FIFA 19 - Sponsored by Promes to Sevilla

[The Merse]

I know how it's a walkout but no idea how he knows it's an 86.

The camera/audio on the streamer is usually ahead of the screen cap and console audio. Most YouTubers edit the Vids but can’t do so in streams. If the footage was originally streamed, it’s not surprising. Nick often comments in this on his streams, opening up to say the stream will be 1-2 secs behind before he kicks off opening packs.

[SincereTheRebel]

Im going to do the Zlatan SBC even though im not currently playing the game that much. I played one game last night and an opponent had him at CDM linked to three icons and he was ridicilously good. I have how you can postion change ST all the way back to CDM.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I only came across him twice I believe. The first time was off the subs bench and his first touch was to head in a near post corner.

Bottled him up the second time though.

[Baz]

I played one game last night and an opponent had him at CDM linked to three icons and he was ridicilously good. I have how you can postion change ST all the way back to CDM.

Why would you do that?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

For chemistry.

You can then switch in game.

[The Merse]

Glad I bought Marcelo and Varane as they're appreciating nicely. Unfortunately Mbappe is also increasing at a rate that makes it unlikely I'll afford him in the next month or two.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Vidal the best from my SB rewards.

I'm surprised I got the swap player too, I didn't notice he was there so only played a handful of games which was fortunately enough.

[SincereTheRebel]

Why would you do that?


For chemistry.

You can then switch in game.

Spelling is worse than normal. I hate how you can postion change ST all the way back to CDM. The person I faced, didnt switch Zlatan to ST once the game started. He kept him at CDM. He was a monster in that posisiton. So many small things need changing with the game. I spend most of time bitching about it :(

[John]

How would you stop it? There's no position change in that sequence that doesn't make complete sense.

[SincereTheRebel]

You can only postion change a ST to a CF and then to a CAM. You shoudlnt be able to go lower than that.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

But what if I want to change a CAM, let's say De Bruyne, to a CM?

[John]

The solution would be to hard code a position into each card then say you can only go two in either direction from that, but knowing EA they'd arse it up and not change the hard coding on TOTW cards with position changes, or have it default to the current position when you buy/sell the card.

[five time]

I think players should only be allowed to move once or twice from their natural position, whilst adding in some new position modifiers.

So an ST could play at LF at RF and potentially as far back as CAM. A CDM could play at CB or CM, and wingers could swap sides.

[SincereTheRebel]

But what if I want to change a CAM, let's say De Bruyne, to a CM?

That is fine. You can take a natural CAM all the way back to CM and CDM. But a default ST, you should'nt be able to go from ST>CF>CAM>CM>CDM.

[SincereTheRebel]

I think players should only be allowed to move once or twice from their natural position, whilst adding in some new position modifiers.

So an ST could play at LF at RF and potentially as far back as CAM. A CDM could play at CB or CM, and wingers could swap sides.

Special cards that you cant postion change could be good also.

A whole new chemistry system would be refreshing. Maybe you get chemistry based on how many times players have started together that they link too. Mind wine.

[five time]

I'd like SBC cards to get an additional bonus also. Could make it easier to link cards that wouldn't get used otherwise.

Also, after Tevez and Ibra I would love to see a flashback Fernando Torres.

[Danny]

The simplest way would be to use a players ‘real’ positions. They have all them in career mode. Just bring those over.

The problem there is, if you let players play their positions with no modification, you eliminate pack fillers. Something I think EA would be hesitant to do. The system would have to lock players into a position but allow positions change cards to move them between their options.

You would run into issues like RF and LF. I doubt anyone is listed with that position in career. Probably just RW and LW. So it would have to be worked on.

[Trancemeister]

You think I can finish a 86, 87, 88 rated squad on Stoichkov in 24 days. Got 390k coins. Got 3300+ players but most are worth fuck all.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

You could do it easily if you 'icon craft'.

[Yevrah]

I assume you’re taking the piss with that Mahow, and I agree that it’s worth of derision, but there’s nothing left to craft now anyway is there?

You’d have to be insane to do it with two player upgrade packs without the league ones to put them in.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

You could just do the gold upgrade packs but you'd obviously have so many shit gold rares by the end.

Could get lucky though.

[Yevrah]

Talking of which I did some more this morning on the back of squad battles rewards and got Lewa from one and Umtiti from a La Liga upgrade pack.

I thought a TOTY was written in the stars when I saw the first and second walkout sign....

[Yevrah]

I see there's another promo coming on the 18th.

It's simply too much and I can't dedicate this much of my time to this game.

Sorely tempted for next year just to do a 'pack only, nothing can be bought from the market' game, with no FIFA Points natch. I need something to get off the hamster wheel that this game is and a shit team should do that.

[The Merse]

That is fine. You can take a natural CAM all the way back to CM and CDM. But a default ST, you should'nt be able to go from ST>CF>CAM>CM>CDM.

I’d be inclined to agree. Mbappe should be able to be converted to Striker, and Ronaldo to RW or LW. Similarly Hazard to and from. But Ronaldo as a DM? Even Bergkamp as a Cm? I’d say one position move forward-back or left to right per player, including left to right and centre to win should be possible. The player attributes should then govern the rest.

[John]

If you could make Mbappe a striker he'd immediately triple in value, so there wouldn't be a RW version left in the game. They'd have to make players changed in that way untradeable or it'd be game over.

[Boom-Boom-18]

I see there's another promo coming on the 18th.

It's simply too much and I can't dedicate this much of my time to this game.

Sorely tempted for next year just to do a 'pack only, nothing can be bought from the market' game, with no FIFA Points natch. I need something to get off the hamster wheel that this game is and a shit team should do that.

What could possibly be becoming?

I am like you, addicted to this game. I don't actually play that many games (10 a week plus 30 weekend league) but I am constantly looking at the market and the mobile phone app hasn't helped matters, checking it all day! At least I have managed to avoid spending on FIFA points this year, although I would probably exchange £200 for the time I have spent pissing around trading.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Talking of which I did some more this morning on the back of squad battles rewards and got Lewa from one and Umtiti from a La Liga upgrade pack.

I thought a TOTY was written in the stars when I saw the first and second walkout sign....

Just look at the ring of colour.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Figo SBC out.

[SincereTheRebel]

I’d be inclined to agree. Mbappe should be able to be converted to Striker, and Ronaldo to RW or LW. Similarly Hazard to and from. But Ronaldo as a DM? Even Bergkamp as a Cm? I’d say one position move forward-back or left to right per player, including left to right and centre to win should be possible. The player attributes should then govern the rest.


If you could make Mbappe a striker he'd immediately triple in value, so there wouldn't be a RW version left in the game. They'd have to make players changed in that way untradeable or it'd be game over.

I agree with John. You shoulnt be able to move postions across the field. If you want to play a RW on the LW, you can, put he should be on 7 Chem as he is now. The only posistion change issue I have is with ST, moving them into CM and CDM. That is a problem.

[Yevrah]

What could possibly be becoming?

I am like you, addicted to this game. I don't actually play that many games (10 a week plus 30 weekend league) but I am constantly looking at the market and the mobile phone app hasn't helped matters, checking it all day! At least I have managed to avoid spending on FIFA points this year, although I would probably exchange £200 for the time I have spent pissing around trading.

That is a very good point. I've probably played this game over a prolonged period of time more than anything ever, bar a game I had on FM with Eibar and when I compare the two, that was much more enjoyable. When I compare it to the things I've played for less time over the same sort of time period (mainly Bethesda games) I also enjoy those more too.

I'm basically playing this so much in pursuit of a never ending level of attainment that can't possibly be reached and all resets again in 6 months (I'm taking that from the time the content will have well and truly died) and worse still I'm playing no new games as a result.

I really like it (obviously), but I need to work out a way to play it a lot less.

[Yevrah]

Just look at the ring of colour.

....And then realised it wasn't when I saw the gold ring.

[Yevrah]

As for chemistry and position changes, it's fine.

It gives the game an interesting edge that wouldn't be there if you could play Neymar in any of the forward positions and link him perfectly with Zlatan.

[John]

As for chemistry and position changes, it's fine.

It gives the game an interesting edge that wouldn't be there if you could play Neymar in any of the forward positions and link him perfectly with Zlatan.

I'd agree. It's orders of magnitude better than the old system, where each card had an assigned formation and the only way to get a player on higher than 8 chemistry was to play that formation.

[The Merse]

Anyone up for helping me get the fut swap token for Friendly Seasons?

[Boom-Boom-18]

Yes, lets go Merse. I will sign on now.

[Yevrah]

I'd agree. It's orders of magnitude better than the old system, where each card had an assigned formation and the only way to get a player on higher than 8 chemistry was to play that formation.

Indeed. 5-2-2-1 players. :sick:

EDIT: That's probably a meta as fuck formation this year mind.

