EA has launched a fresh bid to tackle toxicity in its FIFA games – and in doing so has pulled one its most annoying celebrations for FIFA 21.
EA Sports has confirmed it has pulled the Shush and A-OK celebrations from the game – and warned more changes are to come.
Celebrations are one of the chief ways of annoying your opponent in FIFA. Your opponent is forced to watch them – and they can be pretty grating after rage-inducing goals are scored. The Shush celebration in particular is infamous within the community, as it is done while the scoring player is running. Players sometimes use running celebrations to extend the celebration time as they jog up and down the pitch – a frustrating time-wasting tactic.
Here’s how the Shush celebration looks in FIFA 20:
HOW TO SHUSH IN FIFA 20…SHHHHH!!!! PS4 AND XBOX. Watch on YouTube
As for the A-OK celebration, this is in fact Dele Alli’s famous “challenge” celebration, which went viral in 2018 after the Spurs midfielder did it after scoring a goal. It looks a bit like an OK sign with the “o” held over the player’s eye (it went viral because people couldn’t work out how to do it). Here’s how it looks in FIFA 20:
FIFA 20 DELE ALLI CELEBRATION TUTORIAL Watch on YouTube
This challenge celebration will go down as a one-season wonder, as it was added for FIFA 20 and won’t be in FIFA 21. It’s not known within the FIFA community for being particularly toxic, so I’m not sure exactly why this one was pulled. I asked EA for comment ahead of this story’s publication but it hasn’t offered an explanation.
It’s worth noting, however, that in July Infinity Ward quietly removed the OK gesture from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone, likely due to its status as a hate symbol.
Other infamous FIFA celebrations mentioned by EA Sports as being pulled from the game include the dab (pretty outdated at this point), and the Cristiano Ronaldo calm down celebration, which is the last thing you want to see when you’ve just conceded a last minute winner. I hate the waddle, too. I really hate the waddle. EA said it’s planning to make more changes “in this area”, so perhaps more celebrations will be binned before FIFA 21 comes out.
Meanwhile, EA has removed the walk back cinematic after a goal in online matches. This is welcome, as it’s boring to watch and doesn’t serve any purpose. EA said it’s also reduced the length of goal celebrations.
Outside of celebrations, EA has tweaked the game to reduce other toxic time-wasting behaviour. In FIFA 20, players are able to time-waste for up to 30 seconds during set-pieces, such as kick-off and throw-ins.
For FIFA 21, EA has reduced the amount of time you can wait for various set-pieces. For example, kick-off is now 10 seconds. A throw-in is now 12 seconds. A goal kick is 15 seconds, as is a corner kick and a penalty kick. A free kick gives you 20 seconds.