640: New Patch and Black Friday (Crash)!

[00:00:00] Hello Footies, welcome along to your latest dose of Football Ultimate Team podcasting goodness.

[00:00:05] We are FUT IN REVIEW powered by FootCoaching.com. It is Tuesday the 19th of November around lunchtime.

[00:00:12] As we record this, my name is Dan Wimbish, always known as Wimby. I'm joined for today's show by the scout Nathan Downs.

[00:00:18] Shaq is on his travel so can't join us for our usual Tuesday stroke Wednesday club goodness.

[00:00:23] However, we've got plenty to get into including title update number five.

[00:00:28] We've got one of the most eagerly anticipated promos on the horizon.

[00:00:34] And we're also going to be talking, you know, giving our follow up to last week's topics,

[00:00:37] whether we have seen some green shoots of recovery from EA Sports or whether things are continuing in the wrong direction.

[00:00:46] Thank you as always to all of our Patreon supporters over at patreon.com forward slash FUT IN REVIEW.

[00:00:51] Consider that your digital chip jar plus your access to loads of other great benefits such as the Arts of Foot Show

[00:00:58] and much, much more. But let's get into it. Nathan, my friend, how are you?

[00:01:03] I'm very well, thanks, Dan. It was a nice warm minus six degrees here this morning.

[00:01:08] So those on the video platform can see I'm still wearing my hoodie unashamedly.

[00:01:12] So it's Baltic. It's really flipping cold here.

[00:01:16] So nice to cause you and have a wee chat for the next 45 minutes or so.

[00:01:19] So shame Shaq can't join us because I really do enjoy the three of us being on for Tuesday Club.

[00:01:24] But I'm sure we've got plenty to look on and look forward to and chat about.

[00:01:28] So looking real forward to going.

[00:01:30] Yeah, it'd be like 30 degrees wherever Shaq is.

[00:01:32] So, you know, you don't want that kind of temperature comparison.

[00:01:34] I mean, it's a balmy three degrees here in the south of England as well.

[00:01:37] So, you know, we're not doing too bad down here in the Thames Valley.

[00:01:40] Look, let's get into it. Title update number five.

[00:01:43] I can't believe we're on title update number five already.

[00:01:47] But, Nate, this kind of came a bit out of the blue.

[00:01:49] None of this was really kind of expected.

[00:01:51] Then just all of a sudden, late last night, it kind of emerged on the Trello board.

[00:01:55] And then it was just straight up released.

[00:01:56] So at the time that people are listening to this,

[00:01:59] turns out people have actually had the chance to play a few games with it.

[00:02:03] Have you had a chance to dive on this morning?

[00:02:05] I've played a few games.

[00:02:07] And to be honest, it's the same as the other sort of patches we've had.

[00:02:10] There's not really a noticeable difference just yet.

[00:02:12] I've only played a few squad battles, which you wouldn't notice a lot.

[00:02:17] A couple of rivals.

[00:02:18] And then I've done the objective, the friendly objective that was out last night.

[00:02:23] Blitz through that.

[00:02:24] So nothing major to report, to be honest.

[00:02:28] If they hadn't said there was a patch out,

[00:02:30] I wouldn't really notice there was anything different.

[00:02:32] Yeah, well, let's get into some of the things that they've said that they have changed.

[00:02:36] And I'll run through the updates.

[00:02:37] The only thing that technically comes under gameplay

[00:02:40] and have made the following change is crosses can now result in the ball moderately landing further ahead of the receiver.

[00:02:46] And Nathan, I was a bit confused by this.

[00:02:48] I'm not sure.

[00:02:48] Is this a nerf or is this a buff to crossing?

[00:02:52] Because part of me is like, oh, is this going to make it easier for those lovely whipped crosses that your striker arrives onto?

[00:02:58] Or is this going to make it harder because your crosses are going to be a bit less accurate?

[00:03:01] I mean, what do you think this will do?

[00:03:04] Going by experience over the last six weeks or so of the game, I'm hoping it's a buff to it.

[00:03:11] I think what crosses this year so far hasn't been as prevalent as the end of last year.

[00:03:18] I love a good old-fashioned crossing to the box for a volley or a header.

[00:03:21] So I think crossing has been quite erratic, to be fair, this time.

[00:03:25] It's definitely leading more to the link up and the nice passing or even the cutback goals again.

[00:03:30] So I'm hoping it's an increase and definitely in rush.

[00:03:34] I mean, we played a bit of rush yesterday and the crossing and rush is abysmal, like so bad.

[00:03:40] So hopefully it kind of tweaks that a little bit.

[00:03:42] And I'm not saying make it super OP, but you can cross in real life football

[00:03:46] and they don't always just go 16 foot in the air and wait for it to come down with snow on it

[00:03:51] or go straight to the keeper.

[00:03:52] So hopefully it'll be a little bit of an improvement.

[00:03:56] That's obviously yet to be seen.

[00:03:58] Yeah, I mean, look, you mentioned rush and crosses.

[00:04:00] There is one thing, I'm jumping ahead a little bit,

[00:04:02] but in the address the following issues category,

[00:04:04] it does say sometimes a lob pass could have occurred instead of a requested cross in rush matches.

[00:04:10] Whether that fixes the problem you've just described, I don't know,

[00:04:13] because part of me just thinks it's just a way they want the mode

[00:04:17] and the way the physics just handle crosses because of the smaller pitch and things like that.

[00:04:21] But it remains to be seen.

[00:04:23] So that's what they've done to crossing again.

[00:04:24] We'll probably have much more feedback when we get to these shows later in the week.

[00:04:28] Of course, John will be back with daily updates on where you'll be getting them on Thursday morning.

[00:04:33] And Friday morning.

[00:04:36] And then, of course, you'll have the main show returning with whatever promo we get next on Friday night,

[00:04:41] Saturday morning.

[00:04:42] Again, you get access to the show early if you remember the Patreon.

[00:04:45] So it gives you an extra reason to subscribe there.

[00:04:48] Right, let's move on to the address the following issues section.

[00:04:52] Right.

[00:04:52] These next two have paired up quite nicely.

[00:04:54] The first one is the defensive line could have dropped deeper than intended

[00:04:57] while the attacking team was controlling the ball in the defending team's half.

[00:05:01] And the second one is central and defensive midfielders could have dropped too deep

[00:05:06] when the attacking team entered the defensive team's side of the pitch.

[00:05:10] So, Nathan, on the surface, this does seem to be trying to address the long-held critique of,

[00:05:19] you know, teams dropping too deep, parking the bus.

[00:05:22] This does seem to maybe offer a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel in that regard.

[00:05:27] Yeah, definitely.

[00:05:28] It's been around, especially the socials and the threads of FC that, you know,

[00:05:33] you don't really need to control anybody.

[00:05:34] You can just sit back and it's really hard to break down.

[00:05:37] So I think there has been a tweak.

[00:05:39] That's been one of the more noticeable ones.

[00:05:41] My games have been ridiculously high scoring throughout, even in the friendlies and stuff.

[00:05:46] So I think that this might be a good thing.

[00:05:49] I'm playing a flat 4-4-2.

[00:05:50] It has, though, kind of put it into my mind that maybe I need to go to the 4-4-2 defensive

[00:05:55] just to give that solidarity because my games are ending something ridiculous at times,

[00:05:58] like 7-5 and such.

[00:06:00] So it definitely makes it more enjoyable.

[00:06:02] But for those of you that are kind of used to relying on your centre meds to make things a bit more secure,

[00:06:07] it's definitely got to tweak the approach play so far anyway.

[00:06:11] Yeah, so it's one of those things where, you know, you want it a lot and then you actually get it

[00:06:15] and you're like, oh God, I've got to suddenly do a lot more defending than you used to

[00:06:19] because the long-held critique of this game has been that there's not enough manual defending.

[00:06:24] Manual defending isn't rewarded.

[00:06:25] And I like to think of myself as someone that's quite decent with manual defending.