[Danny]

18th is probably going to be ratings refresh

[Boom-Boom-18]

I hope Monday games count towards SIF Jesus because he would be an utter beast. If it does come I would hope it would be under 400K.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

They don't.

De Gea and Suarez will be the only ones worth packing.

[The Merse]

Yes, lets go Merse. I will sign on now.

GG man, cheers for those. How're the upgrades going for you - Hazard, Aurier? Found the latter hard to beat.

[Boom-Boom-18]

Well played Merse, couldn't get a look in at all! Thanks for the last goal.

[thommo]

I've managed to hold myself away from the full addiction with FIFA so far this year, but I still spend hours not even playing, sorting out my club and completing various shit SBCs. I feel like with a bit more time on my hands I would easily slip back into old habits.

Trying to plan my next move for my La Liga team. I need to upgrade Gabriel at the back, but he's only in to give chemistry to Flashback Dani Alves at RB. Could also do with a better striker than TOTT Gerard Moreno. I bought him solely to try him out as he looked comparable to 84 Alcacer, who I love. He's generally been pretty shit though, quite weak and whilst his finishing is class, he gets closed down quickly and can't find space to shoot often.

[five time]

Does anyone have times where they hate their team and can't decide what to do with it? I've wasted far too much money on untradeable SBC players this year and it's a struggle to switch my team up as a result. Waiting game on an icon SBC I want to throw them in I suppose.

Shifted Messi after persevering with him for a while. His shooting is immense but I'm not very good at skills/dribbling so I wasn't getting the best from him. Found that he gets knocked off the ball too easily/closed down quickly and his stamina means he's dead by the 50th minute.

I'll probably wait for this weeks rewards/that promo before spending any real coins. I was looking at Henrik Larsson to link into Ibra but I think he's jumped nearly 500k this week.

[Boom-Boom-18]

GG man, cheers for those. How're the upgrades going for you - Hazard, Aurier? Found the latter hard to beat.

Aurier seems solid and he had a lot to do then! Hazard I really enjoyed in the couple games I had before I played you but he obviously barely got a look in then.

I thought you were the better player in the first game even though I got the win and the last four games confirms it. Still happy to play any time.

[The Merse]

The one issue I have is this switching IF Griezmann - Scream Koke around from LW to CM. It's put me in a sticky place as I can't upgrade one in isolation, as there's only really Griezmann that works as a LW but can be moved from CM on chem, and Koke is the only LM I know that's dying to be a CM really. Otherwise, whilst I've got plenty of untradeables, I'm really glad I've worked some of them into my B squad and benches and it's really fun side - Keane and Campbell Primes until they get thrown into a top end Icon SBC, Futmas Firmino, Flashback Pato, POTM Lucas and a bunch of Red Champs Cards and RTTF Mkhitaryan to name a few.

Glad Lucas is the only POTM I've done this year though. With the exception of the Icons, I've set a limit of c. 100k for SBC players. Milinkovic Savic, Mkhitaryan, Kroos, Firmino and Casillas were all really good value, indeed the packs were almost free considering the price:OVR ratio. Last year I ploughed probably 1-2 million in to POTM SBCs.

[The Merse]

Aurier seems solid and he had a lot to do then! Hazard I really enjoyed in the couple games I had before I played you but he obviously barely got a look in then.

I thought you were the better player in the first game even though I got the win and the last four games confirms it. Still happy to play any time.

Yeh, I'm up for it - have enjoyed our games as like me, you seem more concerned with making something happen than always playing the meta ball/shot/whatever. I do you find you worrying in full flight - that KdB/Auba/Jesus/Hazard combo is terrifying at times, and a couple of those could have edged either way with the luck of the green on the other side.

You also rinsed me when I switched to attacking at 2-0 in the first game tonight, (it brings up Marcelo and Lala) I've been experimenting building a lead on Neutral and then switching to attacking to match the opposition and try to kill it off with a third rather than sitting on the same lead as I so often concede when sticking with Neutral. I think I've worked out that it works against a 3 man attack (CAM/ST/ST or RW/LW/ST) but not 4/5 (CAM/ST/LW/RW or RM/LM/CAM/ST/ST, like yours).

That's me got me Promes OTW. First FUT Swaps player for me.

They'd better release something to stick him into for a new OTW, as that German RB looked very tasty.

[Yevrah]

The chap with all the packs saved.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FIFA/comments/af2wb7/update_realistic_expectation_from_25_million/

He opened as many as 2,400 packs in the end through recycling the cards and did pull 8 (yes eight) TOTY players (some were duplicates), but not a single icon. Not one.

He also got fucked over by EA for doing too many SBC's, which is even more ludicrous than the transfer ban. :D


What does this mean? I think I've sussed the odds.

As a comparison to what I did, it took him well over 350 specific league player packs before he got his first toty from them - of the 479 packs I opened, only 149 of them were specific league player packs.

If it was 350 exactly to pack one then his hit rate was less than 0.3%, which from those upgrade packs I could believe. I think it took Nepenthez 500 La Liga upgrade packs to get Varane x 2, which would obviously be 0.4% bang on, and christ knows how many two player upgrade packs it took Nick to get Kante.

From this (obviously relatively small sample size admittedly) I'm reasonably comfortable in saying that the chance to pack a TOTY from the league upgrade player packs was no worse than 0.25%, but that probably doesn't count the Serie A ones, which I think would be below 0.1% to get Ronaldo.

So if it was 0.25%, you'd need to open 400 Premium League packs to statistically expect one, obviously you might be 'unlucky' and need to open more, but 400 should do it.

400 of those packs equates to 10,000,000 coins worth, or 140,000 FIFA Points, or £840 (with the EA discount). But, (and it's a big but) that many coins, FIFA Points or pounds only buys you 80 Ultimate Packs and as we said before, we know the odds of packing a TOTY player from one of those packs is less than 1% and you'd need to open at least 100 to expect to pull one.

It's at this point I realise you can scrap what I said above, the odds from those packs is actually lower than 0.25% and Nepenthez and this Twitter chap actually got lucky packing what they did so soon.

I mean, sweet mother of God. It also explains perfectly why I didn't pack one (or get a real meta player), I simply didn't have enough packs to tip the odds in my favour. Which I knew, but what I didn't know is that I didn't actually have enough not only by half, but not even by a third.

Ignoring the Serie A packs, I think the actual odds of getting a TOTY from a Premium EPL or La Liga upgrade pack (probably Ligue 1 as well) was somewhere between 0.1% and 0.2%. That's 500 to 1,000 packs, 12.5m to 25m coins worth, 175,000 to 350,000 FIFA Points or in something that actually matters, £1,050 to £2,100.

This would also put the odds of the Ultimate Packs at somewhere from opening 100 to 200 of them, or if you prefer, 0.5% to less than 1%....

[Gray Fox]

See you know it's a sham, but when you see it actually broken down like that it's actually quite scary. Because you know there are people that will continue to chuck money on until they get one.

[Yevrah]

Forgetting he makes a living out of it, what's crazy to think is that Bateson's 600k of FIFA Points to pull one isn't particularly unlucky and conversely your one packed from, what, (10 upgrade packs?) is off the charts.

Or at least it would be, if everyone had the same odds all of the time, but I don't think they do, which is where it gets really sinister.

[Boom-Boom-18]

Do you guys seem to have many issues with X-Box controllers?

I have a problem where the left analogue stick seems to be very sensitive and if I push it up or down it will tend to carry on selecting in that direction until I move it again (even though the physical stick returns to the middle).

Best way to describe it, if I try to change my free kick taker while lined up for a free kick I will go to the list and push up / down but it will flick through the options making it impossible to select your correct option (you have have noticed this when I took a free kick Merse, I was trying to select Mahrez but gave up and went with whoever it landed on). I actually almost quick sold De Bruyne the other night when going to the menu to apply a contract, I accidentally hit 'Quick Sell' because it started flicking through the options and then instinctively hit 'A' thinking I would be applying a contract. Thankfully it was on whichever selection backs out of quick selling.

It doesn't seem to impact general play too much but selecting lists is a night mare. I also cannot take a penalty without going down the middle because trying to direct left / right will result in the player hitting it massively wide.

This will potentially be my 3rd controller in a year and they are well looked after. Perhaps it's all the sniping.

[Yevrah]

I get random pauses when navigating menus, but that's to do with EA being useless rather than my controller.

[The Merse]

Yeh, I’m back to my old controller after my rage chucking of the newer one (can’t see any damage om it so gonna try returning it as faulty!) and remembered that when I was last using it I noticed it pulling down in Titanfall every so often. I’m seeing that in Fifa too, but it’s less obvious because I’m not looking directly at the player I’m controlling often enough and it’s more subtle as I’m also always holding some direction unlike in Titanfall. Not good. Had A couple of occasions vs Boom where I veered off course, but luckily in harmless situations.

[Yevrah]

Are we talking about drift? If so, this might help.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqHJFEnbZLQ

[Yevrah]

Does this work?


