Skip to main content

Scrubbing social media accounts before applying for jobs has become common practice to make sure you're presenting your best self to prospective employers.

But a new report might be taking it a little too far as some OHL prospects were advised to scrub Fortnite references from their social media accounts, reports TSN's Rick Westhead. 

According to Westhead, some NHL teams consider the video game to be a major distraction.

It's not much of a surprise, especially following a May report from Sportsnet's Jeff Marek that a junior prospect's career was in jeopardy due to a video game addiction.

"On video games—and I’m not going to say the player’s name," Marek said on the 31 Thoughts podcast. "I really doubt he’s going to make it to the NHL, and it’s because of a video game addiction, to the point where his junior general manager told me that they’ve had him go to counseling over it, because he’ll play until all hours of the night and into the morning and then he’ll have no energy the next day. Like, he’ll be a write-off. And it is that bad. He has this compulsion for playing video games until all hours. I swore that I wouldn’t say the player’s name, but it’s unfortunate. He’s a recent first-round draft pick for a very, very prominent NHL team, will probably never play in the NHL because of a video game addiction."

Players Weigh in on Their Likenesses, Ratings in EA NHL 19

How much teams truly care is questionable—the game has become an easy source of content for teams to share. The Florida Panthers asked their prospects, 'How good are you at Fortnite?' while the Carolina Hurricanes had their players tell their favorite drop points in the game

Fortnite has become a viral sensation and taken over some professional sports team locker rooms in the process. The Brewers used a Jumbotron to play the game, while the Astros took to using the game’s celebrations after wins earlier this season. Red Sox manager Alex Cora even had to dismiss concerns that David Price’s carpal tunnel syndrome may have been caused by too much Fortnite