[00:06:28] But I'm not going to lie.

[00:06:29] I will rely on my CDMs.

[00:06:31] I will drag them back and keep my back 4 intact because that's the most effective way to play this game.

[00:06:36] But I've also got no problem if they're changing it now to make it a bit more open

[00:06:40] because I think I am denied more by the AI defence than my AI defence saves me.

[00:06:47] Does that make sense?

[00:06:49] 100%.

[00:06:49] It's the same old thing where you see a player against you that batters you

[00:06:52] so you think you'll use it and all of a sudden, you know, they turn to Prime Bebe

[00:06:57] instead of being Prime R9.

[00:06:58] So I absolutely get that.

[00:07:00] To be fair, I've seen your defensive work and you're a very good solid defender.

[00:07:05] So my issue is that I get really bored and I go kamikaze and I don't have anyone there to save me,

[00:07:11] which I know is the point of it.

[00:07:12] But it helps me when I'm just getting kind of my attention span goes.

[00:07:16] I see a shiny object and try and chase it down.

[00:07:19] Yes, you are a moth drawn to the flame sometimes.

[00:07:22] Let's move on.

[00:07:24] Sometimes a ground pass could have incorrectly sent the ball behind the intended receiver.

[00:07:28] Now, I posted an example of this just in the Discord a couple of days ago,

[00:07:32] right at the end of one of my games of a player just instead of sending a really simple pass five yards,

[00:07:38] deciding to randomly ping it into danger 20 yards away to a player that was behind him.

[00:07:44] So I wonder if this is that.

[00:07:46] There was also some questions whether actually the power of passes and things like that

[00:07:52] has been greatly altered this year.

[00:07:53] So I'm not going to just simply say that this was happening to me constantly.

[00:07:57] But, Nath, certainly stray passes have been more frequent, at least for me this year.

[00:08:03] No, 100%.

[00:08:04] It seems to be that you'll pick a player to pass to and sometimes it'll go to it

[00:08:10] and other times it goes to a random player, like you say, that's either in danger

[00:08:13] or just not going to help continue your attack or whatever.

[00:08:16] So I find that all the time.

[00:08:17] I look back at my controls and think, no, I'm definitely aiming at the right person.

[00:08:21] So hopefully this addresses it.

[00:08:23] I can't say I've noticed too much change, but hopefully it's going to be because sometimes you play a pass

[00:08:29] and you go, there's no logical reason why the Bulls should go to him or her.

[00:08:35] We're all guilty of convincing ourselves that we played the right pass.

[00:08:38] But actually, if you went back on it, a lot of the time, especially in previous games,

[00:08:41] you'd be like, OK, I could see how the game maybe did that.

[00:08:44] This one has just felt just too many instances of I've definitely not aimed there

[00:08:50] and it's a simple pass that's gone astray.

[00:08:53] So hopefully this is what this one clears up.

[00:08:58] Next, tackling inputs did not always register in locked to player modes.

[00:09:02] And then we've got a few things on goalkeeping.

[00:09:05] And I think this is going to divide opinion.

[00:09:07] It's already caused a few discussions in the Discord.

[00:09:10] I'll read through these four ones and then we can talk about them in detail.

[00:09:14] Rare instances, goalkeepers could have jumped significantly higher than intended.

[00:09:18] Improved goalkeeper decision making when attempting to make saves as the ball crosses the goal line.

[00:09:25] Improved goalkeeper positioning when attempting to save short distance shots.

[00:09:31] And goalkeepers could have sometimes not attempted to make a save against powerful long distance shots.

[00:09:39] Now, Nate, I think we can both agree that goalkeepers jumping too high

[00:09:42] is something that you'd want to see fixed.

[00:09:46] Moving on to the decision maker and attempting to make saves as the ball cross the goal line.

[00:09:50] I've seen some really wacky ones this year.

[00:09:53] So again, I'm not too upset about that.

[00:09:55] You?

[00:09:55] No, not at all.

[00:09:56] I think the more realistic you can get it, the better.

[00:10:00] But it's these two that I think will cause a little bit of controversy.

[00:10:04] And again, we need to see how it plays out.

[00:10:05] But for me, especially this third one, improved goalkeeper positioning when attempting to save short distance shots.

[00:10:12] I think the goalkeepers are already too well positioned from short range shots.

[00:10:17] I think they already save probably more than they need to.

[00:10:20] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:10:21] Unless you're getting the ball at an angle and even if you don't have the finesse straight,

[00:10:24] trying to finesse it in, it's a lot harder to score sort of closer distance.

[00:10:27] So although I've noticed an increase of people kind of almost tapping the shoot button and it trickling over the line.

[00:10:33] So maybe it's addressing that because sometimes you look at a shot going,

[00:10:37] that's not going to be, I know it's a video game, but it wouldn't be a professional goalkeeper, something like that.

[00:10:41] So I'm hoping it's just a tiny tweak to kind of make you kind of almost have to finish the shot rather than just look on a lucky mechanic.

[00:10:49] Yeah, that's my hope as well.

[00:10:51] And this one on long distance shots.

[00:10:53] Again, it's been kind of speculated.

[00:10:54] Does this relate just to power shots?

[00:10:57] Is it, you know, just a regular drill from outside the box?

[00:11:01] I mean, your thoughts on the long distance.

[00:11:03] I think it's going to see an increase in finesse between that and the first one where they, you know,

[00:11:10] they stopped them jumping too high from shots.

[00:11:13] I think this is going to put the onus back on finesse shots.

[00:11:16] It reads to me like they're going to nerf power shots because driven shots on the edge don't really seem to have many issues.

[00:11:22] Really, you get the odd one that you hit sweetly, which you're going to get regardless.

[00:11:25] But I think this is to try and sort of decrease the effectiveness of these power shots.

[00:11:32] Yeah, I do wonder whether there will be a boost or a nerf to finesse shots because in my head,

[00:11:38] I can sort of imagine several scenarios where my goalkeeper is almost just kind of shuffled along alongside the ball when it's been a long finesse goal and not made the dive.

[00:11:46] So I wonder whether it might be for stuff like that.

[00:11:50] But then does the finesse count as a powerful shot?

[00:11:53] Probably not.

[00:11:53] So we will see.

[00:11:55] Headers were sometimes significantly less accurate than intended.

[00:11:58] I agree with this one.

[00:12:00] The amount of headers from quarters and stuff that go well wide is not good enough for me.

[00:12:06] Ground passes performed during free kicks were not always directed towards the intended receiver.

[00:12:09] Yet in some instances, lob passes were less accurate than intended.

[00:12:13] I think a lot of people would argue, Nathan, that lob passes are too accurate already.

[00:12:17] Yeah, well, it depends.

[00:12:18] If you've got a long, the whipped cross one or the long passing, they're super accurate and really effective.

[00:12:26] So it'll be interesting to see if it's going to nerf like just your standard long balls

[00:12:31] or if you have to have a certain trait to kind of open the play up a little bit more.

[00:12:35] But that one I'm not too worried about because if you're fairly solid in your shape, it's not the worst thing in the world.

[00:12:41] But I also quite like playing long passes wide.

[00:12:44] So I'm quite intrigued by this one to see how it plays out.

[00:12:48] Yeah, improved ball physics in certain contested shooting and clearance scenarios.

[00:12:51] I've seen far too many instances of the ball disappearing off at 200 miles an hour from that.

[00:12:58] So I'm glad on that one.

[00:13:01] Players could have lost the ball easier than intended while being contested during a skill move.

[00:13:07] I've seen, again, lots of people complain about this one.

[00:13:08] The fact that they're feeling like skills just never seem to work.

[00:13:13] So again, I think this one's a positive.

[00:13:15] Yeah, I've cut out skilling for my game.

[00:13:17] There's not so many whoo-hoos when I'm playing anymore and more like, damn it.

[00:13:21] So hopefully, you know, I don't want it to be that the ball sticks to them and every skill move comes off.