Theres a maintanence break at 7am tommorow, make sure to bid on a couple icons for cheap a couple mins before

[Gray Fox]

My controller is okay, but has this weird feel to the right hand side like it's not quite clicked together properly. As a result it creaks a lot.

Yevrah I maybe opened about 50 over the course of the weekend. But I do believe certain accounts are earmarked to get better pack pulls than others. I saw one on Twitter earlier who got TOTY Ramos and TOTY Marcelo in the same La Liga upgrade pack. Utter madness.

[Danny]

Yevrah, has to be worth a shot. Where did you see that? Wondering if thats 2am my time.

Edit: Rocked a couple of SBs today and I will be doing both Ibra and VVD.

[Yevrah]

I saw the announcement for downtime on EA's Twitter and that quote came from an ex Big Brother contestant doing an RTG (not first owner) on Twitch.

Unbelievably not a word of that sentence is a lie.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Well I guess it's one way to increase your profile

[Yevrah]

Yevrah I maybe opened about 50 over the course of the weekend. But I do believe certain accounts are earmarked to get better pack pulls than others. I saw one on Twitter earlier who got TOTY Ramos and TOTY Marcelo in the same La Liga upgrade pack. Utter madness.

My thinking is that there's a algorithm that is applied to each user based on their categorisation, which influences what they pull, from both free and paid for packs in order maximise the chances that they'll pay for more or some packs. We know the categorisations exist because a user on Reddit requested his personal data held by EA under GDPR about a week after the regulations came in. After an initially confused response, he got what he asked for which was a file containing everything he'd ever done on the game in regards to transfers, packs, the works. Buried deep within the file was a reference to his spending categorisation, IIRC he was classed as an infrequent spender.

If we take youself, and correct me if I'm wrong, but you don't spend money on packs and rarely have if ever. If you've done that for a number of years then they'll know you're not going to if the status quo is maintained and what better way to change that than giving you ridiculous pack luck in an effort to make you think it might just be worth paying for the points. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not having a dig here or envying you packing Ronaldo, Messi and Ramos, you're a cracking player and it's nice to see that calibre of card going to someone on TTH, but I'm not having that those pulls were just luck. Ronaldo, Messi and TOTY Ramos? I don't know what the odds of that are, but if my example above is anything to go by then they're going to be so small as to be almost impossible for someone who plays the game without putting a penny into packs. EA have obviously picked the wrong horse with this one as I can't see you ever putting any money in now, but I bet it works more often than not.

Then there are the legions of stories about people getting far better luck on new accounts. No history on this account so what better way to entice them in? It happened to me last year, in that FIFA 18 was the first FIFA I'd played from the start in 5 years, I put £100 in and packed Roberto Carlos and another icon (can't recall which one) straight off the bat, from Premium Gold Packs no less, within 5 minutes of each other. That's more icons than Tass pulled from putting five grand into Premium Gold Packs at the start of FIFA19.

Then it got to Christmas time and I thought to mix it up with a new account to see what I could generate from scratch. My Sister gets me a game card for Christmas, which I forget about until March, but when I find it figure I may as well chuck into the account (which I'd spent nothing on in a couple of months of playing on) and what's this? Prime Jari Litmanen from £20's worth of points.

The way the odds are worded on the packs is interesting as well "Minimum probability of getting one or more of the OVR etc." Why would they say minimum if the odds are the same for everyone?

As for the streamers and Youtubers, their packs are fucked with to the point it isn't funny. Nepenthez's argument against his being on the 'red list' was that EA hate him and why would they do it on an account that is specifically designed to show you what you can do without paying for packs?

Well unless playing FIFA is your job and you're as good as he is at the game then you can't do that without paying for packs. The man sits on and then flips literally hundreds of consumables at a time, one by one, week after week - no chance anyone with a job and or family has the time to do that shit. And again, not a dig at him, as I actually think he's very very good at what he does, which also answers his other point about why EA would do it with him. They'd do it because it matters not whether they like him or not or that his account is a first owner RTG, what matters is that he's a very popular Youtuber showing people what you can get in packs. And you can do that by spending 100 hours+ a week playing the game, or you could stick a few quid in.

Now these examples are obviously cherry picked and on the other side of the fence there's Bateson, who sticks 600,000 FIFA Points in to get one TOTY, but EA can't apply the same thing for everyone all the time or it'd be so common as to be indisputably true. As it is people suspect, but can't prove it. Mark my words though, they're doing some shady, shady and morally bankrupt shit, there's no doubt about it in my mind. FUT's nearly 10 years old now and they've got data on everyone who has played it in that time, whether they buy packs or not, at what time they buy them, whether they buy them when they've just lost, whether they buy them when an SBC comes out because they have players they'd rather not sell to fund etc. the list is endless and why wouldn't they be manipulating that?

[Gray Fox]

I've had a similar theory myself about each persons account being tagged one way or the other.

I do think there is some genuine luck involved here and there but as you state, for me to have 3 such cards, what, halfway into the game already? This has been better than all previous FIFA games combined and I've played off and on since UT was a 400 xbox point expansion game mode.

I did put points on once, perhaps in FIFA 15/16, but I never will again. As I've come to realise, if you are smart with what you earn and spend in game and are at least competent at it, you can make all of the coins yourself. Take this promo for example. Yet again the crash on the way in was the biggest, prices stagnated during and are now moving back towards what they were pre-crash. If you had a lot of coin and abstained from this promo but invested a fuck load into one card, you'd be looking at mega bucks right now.

But going back to pack weights they could certainly have my account down as someone who may well put points on if we give him stuff, my next point could also tie into this but this could just be a coincidence.
I've played this game over the last 3 years and usually when the guaranteed TOTS style SBCs come out I'll take a punt on one but only once. In both FIFA 18 and FIFA 17 I got none other than Sergio Ramos. Now we're in FIFA 19 and surprise, who is the one player I get? As I say that could tie in or just be completely coincidental.

There is going to be a some confirmation bias on this kind of subject, but I definitely think there's something to it. In years gone by I always thought there was a % quota on how much a player is allowed to be on the market. I'm not saying I still believe it but take for example TOTY Ronaldo. This along with Prime R9 will be the most desirable card on the game. The game has millions of players, so what if they decided there were only allowed to have X percentage of players in the game be able to get him. So we get to this TOTY promo, lightning rounds everywhere, the number of players shoots up, so they knock that percentage right down. The same in reverse too.

But if anything, all these pulls and everything else has convinced me spending money on this is fools gold, because at the end of the day, I could pack every prime Icon and sit on 40 million coins. EA would still have my money and we all know the game dies off come June. Then come September it starts all over again. I pay another £50 for the game and then shell out a load more through the year. I just refuse to do that.

[Yevrah]

It's definitely the right call not to spend money on packs. I don't hate myself for doing it this year, but I'd still have an amazing team if I hadn't so there really was no point, but opening packs is fun, which was a dangerous combination over Christmas drinks.

Coincidentally Nepenthez is adamant that EA haven't boosted him and has just taken to Twitter to point that out, with someone from Futbin citing how it wouldn't be possible. I'd say there are some reasonably knowledgeable people in the FIFA community, but they're naive beyond belief if they think they could have even the remotest handle on how EA do things.

Content that's worth over a billion for them vs a bloke with a website in his spare room and a feed that populates player prices? Do me a favour.

[Yevrah]

In other news I'm bored of my main account and fancy doing something alongside it as a little diversion. Started a new Xbox profile and a new Ultimate Team, but this one is with a few rules.


Can only use the bronzes given to me in the starter squad, everyone else gets discarded
Can't use any welcome packs or gifted Futswap items, everything has to be earned.
Can play offline, but have to choose minimum professional difficulty. Only exception here is in seasons where the professional difficulty division 10 has 3 semi-pro games in it
Can't use the transfer market to buy anything at all. No staff, no consumables, no players to use in my squad or for SBC's. Only exception is to complete the starter objectives, where I'm allowed to buy the one player needed, play him for one game and then quick sell him.
Can use the store, but I'm starting from level 1 on this account so will have to earn the unlocks as we go.
Can't use loan players unless they're from an SBC.


Starting off, Jagielka, Rodriguez and Lallana (that one hurt) have to be binned, along with Loan Cruyff, Loan UCL Soares, Loan IF Eder Militao and Dembele (that one made me cry). A couple of EPL silvers hit the dust too. All untradeable so no coins made from this.

This then left me with a problem in that I was 2 players short from being able to field a first team. Thank fuck for SBC's, with The Third Step one (and its Bronze Players Pack) saving me here. One of the players pulled was Rohner from Zurich who has 86 pace - fuck chemistry, he'll be straight into the side after I've played my first game.

Did a couple of other objectives and this was the side that faced Sagan Tosu in our first game in the offline division 10 Professional League.

https://i.postimg.cc/nhTVFJSR/Bronze.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

With Miller being the player bought for the starter objectives - decided I'd buy the first bronze I saw from the whole list with a BIN of 200 and that was him.

