And we're done! Sort of...
So I started at 6:30pm last night, with 207 packs. This allowed me to cycle through and build a hell of lot more than I ever imagined, finishing on 479 opened packs at 14:00 today, having had 4 hours kip between 7 and 11.
Here are the packs:
So essentially 6.5m+ coins worth.
And what we pulled:
The IF Walkouts were Asenjo and Arthur, with the Walkouts including Mertens (x3), Neuer, Sane, Casemiro, Navas (x2), Pique, Isco, Rakitic, Dybala and some other decent ones as well. But perhaps most importantly, at this stage of the game I didn't pack a useable card. No Pogba, no Suarez, no Hazard etc. Now you could say that's because of the players I already have are too good already, but Neuer and perhaps Sane aside, I don't think (m)any of the players I did pack would go into people's first teams now*. So you're essentially looking at a game with thousand upon thousands of players in it, with a couple of hundred (?) people actually want to use.
So do I regret it? I'd say on balance, no. I could have sold the players I put into the initial packs and I'd be sat here with TOTY Mbappe
and Marcelo now, but with all the players packed what I did get to do was Raul. Obviously I had to put an icon - Rivaldo - into this which was nothing to with this process, but still, it's amazing how all of these players stack up and you can just hammer through them. If I'm willing to sacrifice some untradeable special cards, and I am, I'll also have Ballack later too. So that's why it's not really over yet as there are more packs to come as a result.
The competition
First off, it's fair to say that while people complain about pack weights being shit, there's still a huge amount of overestimation of what you're likely to pack. People were coming into the stream (particularly this morning) and seemed surprised that I hadn't packed a TOTY having opened that many packs. But if you think about it, let's assume all packs are equal (they're not, and it was staggering how shit some of the better packs I started with were) and that I packed one, my hit rate would have been 1/479 = 0.2%.
Now we know that the chances of packing a TOTY from an
Ultimate pack are less than 1%, so the odds of me getting one even from 479 packs are still going to be shit, properly shit. That's just the way it is and EA are very clever with Lighting rounds and limiting the number of Ultimate packs you can open in a row as otherwise we'd have streamers sat there opening 200+ of the things and not getting one. That's 3 grand. Three thousand pounds, not to get a TOTY card that will be worthless in 6 months. Even if the odds are 0.99999% (lol), you'd still need to spend £1,500 to statistically expect to pack one.
But I digress.
If someone wants to have a check over that (as I'm on my feet now) feel free, but otherwise congratulations to
Trance. If you want to PM me your email address I'll work out how to gift the 4,600 FIFA Points to you and may you pack a blue.
Other things
Streaming is odd. I've presented a bit for work and while I don't like that much, speaking in front of 200 people you can see is easier than 12 you can't. Eased into it over the night and had some great bants with a troll who asked me what I could offer over all the other streamers and why he should follow me. I mean, clearly nothing. He and 2 others felt the ban hammer.
On a similar note I've got new found respect for people that do this professionally. Sitting on my sofa for that long, trying to force yet
another duplicate Malcom or William Carvalho into an SBC with a horseshit formation really grated at times and if I had to do all that again tonight and tomorrow I'd absolutely hate FIFA. Sure, people like Nepenthez, Castro etc. are no doubt sorted for life already as a result, but if you think of the shit load of people there must be who're hovering on the cusp of making a living, it's those poor bastards I really feel for, particularly when EA finally get properly called out on this racket. Spending £1,500 on a game that has a shelf life of 9 months should get you everything, not just a(n unclear how good) chance to pack a TOTY and that's before we get onto the gambling side of things.
People were genuinely staggered by my team, which is lopsided at best at the moment. Which brought home to me how many casuals there are that can't/don't want to put the time in therefore can't comprehend how someone could build a team that good. We in TTH live in a bit of a bubble in that regard. Which you may all be aware of, but whether you're me fucking around with this shit, or Merse and Fox hitting up WL most weekend, we're the exception.
Which leads on nicely to my next point, I play this game too much and I don't think that's healthy as I'm clearly addicted - I'm already thinking how I might do something bigger and better next year, which is nuts.
Oh and I did a bit of advertising for TTH with the 10-15 viewers and 21 followers, so expect a deluge of new members chaps.
Thanks for supporting it gents. It was, on the whole, a good laugh.
*People who have played the game for a decent (should that be insane?) amount of time.