[00:13:25] But even like the Elasticos, like last year, if you did it at the right time,

[00:13:29] you knew when you were going to kind of come away with the ball.

[00:13:31] And this year, step over as Elasticos have been really struggling.

[00:13:34] The only good one's been like the fake shot ball roll that you get with the trickster.

[00:13:39] I think it's just a standard trickster play style.

[00:13:41] But that's the only one that I think has been super reliable.

[00:13:45] The rest of them don't seem to be as good as they have been in recent years.

[00:13:49] Yeah, then roll on to a few sort of kind of that are going to be lesser important.

[00:13:53] Improved referee logic, make advantage calls in rush matches.

[00:13:57] In rare scenarios, incorrect injury animations were occurring.

[00:14:00] Improved goalkeeper logic in rush matches when clearing the ball.

[00:14:04] The one I mentioned earlier, sometimes lob passes could have occurred instead of a cross in rush.

[00:14:08] In rare cases, a buzzer beating goal from a corner did not count.

[00:14:13] Requested skill moves were sometimes not performed when requesting near the touchline.

[00:14:16] I don't know if that's just for rush or overall gameplay.

[00:14:19] This one, again, feels like burying the lead a little bit.

[00:14:24] Addressed instances of player switching not functioning as intended.

[00:14:27] I think we've all had our beefs with player switching.

[00:14:29] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:14:31] But I think with the amount of mechanics animations in the game,

[00:14:35] I don't think this will ever be perfect, to be honest.

[00:14:37] I think this is one of those things that it's going to switch to, you know,

[00:14:40] the wrong person occasionally anyway.

[00:14:42] But if they can improve it as best they can, then I'm really happy with that.

[00:14:46] Yeah.

[00:14:47] The thing with all of these is you, and I've said this before,

[00:14:51] they used to occasionally do in that Friday web show.

[00:14:54] What was that Friday web show they used to have?

[00:14:57] What was that called?

[00:14:58] Not goals, was it?

[00:14:58] It was the one that was on a half five at YouTube, wasn't it?

[00:15:00] Yeah.

[00:15:01] I can't remember what the show was,

[00:15:02] but they used to have occasionally like have devs on whatever showing actual practical examples.

[00:15:08] And even in some patch notes in the past, they've had practical examples.

[00:15:10] I would love for these to be properly explained.

[00:15:13] Like it's one thing for us to be sitting here, you know, theorizing on stuff.

[00:15:18] For like the crossing, for example,

[00:15:20] why have you not got a game dev putting an example of,

[00:15:23] oh, well, here's an example of how it would be before.

[00:15:26] Here's what's going since.

[00:15:26] And it's the same with a lot of these things.

[00:15:28] Like if you've made the change, explain them for people.

[00:15:32] Don't leave it as a kind of a mystery bag for us to find out.

[00:15:35] And just a couple of final ones.

[00:15:37] Improve sub logic to better avoid unnecessary CPU AI substitutions.

[00:15:41] I'm sure you've encountered this in squad battles.

[00:15:43] Just the opponent will just make a random sub on like 28 minutes.

[00:15:46] Yeah.

[00:15:47] If you're, I think it's usually if your three goals are more up,

[00:15:49] then half the team gets hooked really quickly.

[00:15:52] So yeah, I quite like that.

[00:15:53] I hope that the other team's morale goes through the floor.

[00:15:55] And you can just add them even more, you know.

[00:15:58] You're bench, you're not coming back on and you're dropped for the next game.

[00:16:01] Absolutely.

[00:16:02] And reduce instances of unnecessarily suggested early game substitutions.

[00:16:07] So yeah, all good things.

[00:16:09] And then there's a couple of other bits and pieces about stability issues

[00:16:12] during the transfer market and evolution progression.

[00:16:16] Summary UI elements were misaligned apparently.

[00:16:19] And just some other kits and all that jazz.

[00:16:22] The one other change that isn't really part of this patch,

[00:16:24] but I wanted to get your theory on is,

[00:16:27] and this kind of leads us into a little bit of the content

[00:16:29] that John was talking about in the daily show

[00:16:31] that was released early on Tuesday morning for most of you.

[00:16:36] There was a bug with the player picks

[00:16:38] that they weren't able to be opened on the web and companion apps,

[00:16:43] just the console.

[00:16:44] And then just all of a sudden, again, announced by EA,

[00:16:46] they've completely changed the animation

[00:16:48] and the way you now open a player pick.

[00:16:51] So you now have to scroll through.

[00:16:53] It's really difficult to explain.

[00:16:55] You will know it as soon as you do it.

[00:16:56] You have to scroll through each option

[00:16:58] and then pick and confirm your player pick.

[00:17:01] And I saw some people doing this on console

[00:17:03] because they then updated the console version as well.

[00:17:05] It looks painfully slow on console.

[00:17:09] It's one of these things that it's actually really nice

[00:17:11] for the first maybe five player picks you do.

[00:17:14] It kind of builds the suspense.

[00:17:15] You don't get them all up at once.

[00:17:17] You have to, it's almost like you reveal the cards, you know.

[00:17:19] We'll all have seen some of those streamers kind of,

[00:17:22] you know, they block off the player picks or whatever as you go.

[00:17:25] So to begin with, it was really nice.

[00:17:27] But once you kind of do a couple of them,

[00:17:30] you're like, oh, the novel is gone.

[00:17:31] And I just kind of want to see what I've got,

[00:17:34] especially just now,

[00:17:34] because it's always just dupe, dupe, dupe anyway.

[00:17:36] So it'd be quite nice to kind of get the pain over with.

[00:17:40] But I think if you're one of these people

[00:17:41] that just likes a casual player pick,

[00:17:43] it's actually really nice.

[00:17:44] But if you're somebody like ourselves

[00:17:46] that seem to grind quite hard

[00:17:47] and then put quite a lot of player picks on,

[00:17:49] it just seems like they've changed it for changes sake.

[00:17:52] Yeah, as you said, it's going to be really nice

[00:17:53] for when you're doing like an icon pick or a hero pick

[00:17:56] because it helps boost that suspense.

[00:17:58] But when, yeah, you're opening

[00:17:58] and you just got three 78 players to choose from,

[00:18:02] it's just going to be annoying.

[00:18:03] And I feel for the streamers and stuff

[00:18:05] who use those player pick openings as their content,

[00:18:08] because that's going to really slow them down as well.

[00:18:11] So look, I'm glad they fixed the issue.

[00:18:13] It was a joke.

[00:18:14] This went back to Rivals Rewards, I think last week.

[00:18:17] People were just suddenly unable to open picks

[00:18:21] on the Companion and Web App.

[00:18:22] And of course, if you're away from your console,

[00:18:24] the only way to correct it

[00:18:26] was to go back on your console.

[00:18:27] But if you were away

[00:18:28] and you just have this player pick just sat there,

[00:18:31] you couldn't open any other packs.

[00:18:32] You couldn't do anything.

[00:18:34] So for people like myself that were trying to menu grind,

[00:18:36] I was like, well, this is really annoying.

[00:18:38] Basically, you've bricked my Companion app

[00:18:41] with the stupid coding.

[00:18:43] And again, how do you break something

[00:18:44] that has worked for years?

[00:18:48] Anyway, we ranted it up.

[00:18:50] Well, we had enough fierce

[00:18:51] and strong discussions last week.

[00:18:54] We did, we did.

[00:18:55] Like I say, it's quite nice short term,

[00:18:57] but I think it's one of these

[00:18:58] that's going to get old really, really quickly.

[00:19:02] Well, referencing last week's show,

[00:19:04] of course, I think we were pretty vocal

[00:19:05] and where we stood on the game

[00:19:06] and our disappointment,

[00:19:08] kind of the direction that EA were taking.

[00:19:10] And I think that continued, to be honest,

[00:19:12] Nate, through most of the weekend.