I hadn't played with bronzes in this version yet and fuck me, it's hard work. Their attempts to trap balls can genuinely travel for yards and any sort of passing fluidity can be forgotten.

We fought hard but ultimately lost 2-1, going down to goals either side of half time, but did miss a chance to snatch a draw in the dying minutes.

This man will be immortalised in Nice US's history though, as our first goalscorer.


https://i.postimg.cc/kXpwk6qf/Fleming.jpg (https://postimg.cc/1fDpFzgq)


That agility was a weapon.

414 coins for the loss and all the starter objectives completed took us to just under 1,000 coins and our second pack. Kovacic was packed, but sadly on loan for 7 games, so he was shown the door.

[SincereTheRebel]

Cool Idea. There should be actual modes where those type of rules apply or just rules in general. How much fun would it be if you had to use a mix between bronze and silver players in some type of tounrument mode where you win more than a thousand coins each time you win.

[Yevrah]

Starter objectives done and this is my team now:

https://i.postimg.cc/G28zXqwd/New-Team.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

And yes, that is the Demba Ba who played for Newcastle and Chelsea.

6 games played, 2 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses, all offline. 6,941 coins in hand, with a few BPM goodies on the trade pile.

I'm closing in on opening my first Premium Gold Pack with coins.

[Yevrah]

And this is the sort of shit I'm talking about. New account, no history, first 7.5k pack opened outside of the starter objectives and I pack 85 rated Sterling.


https://i.postimg.cc/901bxMFH/15-01-2019-16-14-49-0a3iwz4d.jpg (https://postimg.cc/YLGQ0tWd)



Now, ok, it's not Messi, but from the pack odds on the screen the chances of packing an 84+ are 4.7%, so the chances of packing an 85? Got to be what, 2%/1 in 50?

[Trancemeister]

It was actually a hell lot easier than I thought completing Stoichkov. Cost me every big player I had that I didn't use though.

[Yevrah]

That Dumfries. :hail:

[Danny]

https://www.reddit.com/r/FIFA/comments/agbb5p/vardy_league_sbc/

Vardy and Doucoure league SBC?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

They look shit.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'm going to do that Dumfries.

He looks insane.

[The Merse]

They look shit.

Doucoure looks very good. RTTF Kondogbia-good.

I can do the EPL with whats in club as long as they've not gone mental with the requirements for the likes of Spurs and Arsenal. Might do it for Doucoure if there's decent stuff in packs with this promo on Friday.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Compare Doucoure to the KDB we got last year.

Unless they're going to reroll the sets later on, it's shit.

[SincereTheRebel]

The ratingsa will be much lower. Last year munich had an 83 rated sbc and this year they give them 79

[Yevrah]

Which for Bayern is pretty irrelevant as it’s cheaper to do it with a higher than 79 rated squad.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Decided to put 7 of my 8 swap players in the rare mega pack as I don't need Da Costa anymore and I need players + coins.

Got 85 IF Cathorla which goes for abut 35k, 5k and Lacazette too.

[Trancemeister]

Eredivisie & Premier League sbcs are out .

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://www.futbin.com/19/player/17626/Denzel%20Dumfries/?chem=anchor&pchem=10&schem=100

So good.

PS4 early estimate is 136k on Futbin.

[The Merse]

Compare Doucoure to the KDB we got last year.

Unless they're going to reroll the sets later on, it's shit.

Agreed. But - it'll be cheaper and we have more money. Compare the other leagues req's vs last years and you'll find they're being far more generous on them - they came down last year on that previous too.

[The Merse]

EPL is cheap. The only team I don't already have fully complete in the club is Man City, and most of them I am not even submitting my 80+ players in. Will do it, as the sell price of the players is way too cheap for me to bother listing them up and I'd like the packs for the promo this weekend. Doucoure is a decent reward for the Untradeables side.

[Yevrah]

If I sell Mbappe I can do this:

https://i.postimg.cc/Hx2wy2Yp/team2.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

EDIT: Don't worry about chem, they'd all be on 10.

[Yevrah]

Actually, scrap that. i think I can scrape enough together to bring in Neymar into the current team, which will do me fine.

[Gray Fox]

I'm very jealous of both Best and that TOTY Marcelo.

[Yevrah]

It is a tricky one. Best I can live without if I have Mbappe, who is beast, but I really want to try that Marcelo. I guess I can work towards him, but after grinding coins and trading since September, I really can't be arsed anymore.

[Gray Fox]

You'll have to get yourself back into the weekend league!

[Danny]

https://www.reddit.com/r/FIFA/comments/agf08d/tip_you_can_still_use_2_of_the_same_player_when/

Interesting

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

1085552296807751680

Nothing that would make my team so I'm hoping for a high pick for my reds.

[John]

Roy Krishna. :cool:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Eredivisie SBC is up to 200k now, crash you cocks.

[Yevrah]

He links to Virgil and is immense, so it’s not going to go down for a while...

[Boom-Boom-18]

Fabinho at CB is an interesting one.

[Yevrah]

You'll have to get yourself back into the weekend league!

There's a possibility I'll be on this weekend. Need to remember to redeem obs, and won't be able to play until Saturday, but I haven't competed for ages so I'm very tempted.

Went into Division Rivals with my new team last night, playing 4 games to get Rank 3 for the week (and the 32k of coins for the Neymar fund or packs if I'm feeling the save for TOTY should start now) and went 3-1, with a 3-3, 5-0, 6-1 and 4-2.

Comfortably my best set of results over 4 games and my team felt immense. Whether it's De Bruyne pulling the strings, Raul finessing the shit out the opposition, Sterling annoying people with his unique run animation or Mbappe just being Mbappe, the attack was so good. It's possible I just played some shit people (as the difficulty does tend to fluctuate), but I never win by that much anyway.

I am bored of this a tad though and need to do something next year to mix it up. It's too easy to get an obscene team and it'll be even easier for me to do so next year unless EA change things dramatically.

[Yevrah]

I think it'll upset John, but here we are.

https://twitter.com/EASPORTSFIFA?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eser p%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

That Vinicius is going to be batshit.

[Yevrah]

Aren't upgrades based on a standard formula, if so is there a website anywhere that would show us what an 88 Foden would look like?

[The Merse]

That Junior Vinicius might make me rethink things.

[Yevrah]

I've been pissing around with the ratings on here. Looks like they're all getting +15 upgrades, which if applied to each overarching stat makes JV look like so:


https://i.postimg.cc/vTBSk2cv/Capture.jpg (https://postimg.cc/CB3NfNCZ)[/url]

[url]https://www.futbin.com/stats-calculator (https://postimages.org/app)

[Yevrah]

https://i.postimg.cc/Jn9PY7CR/RS.jpg (https://postimg.cc/dkj2LY0f)

[Yevrah]

Or the motherload:

https://i.postimg.cc/d0G1Z4Qn/Capture.jpg (https://postimg.cc/QBxsRgTW)

[The Merse]

No way is Sanches getting another special card. Plus, all three are teens and I have a feeling the rest will be too.


I’d have money on Jaden Sancho being in there. Ampadu, Kluivert, Nelson, Dalot, Geubbels, sessegnon and Antonucci all have a shout. I’d like a decent Zagadou next to Varane if I can.

[The Merse]

Vinicius, Foden and de Ligts OVR's also align to their potentials in career mode:

https://sofifa.com/players?aeh=19

Riqui Puig, Odriozola for me.

[Gray Fox]

1085626581949673472

Looks like we're looking at teenagers on the fringe but hotly tipped. As such the likes of Sancho may well not be involved in this. From a Liverpool fan perspective you could potentially have Hoever who filled in at CB in the cup or maybe someone like Harry Wilson. They want players who are being hyped as the next big thing, but who have not actually been given a crack yet.


As for TOTW, it's really down to 3 players you want in it, with the likes of Pepe and Williams being in the I'd take as a sub option.

Fabinho being in it as a CB is odd as whilst he did well, he was never truly amazing. The CB ruins the potential for me having him too. I've TOTY Ramos and POTM VVD as my set back line for probably most of the rest of this game. Where he a CDM it'd have been perfect. As it stands I dont see why he costs 450k+ when he isn't strong, can't jump and can't head the ball.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

The Angel Gomes card is going to be great.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

This Utrecht SBC is fucking shit.

Who thought a 4-2-3-1 wide was a good formation for a team with ZERO wingers?

2 of the 3 CB's are also extinct.

[Danny]

Looks like we're looking at teenagers on the fringe but hotly tipped. As such the likes of Sancho may well not be involved in this.

Which makes no sense when they include De Ligt. Not complaining like as I will look at using him!

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Oh and there's only 1 RB who is extinct too.

I should not have sold Aurier yet.

[Gray Fox]

I've seen one guy who claims he knows how this Future Stars will work and if he's right, boy will this change the game.

