Shooting at esports event points to a need for security

Gamer from Santa Fe says he didn’t see any guards at tourney in Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A shooting at a Madden video game competition in Florida has left two people dead along with the suspect and prompted calls for more security at esports tournaments.

Esports are big business. This weekend’s “Madden 19 NFL Classic” was the first of four planned events. The top two finishers at the Jacksonville event would earn a spot in Madden Classic main event in Las Vegas, Nev., scheduled for October. Competitors will play for a share of the tournament’s $165K prize pool, with the winner taking home $25,000.

It’s unclear what kind of security was at Sunday’s event.

Derek Jones of Santa Fe, N.M., came to Jacksonville to compete in the tournament and was sitting in a fenced-in patio outside the venue when he heard the gunshots. Jones, 26, said he jumped the fence and ran.

He said he didn’t notice any security — either private security guards or off-duty police officers — at the venue. He said it’s a complaint he has had with tournament organizers in the past.

“I’ve been telling them this for a while that you need to make the players feel safe,” Jones said.

He recalled a past Madden opponent who once kept screaming during their match that he was going to beat Jones up after the game. But Jones said that’s the only time before Sunday he ever felt physically threatened.

Electronic Arts, the Madden game developer, released a statement calling the shooting horrific and senseless.

Some top players and industry watchers said Sunday that security hasn’t caught up with the seriousness of the sport.

In December, the Call of Duty World League tournament held in Dallas was evacuated — twice — due to bomb threats.

Seth Abner, an XGames Gold Medalist and Call of Duty World Champion, wrote on Twitter: “I’ve been saying events NEED better security. Such a damn shame that now event coordinators will respond after a tragedy happens.”

Some gamers say the pressure of competition, the desire to please fans and the intense gaming can lead to anxiety and mental health issues, or worse.

“In the world of competitive video games, mental health issues loom so large and come up so often that the problem somehow becomes invisible,” wrote Tyler Erzberger, who covers esports for ESPN.

“In a world where one day you can go from playing in your bedroom to the next being criticized by millions under spotlights, mental health can’t be overlooked.”

His article on mental health and gamers ran online Friday. On Sunday, he tweeted that “99% of the Esports events i’ve been to have had decent to very good security.”