[00:19:13] I think the content through,

[00:19:14] certainly Saturday was just poor,

[00:19:17] was the EA were doing nothing to liven it up.

[00:19:20] They've gone some, I will give them credit,

[00:19:23] they've gone some of the way

[00:19:24] to making things a little bit easier

[00:19:27] and a little bit more enjoyable,

[00:19:29] certainly on the menu front,

[00:19:30] because we did have player picks,

[00:19:32] as just mentioned,

[00:19:33] that were released last night on Monday.

[00:19:35] We had a quasi-league SBC out

[00:19:37] with the, you know,

[00:19:38] the France challenge as well,

[00:19:40] which again, there's someone

[00:19:41] that's a menu grinder like myself,

[00:19:42] that is absolutely up my street,

[00:19:44] enables things like the bronze pack method

[00:19:46] and stuff to begin to be more profitable

[00:19:47] and generally good.

[00:19:49] But the downside again, Nate,

[00:19:51] that people have always, you know,

[00:19:52] keep going back to,

[00:19:53] and Appenthesus is a particularly vocal critic

[00:19:55] of this is where are you getting the fodder

[00:19:58] to do all these things?

[00:20:00] It feels again, cynical from EA

[00:20:02] to have released three separate grinds

[00:20:04] at a time when there's not actually

[00:20:07] that many good ways

[00:20:08] to just get these basic gold common cards.

[00:20:11] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:20:11] When you look at the rewards

[00:20:13] for pretty much everything,

[00:20:15] it's all like rare player packs

[00:20:16] or, you know, 75 plus rare player.

[00:20:19] So there's not a lot,

[00:20:21] there's the odd gold pack

[00:20:22] or premium gold pack,

[00:20:23] but that's really minimal.

[00:20:24] So it doesn't see you through

[00:20:26] unless, you know,

[00:20:28] the cynic and me and, you know,

[00:20:29] you and Shaq have kind of discussed this as well,

[00:20:32] but the cynic is go to the store

[00:20:34] and get your provision packs

[00:20:35] for X amount of coins or EA points.

[00:20:39] So I managed to do the French one.

[00:20:43] I think I spent 5K on one player

[00:20:45] and that was it.

[00:20:46] So that was fine,

[00:20:47] but wouldn't be able to cycle through it again.

[00:20:49] It's quite nice.

[00:20:50] I mean, I know it's been touched on before,

[00:20:51] but I still think the tail one's a really strange grind

[00:20:55] because the card itself,

[00:20:57] it's only 85.

[00:20:57] It looks really good,

[00:20:58] but I still can't get my head around

[00:21:00] why you're doing league on league SBCs

[00:21:04] and then you get a Bundesliga card.

[00:21:05] Like I said,

[00:21:06] I know it's been touched on,

[00:21:07] but I unlocked it yesterday.

[00:21:08] I think we were chatting away in the Discord.

[00:21:11] I still can't get my head around that at all,

[00:21:13] apart from the fact it's a French player,

[00:21:14] but it's just weird.

[00:21:16] Yeah.

[00:21:17] Again,

[00:21:17] just the whole kind of lack of quality control

[00:21:20] and thought that just kind of blights these things.

[00:21:23] And like you say,

[00:21:25] you can't go to any other place

[00:21:28] other than it is EA wanting to drive people to the store

[00:21:31] because otherwise they have levers they can pull with,

[00:21:34] you know,

[00:21:34] even if it's a premium bronze

[00:21:35] and a premium silver upgrade

[00:21:37] or a 75 by five upgrade

[00:21:39] and things like that,

[00:21:40] well,

[00:21:41] the exchanges,

[00:21:41] they could bring all of these things back,

[00:21:43] but clearly they want to hold the reins

[00:21:47] and keep people back from accessing all this fodder

[00:21:49] and from doing,

[00:21:50] you know,

[00:21:51] an unlimited grind,

[00:21:52] which again,

[00:21:53] as we say repeatedly,

[00:21:54] we understand they're a business,

[00:21:55] they want to make money,

[00:21:56] but they have leaned too often this year

[00:21:59] in the camp of,

[00:22:00] we'll be on the side of stingy

[00:22:02] rather than on the side of,

[00:22:05] you know,

[00:22:05] we'll let people have a little bit of fun.

[00:22:06] As I said last week,

[00:22:08] over and over again,

[00:22:08] they could have their cake

[00:22:09] and eat it in this situation,

[00:22:11] but they're choosing at the moment

[00:22:12] to very much not to.

[00:22:14] And look,

[00:22:15] the criticisms have continued

[00:22:16] on the gameplay,

[00:22:17] whether this patch title update five

[00:22:19] changes it,

[00:22:20] but again,

[00:22:20] one of the more notable members

[00:22:22] of the community,

[00:22:23] Boris,

[00:22:24] he posted,

[00:22:25] no patch can save FC 25.

[00:22:27] It's doomed.

[00:22:28] Many notice big issues at the beginning

[00:22:30] and these issues remain until the end.

[00:22:32] It's clearly a performance issue

[00:22:33] on consoles

[00:22:34] where there are way too many animations

[00:22:36] for 60 frames per second to handle.

[00:22:37] It results in the very heavy experience.

[00:22:40] Unless FC 26 runs on 120 FPS,

[00:22:43] next year will be the same,

[00:22:44] if not worse.

[00:22:45] The only way to play FC 25

[00:22:47] in a somewhat successful way

[00:22:48] is to be completely abusing

[00:22:50] broken mechanics.

[00:22:51] The beautiful game is gone.

[00:22:53] Now,

[00:22:53] Nathan,

[00:22:54] you have the advantage

[00:22:54] you actually play on PC

[00:22:55] with that slightly higher frame rate.

[00:22:59] And others have sort of said

[00:23:00] that,

[00:23:00] you know,

[00:23:00] PC is that bit of a safe haven.

[00:23:02] Have you been able to compare,

[00:23:03] you know,

[00:23:04] PC?

[00:23:04] Have you been able to go

[00:23:05] and play on any consoles?

[00:23:07] No,

[00:23:07] I've never played it on consoles

[00:23:08] and I actually tweaked my settings

[00:23:10] yesterday.

[00:23:11] I think Crassie released,

[00:23:13] you know,

[00:23:13] this is the best way

[00:23:15] to have a mix of performance

[00:23:17] and graphics,

[00:23:18] which is obviously more performance-based,

[00:23:21] but it was actually really good.

[00:23:22] So my game now actually feels

[00:23:24] really,

[00:23:24] really silky smooth.

[00:23:25] So,

[00:23:26] I've said along,

[00:23:27] I can't really gripe

[00:23:28] about the actual gameplay as much.

[00:23:30] There's bits in it

[00:23:31] that I dislike,

[00:23:32] obviously,

[00:23:32] the same with any game,

[00:23:33] but I've not had

[00:23:35] the same frustrations

[00:23:36] as, say,

[00:23:36] yourself and Shaq have had with it.

[00:23:38] So I do feel a little bit

[00:23:39] on my high horse sitting here

[00:23:40] saying,

[00:23:41] like,

[00:23:41] no,

[00:23:41] it's fine,

[00:23:41] but it genuinely is.

[00:23:43] Like,

[00:23:43] PC has been really good,

[00:23:45] so I can't really,

[00:23:46] you know,

[00:23:47] put it down too much for that.

[00:23:48] It's more just the generic

[00:23:50] actual gameplay features

[00:23:51] rather than the running of it

[00:23:52] that's been an issue for me.

[00:23:54] Yeah,

[00:23:55] and maybe I'm not as deep into

[00:23:57] and sophisticated

[00:23:58] in noticing

[00:23:59] what is causing the issues,

[00:24:00] but look,

[00:24:01] I find it very hard

[00:24:03] to sit here

[00:24:04] and strongly disagree

[00:24:05] with people so experienced

[00:24:06] and it's not just one.

[00:24:07] This is the thing

[00:24:08] we were saying last week.