On Friday the version of the card we get will be a small boost to their regular card. So for example Vinicius Junior is 77 rated, he may be boosted to 81 like an IF variant.

The difference is, there will now be certain objectives, which once you attain them, the card will be upgraded. So as an example, score 10 goals in Rivals with him and win 20 games this week. Complete both and he gets the boost to 82 rated and you're onto the next objectives. There will be a limit on each card though so it wont be unlimited.

[Danny]

This guy?

https://www.reddit.com/r/FIFA/comments/ag22i2/new_promo/

[Gray Fox]

I did see it on Reddit, but then almost straight after I wrote that I saw RunTheFUTMarket put a video up about it.


Just popped on to open my rewards and it did not go well. Red picks ended up being Pedro and Rodriguez, which were comfortably the best 2 picks in each set. Considering we now know these are useless if they're not usable, this is disappointing.
I got a tradeable Keane IF in my packs and took tradeable Rivals but got nothing.

Bank balance is now back up to 100k or so, but upgrades on my team are limited. There's only really Neymar and TOTY Marcelo and an upgrade on Fabinho left to get in.
A bit annoying as it could be weeks before an upgrade.

The only option to speed that up would be to invest in something hoping for SBCs to drop on Friday with this promo.

Danilo Periera is down to 900 coins and Mandzukic is down to 2.9k. Buying up a load of these could bring short term gain, with small risk too.

[five time]

That guy said in a subsequent comment that it looks like EA are just releasing them in packs upgraded now.

Fuck all from my player picks this week. Holding 2m of coins and my packs until these players come out. Vinicius would be the dream and would fit in nicely.

I don't hate it personally but I guess this is the point where Ultimate Team has finally fully crossed over to a trading card game rather than pretending to represent what's actually happening in football right now. TOTW seems like it's barely relevant at the moment.

[SincereTheRebel]

The promo related to this hot prospects is brillaint. It gives them the freedom to pick any players they want. Sancho shouldnt get in as he is already established. POTM awards and IF's cards. He should not be included.

[Gray Fox]

I don't hate it personally but I guess this is the point where Ultimate Team has finally fully crossed over to a trading card game rather than pretending to represent what's actually happening in football right now. TOTW seems like it's barely relevant at the moment.

I think this is exactly how it should be. It allows them to make content like this and that can only be a good thing. It's night and day difference between this and something like FIFA 16 UT.
Besides a few odd decisions(not doing anything for almost a week after Christmas) their content this year has covered all bases. This one could well be another great promo.

UT has always been cyclical though. I've been taught this by the last 2/3 years playing and especially paying attention to this year.

October through to January is all about setting the club up for TOTY. TOTY will have the best players this version of the game will have to offer, if any comparable ones come along they'll be in TOTS or be Icons.
January is TOTY, by then the club and/or team should be at least well set. If you're someone like Yev who has saved and set their club you can then take advantage and pick up 1 big TOTY player or several of the other members or that team.
From January through to May there are other smaller promos but this is the time to basically play with what you made. Once you get to May you get TOTS which is basically the last hurrah. You'll play on for a month or two after but then it's time to wait for the next instalment.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Pepe (86) and Djanniny (84), meh.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Dybala from untradeables in my Rivals rewards though.

[Yevrah]

I got him during my mega pack opening. I maintain he's shit though so he went straight into an SBC.

[Yevrah]

I think I'm gonna do Weekend League this weekend.

How do I tell if I'm at home? I've not done this before, but absolutely sick of facing wankers online with huge shadows covering the pitch, so I will be this time round.

[SincereTheRebel]

I think I'm gonna do Weekend League this weekend.

How do I tell if I'm at home? I've not done this before, but absolutely sick of facing wankers online with huge shadows covering the pitch, so I will be this time round.

In weekend league, you always play at the same stadium. The genric FIFA stadium which has zero shadows.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I got him during my mega pack opening. I maintain he's shit though so he went straight into an SBC.

Dybala? Yeah, I've never got on with him.

I'm happy because he's great for an Icon/high rated SBC.

[The Merse]

Ruffier in my picks, and some shite from the second pack that had no one over 81 inside.

Kept the others for tomorrow. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the will to do the same with the EPL SBC packs which yield led fuck all but then I put little in. A fair few 84s and 85s at least.

300k in the bank, still 1700 players and plenty of special cards and a couple of relatively disposable icnons etc for an Icon SBC in the club. Given Marcelo, Suarez, Courtoois and Varane are end game and that Cavani could be if PSG progress further, I’m feeling good about starting the post-TOTY middle third of the yearly cycle that Gray Fox describes (totally agree with that segmentation by the way).

I’ll save and save and hope to pick up another TOTY later in the game once they deflate, like last years 1.1m Modric, and pick up cards when they’re a good deal, but after this promo I’m likely to start saving better packs for TOTS.

[five time]

I think this is exactly how it should be. It allows them to make content like this and that can only be a good thing. It's night and day difference between this and something like FIFA 16 UT.
Besides a few odd decisions(not doing anything for almost a week after Christmas) their content this year has covered all bases. This one could well be another great promo.


In case it wasn't clear I agree with this, if nothing else it's nice to have a variety of 'viable' players. This year I've seen a far bigger variety in players than the last time I played FUT.

I'd like to see some of the baby icons cheaper so they'd be usable, but like you say apart from a few issues (have they forgotten about scream cards etc.) content wise EA haven't done a bad job.

[Danny]

https://www.reddit.com/r/FIFA/comments/agyyjd/the_hype_man_kills_the_hype/

Will be released with full upgrades. Ugh. Earning it actually sounded fun.

[five time]

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLtJ9sV08vT5lso3scsIQqQu6njEazmrS

This was pretty entertaining. Those tackles where the opposition win the ball back are so relatable.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Baresi out, no icon needed.

Too small and too slow to be used but cheap enough for future icon SBCs.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

NAC Breda and Willem II are now over 50k each too.

The whole set is now closing in on 300k which is just mental.

[Yevrah]

Told you it would go up.

Depending on how many of the future stars are silver it may well go down a lot over the weekend when/if the market is flooded with silver players.

In other news, I've got into the groove with Mbappe 24 goals and 9 assists in 17 games.

[Yevrah]

It's just dawned on me that if I sell RTTF Kondogbia and Renato Sanches and all my 84's to 86's I could probably stretch to TOTY Marcelo.

Kondogbia would be a big miss though.

[Gray Fox]

Anyone fancy a few games to help me get that swap deals player? I'll likely be on a little after 12.

[Yevrah]

I fucking hate fire selling players.

Sanches gone, but Kondogbia not shifted. Grr.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Told you it would go up.

Depending on how many of the future stars are silver it may well go down a lot over the weekend when/if the market is flooded with silver players.

In other news, I've got into the groove with Mbappe 24 goals and 9 assists in 17 games.

I tried to do it the other day but that Utrecht set is genuinely dead.

No wingers in a 4-2-3-1 wide (whoever picked that formation is a massive cunt), 2 of the 3 CB's extinct and the only RB extinct.

I should have done the rest of them but it's hard to care when one step is actually impossible right now.

I bought Walker for 55.5k yesterday so I can do WL at least.

[thommo]

Anyone fancy a few games to help me get that swap deals player? I'll likely be on a little after 12.

Yeah I'll be on for a few, I need the player too.

[Yevrah]

And the clean affordable Marcelo is gone.

I fucking knew that would happen.

EDIT: And 2 mins later Kondogbia sells.

I've gone BD now, but have a first and second squad I could use to the end, with 1 more upgrade to the first team.

[Gray Fox]

I've just seen the news of the Future Stars promo and that's really disappointing. The guy in the Reddit post Danny shared has come out after this and said they don't have the time and money and can't help what peoples imaginations have come up with.

1. Bollocks, Ultimate Team itself makes £650m per cycle and that's just UT, never mind the game itself. You're telling me you can't hire say a 10 person team out of that?

2. If you don't want us coming up with theories and speculating, instead of just dropping a title of the promo and leaving it til the end of the week, tell us. Give us the info ahead of time. Instead they're tried to create hype and now most are disappointed with this. We're just getting another 11-23 cards heavily boosted, that few will pack and will be 500k+

Instead we'll get an objective to win a squad battles game on Ultimate by 7 goals so we can loan one for 3 games.

[Yevrah]

I would expect as well they also won't be very good, or at least not good enough to warrant a place in most of our teams.

Talking of which, Marcelo TOTY in:

https://i.postimg.cc/Vk8wVfdN/New-1.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

[thommo]

On the back of those friendly games with GF, RTTF Gerard Moreno has gone straight on the chopping block. Just offered nothing so far in 20 games for me. Any suggestions as to who should replace him up top from La Liga?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Breda and Willem have skyrocketed because they're also in MM, why EA? Why?

Just completed it though and I got Matic and Umtiti from the 'lesser' packs with Kroos from my completion pack.

Not too shabby.

I spent 4.3k for the Breda player and just those 3 will bring me back about 150k pre-tax.

