These are troubled times for EA SPORTS FIFA. In addition to the possible introduction of crossplay and change of the iconic name, two aspects in particular are in focus: With UFL and GOALS two competitors want to penetrate the market, while at the same time the extensive licensing is crumbling

eSports men and content creators take a stand

But that’s not all: In the community, dissatisfaction seems to have grown over the last few years – interest in FIFA content is waning. Which is why the question arises, what FIFA players hope for FIFA 23 and the central Ultimate Team mode.

Suggestions for improvement are to be found in appropriate forums of course, like sand on the sea. However, even established names of the German FIFA scene have already expressed some wishes – for example Elias ‘EliasN97’ Nerlich.

Reward system in focus

In the incendiary speech about his FIFA 22 exit, the established streamer was particularly critical of the FIFA series’ rewards, which have been viewed skeptically for years: “They’ve done the same thing for three years, even though they knew that many complained about the rewards.” The Weekend League (WL), the premier league in Ultimate Team, has been a particular focus. For “Eligella”, as his viewers call him, this is no longer motivating, he said.

In this regard, Nerlich refers to the Team of the – Season (TOTS), an event at the end of the Gamecycle during which the current special cards are to be drawn in the WL’s rewards: “Why is the TOTS so awesome? Because the TOTS cards are in the Weekend League rewards.” That’s why he wishes to be able to get current Special Cards in the Rewards on an ongoing basis

Quo vadis qualification?

Another problem with the Weekend League for Mike Copertino, manager of eSports organization Mizka eSports is the newly created system of qualification and finals: “I’m not going to sit down for over two hours and play play-offs only to fail to qualify for the third time in a row.” He proposes a kind of Losers’ Bracket, in which non-qualified players play their own WL with mitigated rewards.

A suggestion from the streamer ‘Der Keller’ also turned in an identical direction: “You could split the Weekend League into two parts. In Rivals they also introduced an elite division. There you could collect other points for a particularly strong WL, where you can compete with the crème de la crème.”

In the current format, the rank and file fell by the wayside for him: “What about the rank and file?” That’s another reason he’s “not a fan of the new system,” which had appealed to him more in past spin-offs: “You used to know that if you made it to a certain point in the current week, you’d be back next week.”

Here was for the Twitch streamer a decisive innovation in FIFA 22: “Now it’s so that you play together the qualifying points and then do not even know whether you are on the weekend,” he criticized the uncertainty of the qualification, which is especially for hobby players a high hurdle: “How are they supposed to make it?”

A possible solution he also had ready: “Either you make a Quali, which there was also before, but cancel the Rivals points for it, or you do it like last year and qualify via the Rivals points.”

“The new system is absolute grout”, agreed also colleague ‘Gamerbrother’. At the beginning of the game, he couldn’t understand the lowering of the rewards while at the same time making the qualification more demanding: “The bottom line now is that the Weekend League is more difficult than ever before. But then why take the top 200 rewards out of the WL at the same time?”

In the sense of players who wanted to spend their free time not only in FIFA, for him would be a wider distribution of games: “The perfect innovation would have been to be able to do the ten games that are now qualifiers during the week and have them count towards the total of 30 games. Then you could already do ten Weekend League games during the week. No more, no less.”

‘STYLO’ shows understanding and warns

A crux, which Matthias ‘STYLO’ Hietsch sees beyond that in the Rivals mode, is the missing possibility to descend. Hobby players could frustrate this, which is why he can understand the displeasure of casual gamers: “I understand if casuals are upset about it,” he revealed to us in a conversation after the FIFA 22 release.

In addition to the overriding issues around naming rights, licenses and crossplay, EA SPORTS will also have to measure itself again with FIFA 23 on the central game modes in Ultimate Team. According to STYLO, the developers should respond to the wishes of the community, otherwise an undesirable development threatens: “The interest can be lost quickly”