[00:24:09] It's not just one voice

[00:24:10] saying this

[00:24:10] or,

[00:24:11] you know,

[00:24:11] a couple of,

[00:24:12] you know,

[00:24:13] the usual suspects

[00:24:13] that will always kind of moan

[00:24:15] and,

[00:24:15] you know,

[00:24:16] might be doing it

[00:24:16] to get a few clicks and stuff.

[00:24:17] This is an almost universal

[00:24:20] critique from

[00:24:22] well-respected,

[00:24:23] well-viewed

[00:24:24] content creators

[00:24:25] and from casuals as well

[00:24:27] that there is something

[00:24:28] fundamentally not quite right

[00:24:30] in this game.

[00:24:31] Now,

[00:24:31] whether Boris is right

[00:24:32] and this is something

[00:24:33] that's unpatchable

[00:24:34] and it's just a fundamental

[00:24:35] way the game is built,

[00:24:37] that does remain to be seen.

[00:24:39] I'm hopeful

[00:24:40] that they can keep

[00:24:41] tweaking things

[00:24:41] to get it into a more

[00:24:42] usable state,

[00:24:43] but I do kind of agree.

[00:24:44] I think this whole

[00:24:45] just adding about it

[00:24:46] and every year,

[00:24:47] don't we get it?

[00:24:48] It's always Hypermotion 6,

[00:24:49] Hypermotion 2,

[00:24:50] Hypermotion whatever.

[00:24:51] We've added a thousand

[00:24:53] new animations.

[00:24:54] It's like,

[00:24:54] well,

[00:24:54] nobody are.

[00:24:55] Was anybody sitting there?

[00:24:56] Does anyone sit there

[00:24:57] in their living room

[00:24:57] going,

[00:24:58] you know what?

[00:25:00] I'm going to stop

[00:25:01] playing this game

[00:25:02] because my defender's

[00:25:03] not doing the little

[00:25:04] pull his hamstring

[00:25:06] warm-up animation

[00:25:07] midway through the game

[00:25:08] or,

[00:25:09] you know,

[00:25:09] they've not trussled

[00:25:10] their hair

[00:25:11] as they've gone

[00:25:12] past the person,

[00:25:13] you know,

[00:25:13] just stupid things

[00:25:14] like that.

[00:25:15] It's,

[00:25:15] I go back to the

[00:25:16] Pro Evolution Soccer

[00:25:17] example.

[00:25:18] People loved Pez

[00:25:20] back in the day

[00:25:20] and it,

[00:25:21] they loved it

[00:25:22] even though

[00:25:23] it didn't have

[00:25:24] licenses.

[00:25:25] You had a handful

[00:25:26] of licensed teams.

[00:25:27] Of course,

[00:25:27] the graphics

[00:25:27] was the PS2 era

[00:25:29] but that didn't

[00:25:30] matter because

[00:25:31] the gameplay

[00:25:31] was so good.

[00:25:32] So why,

[00:25:33] it feels to me

[00:25:35] that they're just

[00:25:35] fluffing up stuff

[00:25:37] to make it appear

[00:25:38] new and great

[00:25:39] and give you a reason

[00:25:40] to buy it

[00:25:40] whereas actually

[00:25:41] because as we've

[00:25:42] talked about so many

[00:25:43] times,

[00:25:43] the code is so,

[00:25:44] you know,

[00:25:46] spaghettified

[00:25:46] and written on top

[00:25:47] of,

[00:25:47] written on top

[00:25:47] of,

[00:25:48] written on top

[00:25:48] of,

[00:25:49] that it just now

[00:25:50] seems to be getting

[00:25:51] to the point where

[00:25:51] they're breaking

[00:25:51] more than they're

[00:25:52] fixing.

[00:25:53] Yeah,

[00:25:53] absolutely.

[00:25:54] I think when you're

[00:25:55] charging,

[00:25:55] you know,

[00:25:56] 90 pounds for a game,

[00:25:57] you've kind of got to

[00:25:58] spin it that you're

[00:25:59] doing X,

[00:26:00] Y,

[00:26:00] and Z and

[00:26:00] high promotion

[00:26:02] sounds tremendous.

[00:26:03] It sounds like,

[00:26:03] oh,

[00:26:03] this is going to be

[00:26:04] amazing but

[00:26:04] in reality,

[00:26:05] it's not.

[00:26:06] You know,

[00:26:07] you've seen other games,

[00:26:08] PES has taken time

[00:26:09] off and come back,

[00:26:10] maybe not stronger

[00:26:11] but it's come back.

[00:26:13] WWE,

[00:26:13] the games,

[00:26:14] took a whole year off

[00:26:15] because they said the

[00:26:16] game wasn't great.

[00:26:16] We've seen Football

[00:26:17] Manager now

[00:26:18] miss a year

[00:26:19] or maybe not

[00:26:20] miss a year

[00:26:21] but delay

[00:26:21] for quite a

[00:26:22] substantial period

[00:26:23] of time.

[00:26:24] EA aren't going

[00:26:24] to do that.

[00:26:25] They're on a cash cow

[00:26:26] so it's not like

[00:26:27] they've got that

[00:26:28] sort of thought

[00:26:29] in their head

[00:26:29] that,

[00:26:29] you know,

[00:26:30] we're not going

[00:26:30] to do EA 26,

[00:26:33] FC 26.

[00:26:34] They're going to do

[00:26:34] FC 25.5

[00:26:36] and,

[00:26:37] you know,

[00:26:37] have an update.

[00:26:37] Like,

[00:26:38] they're not going

[00:26:38] to do that

[00:26:38] because you see

[00:26:39] by the figures

[00:26:40] they're still getting

[00:26:40] a ridiculous amount

[00:26:42] of money

[00:26:42] and so I don't

[00:26:43] think it's going

[00:26:43] to really do

[00:26:44] anything unless people

[00:26:45] stop playing

[00:26:45] but at the same

[00:26:46] time you've got

[00:26:47] people like myself

[00:26:48] that still enjoys

[00:26:49] playing so,

[00:26:51] you know,

[00:26:51] I'm not going

[00:26:52] to stop playing

[00:26:52] because it's not

[00:26:53] great on console

[00:26:54] because it's still

[00:26:55] decent on PC.

[00:26:56] Do you know what

[00:26:56] I mean?

[00:26:56] So I think

[00:26:57] they're in,

[00:26:58] I'll say it's a

[00:26:59] difficult spot.

[00:27:00] It's not difficult

[00:27:00] for them because

[00:27:01] they're just going

[00:27:01] to keep doing

[00:27:01] what they're doing

[00:27:02] but the player base

[00:27:03] itself has kind

[00:27:04] of thoughts

[00:27:05] and,

[00:27:05] you know,

[00:27:06] decisions

[00:27:06] and we've seen

[00:27:07] there's more

[00:27:07] football games being

[00:27:08] released soon

[00:27:10] I think.

[00:27:11] Yeah,

[00:27:12] UFO was out

[00:27:12] I think a week

[00:27:13] Friday I think.

[00:27:15] There we go.

[00:27:15] So it remains to be

[00:27:17] seen how that's

[00:27:18] going to affect it.

[00:27:20] You know,

[00:27:20] I can imagine

[00:27:21] it's going to have

[00:27:21] some people sort of

[00:27:22] go into that for a

[00:27:23] few weeks and probably

[00:27:24] coming back to FC

[00:27:25] is my educated guess

[00:27:26] but things like that

[00:27:28] could only be a good

[00:27:29] thing for FIFA

[00:27:30] in terms of EA

[00:27:32] in terms of,

[00:27:32] you know,

[00:27:33] wake up guys,

[00:27:34] we've lost a lot

[00:27:34] of players,

[00:27:35] let's actually pull

[00:27:36] our fingers out

[00:27:37] and do something here.