[Gray Fox]

On the back of those friendly games with GF, RTTF Gerard Moreno has gone straight on the chopping block. Just offered nothing so far in 20 games for me. Any suggestions as to who should replace him up top from La Liga?

It depends on the budget really. But 84 Ben Yedder and Inaki Williams are both around 100k, Griezmann a little more for 135k and then Suarez a little more again.

You have that annoying habit of just escaping with the ball when I think I've got it off you too, so maybe someone daintier of foot, like Ben Yedder or Griezmann would be better for you.

Very enjoyable games. Especially loved the volleys :p

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Well I got one of the extinct CB's \0/.

10 fucking k.

[Gray Fox]

Reminds me of the Lacazette SBC back in '17. Toulouse was a nightmare to complete.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

EA are just utter wankers.

It's all because they picked a wide formation for a team with no wingers.

You have to use off-chem guys for those 2 slots and you're left with either needing 2 of the 3 CB's or the only RB otherwise you wont have enough chem. Well I guess you could loyalty glitch it but I'm far too lazy for that.

[thommo]

It depends on the budget really. But 84 Ben Yedder and Inaki Williams are both around 100k, Griezmann a little more for 135k and then Suarez a little more again.

You have that annoying habit of just escaping with the ball when I think I've got it off you too, so maybe someone daintier of foot, like Ben Yedder or Griezmann would be better for you.

Very enjoyable games. Especially loved the volleys :p

I think I have a loan Griezmann somewhere in the club, so I might give him a try at the start of the Weekend League and see how we go. Ended up getting the 92 Bale on loan for 20 games too, so I can finally bin off Lucas too.

A number of things stood out to me across those 3 games:


I really need to learn how to utilise both the dragback and timed finishing. The dragback in particular was throwing me for a loop in the box when I was getting desperate and trying to make the tackle.I should also probably invest in upgrading my centre backs, especially in the La Liga team. Lack of agility and strength was really playing a part, especially when trying to tackle Ibra and Raul.I need to calm down when I go behind. I just get increasingly rash and push players forward, and whilst it doesn't always come back to bite me in Rivals/WL, GF easily took advantage in all of the games we played.
Fun games though and it was good to play someone of a better standard - plus, that Ibra volley in particular was awesome.

[thommo]

As an addition to the above list, I really need to stop automatically bringing the keeper off his line when an attacker is breaking through. Awful awful habit and I'm conceding probably a goal a game all the time through this stupidity. :moop:

[Yevrah]

Jesus, some of these Premier League and Dutch League silvers are going for a fortune.

I don't need any of the players on offer so think I'll cash in now.

[Gray Fox]

I've mentioned it before but the ability to maintain calm/composure and keep playing your game is going to win you as many games as anything. Take our 3rd game. I was 2-0 down early to a rebound and one my keeper should have been saving. I settled the game down and moved to try and keep the ball a bit.

As for my team a couple of weaknesses showed up. The main one was Fabinho feeling quite sluggish and him taking an age to get back sometimes meant I had to drag a CB out to get at you.

Sane is doing okay. He's not nearly as OP as back when I had him at the very start of the game, but he just about gets by. Though his ability to miss green timed finishes inside the box, combined with him scoring that volley which looped perfectly over your keeper is a little frustrating. Luckily he is appreciating in value and so to sell him I'd have 150k again.

I didn't record that volley, but I did get a clip of the Zlatan one. He's really fun to use: https://xboxdvr.com/gamer/sniper-wolf-tp4/video/67554593

[Yevrah]

What button(s) did you use to flip the ball over to Zlatan there Fox?

[The Merse]

NAC Breda and Willem II are now over 50k each too.

The whole set is now closing in on 300k which is just mental.

Grand. That’s how MM should be.

The prepped do it free and the unprepped further furnish them by paying big bucks for shit silvers.

[Yevrah]

I've sold three Wolves silvers for 10k each.

Could have waited for the price ranges to increase, but pretty sure the market will be flooded with silvers later.

[Yevrah]

This new team is sooo good. Can't wait to have a crack at Weekend League with it tomorrow.

30 in 21 for Mbappe now. What someone who is actually good at this game could do with him I dread to think.

[Gray Fox]

What button(s) did you use to flip the ball over to Zlatan there Fox?

LB + Y

Was aiming for Mahrez but Raul looking away from the target made it loop up like that.

[SincereTheRebel]

Upamecano looks mad

https://www.fifplay.com/img/public/fifa-19-future-stars-players.jpg

[John]

Grimaldo? He's in his fucking mid twenties.

[Yevrah]

I knew this would upset you. :D

[SincereTheRebel]

Its good we didnt get an attacking player from the premire league bit i exspect some weekly objective for another player

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

1086277082168971270

I might not need the Eredivise RB anymore/his price will come down hard now.

Guendouzi looks like a solid all round card with everything 82 or higher.

[Yevrah]

Either 6 of the above or more will come from objectives/SBC's too.

[Danny]

Some good hyperlinks in there.

[Yevrah]

I wish I hadn't entered Fut Champs now. Would have much preferred to grind silver packs into gold upgrades. I still might you know.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Yeah I wish I hadn't bothered entering.

[Danny]

Joe Gomez SBC. Another Hyperlink.

https://www.futbin.com/19/player/17746/Joe%20Gomez/

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Vinicius extinct at 1.5m.

[Yevrah]

Sancho at 850k is mental.

The pack weight is also bilge. 1.1% from a Prime Players Gold pack and less than 1% from a Premium Gold Players Pack (when so many are common golds) is horseshit.

[Gray Fox]

Want the Liverpool players but the prices are stupid.
600k for Gomez? Piss off.

I was hyped for this when they announced it but this is bollocks.

[Yevrah]

Bronze Pack Method has gone mental due to the SBC.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

1 chem away from that Bronze SBC :moop:

Fuck loyalty.

9 of the 11 have loyalty too ffs.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Just had an England rare bronze CB sell for 10k.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Managed to do it after I packed a rare CSL GK which meant I could get rid of a rare.

My picks:

80 Benat, 82 Acerbi, 81 Rulli, 81 Gomis.

I wish I had never fucking bothered.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Just had a crazy game in which I won 7-5.

I took an early 2-0 lead and fairly quickly he pulled one back. He was sloppy at defending but really good at moving his GK so I was creating lots of chances and eventually I took one to make it 3-1. He then got one back from kick off and another not long after to make it 3-3 at the break.

He then got 2 goals not too longer into the second half to go 5-3 up. Despite this I still felt as though I had it in me as I could make chances so I brought on my loan TOTY Neymar for Kondogbia. Got one back from the restart and then it was all me and I scored 3 in the final 10 minutes to win 7-5.

[The Merse]

Might grab Vinicius and Aouar once their prices settle - both would be upgrades on Koke and IF Griezmann and I can do it on full cheer with some jiggery pokery.

[Trancemeister]

Made about 150k by selling bronze players tonight

[The Merse]

Why are the bronzes going?

[Trancemeister]

A Sbc requiring all bronze rares.

[Yevrah]

3 rare, 8 normal.

I made about 20k, but it was at that point I realised I couldn't be arsed to keep opening packs.

[Boom-Boom-18]

The 6 SBC's that are due to come out this week for, are they for existing future stars or are they set to be new ones?

[Danny]

Likely to be new ones. Gomez wasn't on the list.

I think De Jong will get one too.

[The Merse]

de Jong would be nice, giving a hyperlink to de Ligt.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Neymar is genuinely a cheat code.

Whenever I bring him on he's fucking electric.

Only played 3 games today going 2-1. I was 3-1 down against the last guy (he only had 2 shots on target...) in the 74th minute so I brought on Neymar and we completely overload the guy.

[Gray Fox]

The prices of these are fucking stupid. Who even has coins left after TOTY?

Also lol at the new POTM Reus costing less than the last one.

[thommo]

Is it possible to play anyone of any skill in the first 5 games of Weekend League?

I say that because I just got absolutely destroyed by someone 7-2. This guy must be pumping money into the account or have traded his way to a fortune - he already had the new Gomez and TAA in defence, and then brought on the brand new 91 Reus at half time. Not like he needed him though; his red 93 Hazard scored 5 and I couldn't get near him.

2-2 through 4 so far. I picked up Griezmann on GF's recommendation and he does feel good to play with, smooth on the ball and gets in good positions too.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I always find Friday matchmaking to be a lot tougher.

[The Merse]

Is it possible to play anyone of any skill in the first 5 games of Weekend League?

I say that because I just got absolutely destroyed by someone 7-2. This guy must be pumping money into the account or have traded his way to a fortune - he already had the new Gomez and TAA in defence, and then brought on the brand new 91 Reus at half time. Not like he needed him though; his red 93 Hazard scored 5 and I couldn't get near him.

2-2 through 4 so far. I picked up Griezmann on GF's recommendation and he does feel good to play with, smooth on the ball and gets in good positions too.

