit their ban enforcement strategy.