[00:27:38] Yeah,

[00:27:39] and look,

[00:27:39] that leads us nicely

[00:27:40] into,

[00:27:41] you know,

[00:27:41] on the more

[00:27:41] positive side of

[00:27:42] things,

[00:27:42] we are coming up

[00:27:43] to probably

[00:27:44] what is,

[00:27:45] you know,

[00:27:46] this promo

[00:27:46] is so anticipated

[00:27:48] now,

[00:27:48] it's almost in danger

[00:27:49] of not being able

[00:27:50] to live up to

[00:27:50] its own height

[00:27:51] because

[00:27:52] Thunderstruck

[00:27:53] does seem to be

[00:27:54] on the way,

[00:27:54] the leaks are out

[00:27:55] there,

[00:27:55] we're not spoiling

[00:27:56] too much,

[00:27:57] I don't think,

[00:27:57] you know,

[00:27:57] Thunderstruck came out

[00:27:58] around Black Friday

[00:27:59] last year,

[00:27:59] and it was one of

[00:28:00] the most well,

[00:28:01] if not the most

[00:28:02] well-received promo

[00:28:04] in the entire

[00:28:05] of the FC24 cycle,

[00:28:06] so,

[00:28:06] you know,

[00:28:07] people have been

[00:28:07] clinging on to

[00:28:08] the hope

[00:28:09] that,

[00:28:09] you know,

[00:28:10] in FC25,

[00:28:11] Thunderstruck,

[00:28:12] that's Black Friday,

[00:28:12] whatever they brought

[00:28:13] around that time,

[00:28:14] would similarly

[00:28:15] kind of save

[00:28:15] and rejuvenate,

[00:28:16] certainly on the

[00:28:17] menu side of things.

[00:28:18] For those of you

[00:28:19] that weren't around

[00:28:19] last year,

[00:28:20] Thunderstruck

[00:28:21] provided a promo team,

[00:28:22] there was a

[00:28:23] best of impacts,

[00:28:24] there was a

[00:28:25] whole new set

[00:28:25] of icons,

[00:28:26] well,

[00:28:26] we had a lot

[00:28:27] of good SBCs out,

[00:28:28] and just the,

[00:28:29] most importantly,

[00:28:30] the pack weight,

[00:28:31] Nath,

[00:28:31] just seemed to be

[00:28:31] better,

[00:28:32] these cards

[00:28:32] seemed packable,

[00:28:33] I was like

[00:28:34] packing an MTT

[00:28:36] every three or four

[00:28:36] packs it felt like,

[00:28:38] or was it

[00:28:39] Kieran Tierney,

[00:28:40] I think,

[00:28:40] had one of the

[00:28:40] lower rated cards

[00:28:41] as well.

[00:28:42] I'm not saying

[00:28:43] everyone was getting

[00:28:43] the top ones,

[00:28:44] but everyone was

[00:28:45] seemingly getting

[00:28:46] at least,

[00:28:47] you know,

[00:28:47] some of the lower

[00:28:48] ones on a regular

[00:28:48] basis,

[00:28:49] and the menu

[00:28:50] content was

[00:28:50] banging with

[00:28:51] upgrades and SBCs

[00:28:53] and packs

[00:28:53] and things like that,

[00:28:54] so it made

[00:28:55] everybody warm

[00:28:55] and fuzzy.

[00:28:56] Are you optimistic

[00:28:57] that we're going to

[00:28:58] get that same

[00:28:59] experience?

[00:29:00] What looks to be

[00:29:01] a week on Friday,

[00:29:02] because that's when

[00:29:02] Black Friday is,

[00:29:04] I think we have

[00:29:05] to be optimistic,

[00:29:06] because I don't

[00:29:07] think content

[00:29:08] could really go

[00:29:08] much lower than

[00:29:09] we've seen so far.

[00:29:12] My SBC storage

[00:29:13] at the moment

[00:29:13] has nothing below

[00:29:14] 84 in it,

[00:29:15] and I've got all

[00:29:16] 100 players filled,

[00:29:17] so I need something

[00:29:19] to plough my cards

[00:29:20] into.

[00:29:21] Teams aren't really

[00:29:22] changing too much,

[00:29:23] there's a couple of

[00:29:24] Evos that kind of

[00:29:25] come out and can go

[00:29:25] in, but I think

[00:29:27] it's time, you know,

[00:29:27] we said last week

[00:29:28] about the fact that

[00:29:29] there were a number

[00:29:30] of Icon SBCs out

[00:29:32] already by now,

[00:29:33] the player picks

[00:29:34] obviously came back

[00:29:34] last night,

[00:29:35] which is a nice touch,

[00:29:35] even if it's hard

[00:29:36] to get the cards

[00:29:37] for it,

[00:29:37] but I'm excited for it,

[00:29:39] I'm hoping they drop

[00:29:39] the pack weight,

[00:29:40] I got my first

[00:29:41] promo cards,

[00:29:42] or first decent promo cards.

[00:29:43] Boost the pack weight

[00:29:44] you mean,

[00:29:44] rather than drop it,

[00:29:45] I don't think they

[00:29:45] could drop it anymore.

[00:29:46] I hope they boost it,

[00:29:47] so yeah,

[00:29:47] if they drop it,

[00:29:48] then we're probably

[00:29:49] only going to get

[00:29:49] silver players in

[00:29:51] these gold card packs,

[00:29:52] but no,

[00:29:53] it's got to be better,

[00:29:54] because I think,

[00:29:55] like I said,

[00:29:56] I think they're going

[00:29:56] to start seeing people

[00:29:58] properly switch off,

[00:29:59] and you know,

[00:30:00] I think at the moment

[00:30:00] people are on the fence,

[00:30:01] they're saying,

[00:30:02] oh well,

[00:30:03] you know,

[00:30:03] this isn't great,

[00:30:04] pack weight's rubbish,

[00:30:05] game's rubbish,

[00:30:06] but they're still playing it.

[00:30:06] I think that if you go

[00:30:09] another two,

[00:30:09] three weeks of,

[00:30:10] you know,

[00:30:11] terrible pack weight,

[00:30:12] where maybe,

[00:30:12] like in our Discord,

[00:30:14] I think Ingvi's got

[00:30:15] a really good pull,

[00:30:15] he got Vinicius,

[00:30:16] but we're still not

[00:30:17] really seeing many,

[00:30:18] if any,

[00:30:19] sort of top,

[00:30:19] top players now.

[00:30:20] If we don't start

[00:30:21] seeing that,

[00:30:22] I could imagine you

[00:30:23] lose the players

[00:30:24] that are on the fence,

[00:30:24] and you'll only keep

[00:30:25] the absolute diehards

[00:30:26] that are kind of

[00:30:26] almost addicted to it,

[00:30:28] in a way.