It's because WL has no skill based matchmaking. It's all on form. So if you're 5-5 your form is 0, 7-3 would give you +4, etc, etc. You then always play someone of as near form as possible, inc other factors like location

As such, on Friday you're playing everyone, as everyone is on low form simply due to not having played games

2-0 start for me, against some tough opposition so I'm happy. Should play about 6-8 tomorrow and have the long stretch ahead of me Sunday, which normally bodes best.

[Gray Fox]

Merse has nailed it there. Not played a game myself and regret redeeming as family are coming down this weekend and it's also my short weekend, so no Sunday night either.

[The Merse]

Yeh, I dislike Friday as a result. Some Fridays I smash through a 5-0 run, others will see me inching forward at a 1:1 ratio. Sat morning is still a bit shit, but Sunday is as productive as you'd think it should be.

[Gray Fox]

Managed to bag a nice little 5-0 run there. The thing I'm liking is it was without scoring a single outside the box finesse shot too. People seem intent on clogging the middle now so I've been taking on the exposed full backs.
The gameplay took a massive dump in the 5th game though so I'll stop there. I'm liking Zlatan as a CAM as his strength bumps off the would-be instant pressure from almost all midfielders. His stamina is okay, but around that 70th minute and beyond I wouldn't expect to use him in behind much. Mahrez has upped his goal count for me lately as well which is nice. The only one questionable about pulling their weight is Sane.

Due to these Future Stars being in cards for a week, I'd like to hit Gold 1 to see if I can pack one. I've just about given up on getting a decent red player pick now, so those I'm not really giving thought to.

[John]

Did the Mega Pack SBC that came with that Indoctrin promo release and pulled Hazard from it. That's the first pack I've opened in about two months, which plays quite nicely into Yev's theory that they manipulate packs to draw people in. It's worked though. That puts me in the region of a million coins once I flip him, so I'll build a nice Brazilian side and give the game another chance.

[Yevrah]

They absolutely do, 100% - different odds for different players. Hell, the system might even be so suspect that it works out when it's time to give you a "90+ rated card" or when it's time to give you a "useable 90+ rated card".

As for weekend league, I still haven't started. Another problem I see now is that the rewards for any realistic level I could get to are a bit crap.

[The Merse]

I’m 7-2 going into a break in play to socialise. Won’t be back on until tomorrow afternoon but similar to GF, I want Gold 1 this weekend for the packs whilst the promo players are around.

Also really resent one of those losses, 0-1 vs a park the bus type. Having knackered my S controller and gone back to an old day one model, I’d been noticing it pulling down more and more, so pulled out another old one. It worked fine for two games before in this one, the left shoulder button stopped working so I was struggling to change players, only able to use the right stick, severely impeding me when he scored after shimmying past static AI midfielders as I tried to grab one of them. New controller is needed en route home tomorrow before I start another session.

[Yevrah]

Lost my first game 7-6, with loads of wank in it. Triggered as fuck.

[Yevrah]

And the next one 3-0 having battered him all game. Woodwork, blocks, the works. My defenders feel so sluggish to be selected too. I've never conceded this many goals before.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQHJwOUv4cI

I love Raul so much.

3-0 so far today so I'm 5-1.

[Yevrah]

First win in my third game 5-4. This is completely different to when I last played. All three opponents have swarmed all over my team, for the whole 90 minutes. It's like playing Fox constantly or as if the constant pressure as never gone away.

Conversely when they get into my final third, I'm fumbling around trying to select the right player as they stroll around with absolute impunity.

I only won that game because my team was much better and Mbappe with an Architect is utterly lethal at corners and got a hat-trick from them.

[Yevrah]

As for Raul I just can't get him in the game at all. Just gets smothered to fuck.

Hopefully I've just drawn three better than usual opponents in the first 3 games.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

It took me a few games to get used to him but ever since then he's magnificent.

I use him on Hunter and try to get him going through the defence but I've also got my timed finesse shots on point with him.

[Yevrah]

Oh I loved him before going into Weekend League. 3 ludicrously tough games have changed that somewhat. In fact, I've conceded 14 goals in that time, I don't think I shipped that many in my first 10 games last time I played.

[Yevrah]

Dave and Ederson from that Fut Stars mega pack SBC. Not too shabby.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://i.imgur.com/UOZvFgy.jpg

2-0 down early, Neymar comes on and it's done.

It's like I can feel the other player getting scared when he comes on, I'm going to miss him when his loan finishes.

7-1 which is my best start yet.

[Yevrah]

4 wins in a row to go 4-2 now.

Mbappe is such a beast. 10 goals in 5 games and 5 minutes for him so far.

[Gray Fox]

SBC Crespo is out.

[Yevrah]

Crespo out.

[Yevrah]

Only up to an 86 needed, so I'm quite tempted to chuck Raul into him and scrape around for the rest.

[Gray Fox]

You're not the only one.

Crespo was one of my favourite players growing up.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

As someone who has both, Raul is by far superior.

[Gray Fox]

Baresi is 460k to do. Cheapest Icon on the market is 510k.

Plus packs, doing it that way makes more sense to put him into Crespo.

[Yevrah]

That was my first thought, but I don't have enough to do Baresi first.

There are 4 weeks left for both, so I'll sit on things for a bit.

[Gray Fox]

Looks like it's about 1m coins for Crespo. Half of that is the Icon requirement.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

That is damn good value.

I paid 1.5m for my tradeable one ages ago and I don't regret it.

[Gray Fox]

Also this:

https://i.gyazo.com/29069b27dd802bbd021fae803eeba965.png

He costs 130k to do and will strong link to De Ligt and Dumfries.

[Danny]

100% getting that card no questions.

[Yevrah]

Anyone know how the requirements for the Leao objective work?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Win 14 games using Ligue 1 players.

You can't use (even as subs) those leagues mentioned or Icons.

[Yevrah]

Yeah, but does the 11 include the bench, do I need to use those players on the bench if I start with 8 Ligue 1 players?

4-3 now in weekend league, with a loss on pens after a 4-4 draw. My defending is horrible, which I can only assume is down to playing Roberto Firmino in midfield.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://www.reddit.com/r/FIFA/comments/ahl1mj/rafael_leao_objective_can_people_not_read/

[Gray Fox]

Yeah, but does the 11 include the bench, do I need to use those players on the bench if I start with 8 Ligue 1 players?

4-3 now in weekend league, with a loss on pens after a 4-4 draw. My defending is horrible, which I can only assume is down to playing Roberto Firmino in midfield.

I love Firmino very much but I tried it myself a couple of weeks back. Replace him ASAP.

[Yevrah]

Looking at Kante, but that does mean I'm going to need more offensively from Keane, which might just work with a Maestro.

[Danny]

Did De Jong. I knew he was coming, called it in here, I should have bought De Ligt ffs :face:

[Yevrah]

Kante in. Some food and back on it.

If I can do 8 more games tonight I might be able to do all 30 this weekend.

[Yevrah]

It is of course possible that having Marcelo and Dani Alves as full backs isn't helping much either, so if I'm still shipping goals after this Marcelo is going to have to go.

[Gray Fox]

Do you have them set to stay back whilst attacking?

[Yevrah]

They're on the middle setting. Will they still go forward if I change them due to their workrates?

Seems a bit pointless having the best attacking full backs in the game if they never go past the halfway line and I love the overlap.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

You can shift them to be more attacking.

Up on D-Pad then select attacking full backs.

A lot of people always put them on stay back but then change it if they need/want a bit more of an attacking threat.

Edit: Just had my tightest game. I was the better player but he seemed to do really well at being stout in the final third so I struggled for chances with most coming from long range at strange angles. Went to extra time and I grabbed one through a rebound which dropped to Scholes. He then managed to get a goal back just after the half in extra time when he did some nice work in the box after a cross to roll it back for Zlatan.

Luckily not long after the restart I found Raul in a touch of space and made him pay with a great finish. Raul could have made it 3 late on but put it wide although it didn't matter.

8-1 and I'm done for the night I think. I'll probably only push for 3 more wins as the TOTW isn't likely to be great. People will get excited about Mbappe but Cavani scored the same amount but got 2 more assists.

[Yevrah]

4-4 with another loss on pens after a 2-2 draw.

Felt much more defensively sold though.

[five time]

Would you not recommend Marcelo then Yev? I'm currently in the process of liquidating the shit in my club and I should be able to afford him. The stats are insane on paper and a lot of people have been playing him in midfield with good results, not sure if he's a bit wasted at left back.

Other option is to rush through the Baresi SBC and throw him into Rivaldo. Would allow me to play Zlatan on 10 chemistry also.

Annoyingly EA seem to have put a limit on selling players. I keep getting 30 minute blocks from the transfer market and all I'm doing is selling non rare golds for 600-700 a time.

