FBI alerted after threat against Fragadelphia CS:GO LAN

N3rd Street Gamer’s CEO addressed upcoming security concerns for the CS:GO Fragadelphia and Chicago NCS Major events after a fan tweeted a picture of someone claiming they were going to “shoot up” the Philadelphia venue.

Fragadelphia is a Counter-Strike series usually hosted by N3rd Street in Philadelphia (if you couldn’t tell by the name) and it will be entering it’s 13th year in 2019. This year the event however will be held on September 13-15 in Huntington Beach California.

CEO John Fazio said there would be increased security at the event after the threat, which apparently was made during an online CS:GO match.

The threat was apparently made during a CS:GO match.

What was the threat?

On August 6 a Twitter user by the name of Droidcsgo tweeted a picture of their chat during a CS:GO match that showed another player threatening to “shoot up” the venue.

After one player in chat mentioned Fragadelphia (frag), another said “might shoot up frag, irl, D:”, which clearly caused concern among the other players in the match.

After Droid tweeted the image, Fazio responded and assured them that there would be an increased security presence at the event.

“We take these matters seriously, we are in the process of connecting with Faceit and alerting the FBI & local PD,” Fazio said. “We will have armed security and a police presence on site at Fragadelphia.”

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Fazio also added that increased security would be put in place for the upcoming NCS Chicago Major, which begins on August 9 after the threat as well.

A need for more security at esports events

The question of additional or increased security at live esports events hasn’t gone away since the tragic mass shooting at a Madden tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, that left three people dead in August of 2018.

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But, after a weekend of deadly mass shootings in the U.S. the question has come to the front once again, with a number of esports personalities calling for better, more committed security for the duration of events.

“Every time I am at an esports event I am looking over my shoulder it feels like. I want so much more security at events. Some events have little to none after day 1,” Dan ‘clerkie‘ Clerke, general manager of esports org eUnited said on Twitter. “I get it’s annoying having your bag checked but it can save lives.. Tournament organizers we need this.”

Unfortunately, mass shootings have become commonplace in the United States, so for esports events that see large amounts of people gathered in one place, the extra security just makes sense.