[00:30:29] Yeah,

[00:30:29] with every day that you

[00:30:31] have what people

[00:30:33] would consider,

[00:30:33] and everyone's got

[00:30:34] their own level of

[00:30:35] what they consider

[00:30:36] good content,

[00:30:36] for every day that

[00:30:37] you have content

[00:30:39] that's not great,

[00:30:40] you give someone

[00:30:40] that excuse to go

[00:30:41] and find another game,

[00:30:43] or to go and,

[00:30:43] you know,

[00:30:44] focus on something else

[00:30:45] in their lives,

[00:30:46] and now look,

[00:30:47] me and Shaq were

[00:30:48] talking about this

[00:30:48] the other week,

[00:30:49] maybe that's a good thing,

[00:30:50] you know,

[00:30:50] it's a good thing

[00:30:50] that this game

[00:30:52] hasn't quite got

[00:30:53] the same addictive

[00:30:56] qualities that maybe

[00:30:57] it's had in other years,

[00:30:58] and actually perhaps

[00:30:59] it's quite nice,

[00:31:00] you know,

[00:31:00] I find myself

[00:31:01] on a personal level,

[00:31:02] I find myself

[00:31:02] on the companion app less,

[00:31:04] I'm on footbin less,

[00:31:05] because,

[00:31:06] yeah,

[00:31:06] I don't think

[00:31:07] there's that many

[00:31:07] upgrades around,

[00:31:09] and I don't think

[00:31:10] the pack luck's there,

[00:31:11] so I'm not grinding,

[00:31:12] there's no SBC

[00:31:13] for me to grind for,

[00:31:14] so I'm not going

[00:31:15] hard on BPM

[00:31:17] or the league SBCs,

[00:31:18] I'm doing them,

[00:31:19] I'm still doing them,

[00:31:20] I'm still engaged,

[00:31:20] I'm still playing

[00:31:21] some games,

[00:31:21] but I'm not quite,

[00:31:22] you know,

[00:31:23] thinking about the game

[00:31:24] as often as I would do,

[00:31:26] so it might be

[00:31:27] considered a good thing,

[00:31:28] but I'm really hopeful,

[00:31:29] like you said,

[00:31:29] it can't get any worse,

[00:31:30] and I think EA

[00:31:31] have got to,

[00:31:32] I mean,

[00:31:33] they will have the metrics,

[00:31:34] certainly from the most

[00:31:36] vocal parts of community,

[00:31:37] interest is dropping off,

[00:31:38] and those vocal parts

[00:31:39] are expressing the views

[00:31:41] of their communities

[00:31:42] as well,

[00:31:42] so they do have a reach

[00:31:43] beyond,

[00:31:44] it's not just,

[00:31:45] oh,

[00:31:46] Nick is annoyed,

[00:31:47] Boras is annoyed,

[00:31:48] Nep is annoyed,

[00:31:48] you know,

[00:31:49] they are seeing the opinions

[00:31:51] of their viewers as well,

[00:31:52] so they are kind of

[00:31:53] conveying them as well,

[00:31:54] so I think it's very hard

[00:31:56] to argue against

[00:31:58] the fact that this game

[00:31:58] has seen a dip,

[00:32:00] again,

[00:32:00] you can look at all

[00:32:01] kind of different metrics

[00:32:03] to get a picture,

[00:32:04] whether it's the overall

[00:32:05] game charts,

[00:32:06] I think another pod

[00:32:07] pointed out the other day

[00:32:08] that FIFA dropped below,

[00:32:10] sorry,

[00:32:11] FC25 had dropped below

[00:32:12] GTA 5 again

[00:32:14] in the charts,

[00:32:15] and,

[00:32:15] you know,

[00:32:16] GTA 5 has been out

[00:32:16] for what,

[00:32:17] 10 years?

[00:32:18] It dropped below that,

[00:32:20] you know,

[00:32:20] you look at the amount

[00:32:20] of live transfers

[00:32:21] in the market,

[00:32:22] it's dropping,

[00:32:23] you look at things

[00:32:23] like Steam charts

[00:32:24] and things like that,

[00:32:26] and year-on-year comparisons,

[00:32:27] it's dropping on that,

[00:32:28] and in Twitch viewership

[00:32:29] it's dropping as well,

[00:32:30] so all of the,

[00:32:32] you know,

[00:32:32] we don't get this

[00:32:33] complete picture,

[00:32:33] and there's mitigating

[00:32:34] factors to all of the

[00:32:35] things I've just said,

[00:32:37] but the overall picture

[00:32:39] and the overall evidence,

[00:32:40] just the general vibe,

[00:32:41] is that this game

[00:32:43] is struggling,

[00:32:45] it's never going to die,

[00:32:47] but it is struggling,

[00:32:48] so I'm hoping

[00:32:49] that with this promo

[00:32:50] around the corner,

[00:32:51] you know,

[00:32:51] things can be good,

[00:32:52] but the negative

[00:32:54] of Black Friday promo

[00:32:55] of Thunderstruck,

[00:32:56] Nath,

[00:32:57] is that unfortunately

[00:32:58] it does send

[00:32:59] the transfer market

[00:33:00] into a tailspin,

[00:33:01] and unfortunately

[00:33:02] if you've kind of been away

[00:33:03] for a couple of days,

[00:33:04] you might well have come back

[00:33:05] and noticed that your team

[00:33:07] value has taken

[00:33:08] kind of a bit of a hit,

[00:33:10] I mean,

[00:33:11] Nath,

[00:33:11] kind of just explain

[00:33:12] in basic terms,

[00:33:13] you know,

[00:33:14] I'm putting you in the

[00:33:14] shack role here,

[00:33:15] I'm putting you on the spot,

[00:33:17] in basic terms,

[00:33:17] why Black Friday

[00:33:19] does this to teams.

[00:33:21] Yeah,

[00:33:21] so Black Friday

[00:33:22] traditionally always

[00:33:23] brings a panic,

[00:33:24] there's a ridiculous

[00:33:25] amount of lightning round,

[00:33:27] so every hour,

[00:33:29] sometimes even quicker,

[00:33:30] there are even more

[00:33:32] promo packs in the store,

[00:33:34] there's Flash SPCs,

[00:33:35] some of them do have,

[00:33:36] you tend to have

[00:33:37] good packs

[00:33:39] at the end of them,

[00:33:40] so better ways

[00:33:41] to get more players,

[00:33:42] if people are opening

[00:33:43] more packs

[00:33:43] through whatever means,

[00:33:44] obviously there's going

[00:33:45] to be more cards

[00:33:46] on the market,

[00:33:46] people will try

[00:33:47] and sell to get out

[00:33:48] when,

[00:33:49] you know,

[00:33:49] potentially pack something,

[00:33:50] the fact there's

[00:33:51] another new promo

[00:33:52] which traditionally

[00:33:53] has good pack weight,

[00:33:54] probably will mean

[00:33:55] that people

[00:33:56] with tradable higher ends,

[00:33:57] maybe not the best,

[00:33:58] you know,

[00:33:59] Mbappe will drop,

[00:33:59] but he's never going

[00:34:00] to drop,

[00:34:00] you know,

[00:34:01] 2 million coins

[00:34:02] or whatever,

[00:34:03] but these type of things

[00:34:04] will impact,

[00:34:05] people will try

[00:34:06] and get rid of the coins

[00:34:07] and stay liquid,

[00:34:08] as you say,

[00:34:09] to try and get that

[00:34:10] so they can either

[00:34:11] pick up other cards

[00:34:12] in the depth

[00:34:13] or potentially get

[00:34:14] these nice new ones

[00:34:15] as well

[00:34:15] when the pack weight's good,

[00:34:17] you know,

[00:34:17] higher pack weight

[00:34:18] overall usually means

[00:34:19] that the older cards

[00:34:21] kind of go down

[00:34:22] because you're more likely

[00:34:22] to pack one of these

[00:34:23] better cards as well

[00:34:25] so,

[00:34:25] I mean,

[00:34:26] it's quite exciting,

[00:34:27] you know,

[00:34:29] I,

[00:34:29] as you guys always laugh

[00:34:30] and joke,

[00:34:31] I'm a dragon

[00:34:32] so I am completely

[00:34:33] untradeable

[00:34:33] with my nearly 2.5 mil

[00:34:36] so I'm sitting pretty,

[00:34:37] I don't have to worry

[00:34:38] about selling,

[00:34:39] I don't have to worry

[00:34:39] about anything really,

[00:34:40] it's just what,

[00:34:42] what,

[00:34:43] what Evo to do

[00:34:44] is my biggest fear

[00:34:45] at the moment

[00:34:45] but Black Friday

[00:34:46] is usually quite good

[00:34:47] and sometimes,

[00:34:48] you know,

[00:34:48] it does go back up

[00:34:49] after Friday,

[00:34:50] Black Friday

[00:34:51] so this is a,

[00:34:53] you know,

[00:34:53] I'm not really a trader

[00:34:54] I know I can't

[00:34:55] proclaim to be that

[00:34:56] but as someone

[00:34:57] who has an interest

[00:34:57] in the market

[00:34:58] there's probably

[00:34:59] going to be

[00:34:59] some nice opportunities

[00:35:00] to pick up cards

[00:35:01] that have completely

[00:35:02] dropped off a cliff

[00:35:02] that you know

[00:35:03] that,

[00:35:04] you know,

[00:35:04] once these lightning rounds

[00:35:05] have finished

[00:35:05] maybe by the end

[00:35:06] of the weekend

[00:35:06] or whatnot

[00:35:07] then there's a chance

[00:35:08] for these to make

[00:35:09] some more coins.