[Yevrah]

Marcelo's very good obviously, but he genuinely doesn't feel much better than Dani Alves and there was a 1m coin difference in cost between the two and I think I preferred 3IF Lala and Dani Alves to him.

What I would say is don't touch Rivaldo, his 2 star weak foot makes him unusable. Sure he'll shine against anyone you should beat, but against anyone where it's tight or they're the better player he'll frustrate the fuck out of you.

5-4 now, with a 5-4 win. Kante's helped, but I seem to be conceding so many goals from the following:

Kick off goals. 3 of the 4 in that last match were.
Tackles I win going straight back to the opposition
Being countered from free kicks in the opposition half

So frustrating as I don't know what to do about any of them. Perversely it seems that a product of me scoring loads more goals and being a threat in the final third is to concede loads more due to a combination of the above.

[Danny]

As mentioned above I did De Jong. De Ligts price is falling back down. Big problem is I got on my console for the first time to check it out.

I can’t fit him in without wrecking someone’s chem :face:

[five time]

I genuinely have no idea what to do for free kicks where the angle changes and it's not a shooting opportunity. Feels like if I whip it in the angles are all wrong and if I play it short I get surrounded by players.

This is what I'm looking at now (Zlatan will play CAM in game):

https://i.ibb.co/gtvnyV6/Screenshot-20190119-222327.jpg

Options are:
1. Pick up Marcelo and play Gnabry and Ibra off chem.
2. Get an icon left winger (Nedved or Overmars) and buy a cheap left back.
3. Shift Moore and or Shearer and bring in TOTY Varane also. Benefit of this is that he's not leaving my team all year but spending the best part of 2M on a centre back is rough.

Leaning towards Nedved right now, I'm a sucker for nostalgia.

[Danny]

You could change to a 4-3-3 and have only Ibra off chem but starting him in midfield.

[Yevrah]

5-8 now.

Getting countered so much.

[Yevrah]

Rallied to win the last 3 to go 8-8 and called it a night at that.

Should be able to at least get the three wins to push for Silver 1 and depending on how long that takes I may go for Gold 3.

[Yevrah]

I've just found out that stamina doesn't affect cpu controlled players. i.e. they have full stamina at all times, even after you've been playing constant pressure for 90 minutes.

What in the fuck?

[Yevrah]

Oh and I saw the Ultimate Packs in store had a 5%+ chance to get a Future Star, so another 12k went in.


Packed Mattéo Guendouzi and then...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om79Q8HRg8k&feature=youtu.be

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Bastard.

I got a Ramos from one which meant I was able to buy a clean Trent for 550k.

[Yevrah]

I figure it's a gift from EA in lieu of not giving me a TOTY.

They're both massively overpriced and will be sold.

[Gray Fox]

Damn that purple flare looks nice.

Haven't been able to add to my games played as I had family over today. 25 games left and I'd have to play them all in the day. Might be a case of hitting 11 and then leaving it.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Indeed, the flare has made me want to pack one even more.

[Gray Fox]

If you want packs and to tick off some SBCs in the meantime, FUTBIN has the challenge list filter and you can order by value for coin.

[Yevrah]

I sat there in shock both times really so didn't get to appreciate it fully.

[The Merse]

Trying to work out if there’s any way to get de Jong into a starting XI. At the very least, he’s the supersub of dreams, so I’ll probably do him.

[The Merse]

I've just found out that stamina doesn't affect cpu controlled players. i.e. they have full stamina at all times, even after you've been playing constant pressure for 90 minutes.

What in the fuck?

Bollocks surely. Source? Otherwise how do I clearly burn past players with lesser reasction and pace from 70 mins+?

[Yevrah]

Nepenthez was talking about it on stream.

I'll see what I can find.

[Yevrah]

Fekir from the Fut Stars SBC. My account has obviously been boosted.

[Danny]

Trying to work out if there’s any way to get de Jong into a starting XI. At the very least, he’s the supersub of dreams, so I’ll probably do him.

Same problem. I do have RTTF Tagliafico as an investment so that will help but my central 3 in midfield is FUTMAS KDB, Keane and Pogba

[Yevrah]

I've decided to try the 4-2-3-1 again. Any tips?

[Gray Fox]

Play wide. Don't always cut in.

Most people play their full back unprotected with a winger staying forward. You can use this to test how good they defend.

Pass the ball to your RAM/LAM. If they commit their full back(who should be quite near) they'll try and nip in front of you. Mostly though you'll have a situation where their full back is right behind your guy and you're facing your own goal. Now use a LB + A pass to your full back. Your attacker will now make a run in behind the full back and this is where you tell how they defend. You're giving them one of 3 options.

1. They turn their full back and follow the run back. This usually indicates a good defender. In this case, you now have plenty of room to run up with the ball at the feet of the full back

2. They switch to another player to hound you/cut a passing lane. This is the middle ground. This will let his full back revert to his workrates and instructions. No matter how they're set, an out of position High/low guy(Marcelo, Alves) isn't going to follow that run. However your next pass is being anticipated so pick a safe one and try and work it back over behind the full back.

3. They follow the ball out with their full back to close you down. This is the jackpot and what you want to see. He now has a giant hole on one side of his team and your attacker is running into it. The best way to attack here is to lay it back to your full back first. This gives the illusion you are going to go over the top, which will have him sprinting to try and cut that out. However he'll probably get to you before your attacker is in prime position to be passed to. So the best pass is into your CAM. This works by both taking his full back way out of position and now your attacker is ready for a first time Y pass. Assuming you have a decent CAM(you have FUTMAS De Bruyne so he could barely get any better) he'll have that ball sent in behind and 7/10 you'll be behind his defence. Rare occasions will see the ball too short or too long, but in most cases you're good.

He'll now have to drag a CB out which will leave holes for runners. If you played this to your LAM for example, your CAM, ST and RAM will all be running in only being covered by 2 players. His other CB and his LB.


Option 3 is how I've been beating players on this run, which now extends to 7-0. The last game was against a guy I was dominating, but I hit the post/bar 7 times. Not including the goal I scored just to win 1-0, in todays edition of 'Shit goals wot I scored or saw' : https://xboxdvr.com/gamer/sniper-wolf-tp4/video/67688353

[Yevrah]

Cheers Fox. I'll give it a crack on the morrow.

[SincereTheRebel]

They still haven't changed the fucking position change problem. Its still broken.

[The Merse]

They still haven't changed the fucking position change problem. Its still broken.

Been fine for me in all but one game all year. What specifically are you doing? I thought swapping in a particular order was an issue in that game.

[SincereTheRebel]

Im not doing anything that should cause an issue. If I make a substitution and change player instructions, Kante shouldn't then move to LW. if I press pause and check my formation, Kante is at CDM but if play in-game and check the player rating screen. He is at LW.

It does not appear to happen all the time. it affects me quite often though. I can't change formations in fear it will break. I haven't played probably for weeks but this is my first WL ive entered in that time and im done at silver 1 with a record of 12-6.

[Yevrah]

First game of the day and it's a 4-0 win in a rage quit at half-time to go 9-8.

Mbappe hat-trick and the space in behind was unreal. I was playing someone not great, but the chances I was creating were basically all goals. Only had 6 shots.

[Yevrah]

I've won a penalty shoot-out!!!!!!!!!!

10-8. 5 wins in a row now.

[Yevrah]

Lost a penalty shootout in game 19, but then won a really tight game with an Mbappe steamrolling the defence effort to go 11-9 and get Silver 1. 3 wins from 10 needed to get Gold 3.

I'l obviously go for that and hopefully I can rattle through them reasonably quickly then have a go at that Fut Stars objective.

4-2-3-1 is such a solid formation, but I'm miles from getting it purring offensively like Fox does. As you said though buddy when you're playing someone bad the LB+A to the full back is lethal.

Tempted to unleash loan TOTY Neymar for the last few games of this run, but it does mean fucking about with position cards to preserve 10 chem all round. Albeit I may buy his normal card sooner than I thought due to last night's FUT stars haul.

[The Merse]

Quite keen to work de Ligt in beside Varane. I like him as a player and with a Shadow he looks like another End Game card, but it’s only going to happen with van der Sar and Seedorf in tow, and with that Vinicius on the left so I don’t need Griezmann starting at CM. I’d prefer to wait to liquidate until the La Liga SBC is out as I have it complete, and will sell as opposed to completing it unless it grants me a 90+ quick midfielder, which I can’t see based on the cards we’ve had from the League SBCs so far.

[Yevrah]

3 losses in a row, including one that was offensive, take me to 11-12 and 7 games left to get 3 wins.

With this team I've been an absolute embarrassment this weekend.

[thommo]

9-9 so far and probably a fair reflection on how I've played. A couple of lucky wins combined with a few games where I've felt hard done by, so I feel like it's all evened out.

Made a few alterations to my custom tactics with regards to my attacking build up and I feel like it has worked, I'm creating more chances and it seems as if I always have a spare man for the pass now. Aiming for 14 wins when I am able to get back on this evening.