[00:35:10] Yeah,

[00:35:11] there is a bit of a

[00:35:11] snowball of panic

[00:35:12] effect isn't it?

[00:35:13] It's,

[00:35:14] you know,

[00:35:14] let's say people

[00:35:15] will see their cards

[00:35:16] dropping

[00:35:16] so they'll be rushing

[00:35:17] to try and get rid

[00:35:18] of them fearing

[00:35:19] a bigger,

[00:35:19] bigger drop.

[00:35:20] I mean,

[00:35:20] you look at cards

[00:35:21] I mean,

[00:35:21] just take Pateus

[00:35:22] as one example

[00:35:23] you know,

[00:35:24] if you go back

[00:35:24] to Thursday

[00:35:26] she was 241,000

[00:35:28] coins on console

[00:35:28] you look now

[00:35:29] and you can pick

[00:35:30] one up for

[00:35:32] 178,000 coins

[00:35:33] so again,

[00:35:34] dropping

[00:35:36] you know,

[00:35:36] 20 odd percent

[00:35:37] and I think

[00:35:38] that's pretty much

[00:35:38] the same across

[00:35:39] the board

[00:35:39] most of these

[00:35:40] big cards

[00:35:40] are dropping

[00:35:41] kind of 10 to

[00:35:41] 20 percent

[00:35:42] and that is normal

[00:35:43] that happens

[00:35:44] every year

[00:35:45] in the build up

[00:35:45] to Black Friday

[00:35:46] is just something

[00:35:47] that happens

[00:35:48] albeit,

[00:35:49] you know,

[00:35:49] it's funny

[00:35:49] because,

[00:35:50] you know,

[00:35:50] like you mentioned

[00:35:51] the lightning rounds

[00:35:52] used to be the big

[00:35:53] main attraction

[00:35:54] of Black Friday

[00:35:55] used to,

[00:35:56] one year

[00:35:56] you got to buy one

[00:35:57] get one free

[00:35:58] on packs

[00:35:58] so the years

[00:35:59] it was half price

[00:36:00] packs

[00:36:00] and then they moved

[00:36:01] to adjust a

[00:36:01] well,

[00:36:02] there's a volume

[00:36:02] of packs

[00:36:03] you can buy

[00:36:03] and now,

[00:36:04] I mean,

[00:36:05] if you don't need

[00:36:06] Black Friday

[00:36:06] there's 21

[00:36:07] different promo

[00:36:08] packs in the store

[00:36:09] again,

[00:36:09] my favourite

[00:36:10] number from

[00:36:11] last week

[00:36:11] I was 19

[00:36:13] last week

[00:36:14] I was 21

[00:36:14] now

[00:36:15] so,

[00:36:16] you know,

[00:36:17] it's hard to know

[00:36:18] what they can do

[00:36:18] on the pack front

[00:36:19] to really tempt

[00:36:20] people in

[00:36:21] but I'm sure

[00:36:21] we'll see

[00:36:22] some sort of

[00:36:22] bonkers

[00:36:23] half a million

[00:36:23] coin

[00:36:25] hundred

[00:36:25] guaranteed

[00:36:26] players

[00:36:26] with 10

[00:36:27] being 86

[00:36:28] or higher

[00:36:29] or something

[00:36:30] like that

[00:36:30] to,

[00:36:30] you know,

[00:36:32] eke out

[00:36:32] that little bit

[00:36:33] more money

[00:36:33] but yeah,

[00:36:33] Black Friday

[00:36:34] is coming

[00:36:35] my advice

[00:36:36] if you've got

[00:36:36] these cards

[00:36:37] again,

[00:36:38] the harder

[00:36:38] to pack

[00:36:40] out of card

[00:36:40] specials will

[00:36:41] probably do

[00:36:42] better and

[00:36:42] retain their

[00:36:43] value

[00:36:43] like they said

[00:36:43] they might

[00:36:44] have a bounce

[00:36:44] back

[00:36:45] anything gold

[00:36:46] is pretty much

[00:36:47] going to be

[00:36:47] toast

[00:36:48] unfortunately

[00:36:48] and the wild

[00:36:50] card is

[00:36:51] last year

[00:36:51] they released

[00:36:52] they re-released

[00:36:53] some best

[00:36:54] of into packs

[00:36:55] we used to

[00:36:55] that we used

[00:36:56] to always see

[00:36:57] a best of

[00:36:57] team of the

[00:36:57] week

[00:36:58] and then

[00:36:58] they started

[00:36:58] adding it

[00:36:58] into different

[00:37:00] promos

[00:37:01] as well

[00:37:01] so if

[00:37:02] you do

[00:37:02] start to

[00:37:03] see some

[00:37:03] leaks

[00:37:04] you might

[00:37:04] want to

[00:37:05] sell

[00:37:06] you know

[00:37:06] for example

[00:37:07] I've got

[00:37:07] a Cole

[00:37:07] Palmer

[00:37:09] who's already

[00:37:09] dropped a bit

[00:37:10] and I think

[00:37:11] he's down

[00:37:11] to about

[00:37:12] 360,000

[00:37:13] as we sit

[00:37:13] here recording

[00:37:14] this

[00:37:15] if he gets

[00:37:15] re-released

[00:37:16] into packs

[00:37:17] over Black

[00:37:17] Friday

[00:37:18] can easily

[00:37:18] see 100k

[00:37:19] coming off

[00:37:20] that card

[00:37:20] because the

[00:37:21] amount of

[00:37:21] volume of

[00:37:22] packs

[00:37:22] that will

[00:37:22] be opened

[00:37:23] will just

[00:37:23] knock it

[00:37:23] off

[00:37:24] so if I

[00:37:24] see a leak

[00:37:25] of Cole

[00:37:25] Palmer

[00:37:26] going to

[00:37:26] be in

[00:37:26] there

[00:37:26] I will

[00:37:27] sell

[00:37:28] and then

[00:37:28] probably try

[00:37:29] and buy

[00:37:29] back in

[00:37:29] the dip

[00:37:30] but they

[00:37:31] provide good

[00:37:32] opportunities

[00:37:32] as well

[00:37:32] because these

[00:37:33] re-release

[00:37:33] cards

[00:37:34] you know

[00:37:34] in past

[00:37:35] years I

[00:37:35] remember

[00:37:36] Teo Hernandez

[00:37:37] got re-released

[00:37:38] into packs

[00:37:38] around Black

[00:37:39] Friday

[00:37:40] he had a

[00:37:40] team of the

[00:37:41] week version

[00:37:41] it dropped

[00:37:41] dropped

[00:37:42] it was

[00:37:42] packed

[00:37:42] packed

[00:37:43] packed

[00:37:43] and then

[00:37:44] again

[00:37:44] these cards

[00:37:44] go out

[00:37:45] of packs

[00:37:45] again

[00:37:45] and people

[00:37:46] suddenly

[00:37:46] want them

[00:37:46] they don't

[00:37:47] suddenly

[00:37:47] become bad

[00:37:48] cards

[00:37:49] they just

[00:37:49] drop

[00:37:50] because of

[00:37:50] the amount

[00:37:51] of supply

[00:37:51] and they

[00:37:52] drop in

[00:37:52] the panic

[00:37:53] beforehand

[00:37:53] so yeah

[00:37:54] there is

[00:37:54] opportunity

[00:37:55] to go and

[00:37:56] make some

[00:37:56] coins off

[00:37:57] the other

[00:37:57] end as

[00:37:57] well

[00:37:57] so don't

[00:37:58] worry

[00:37:58] too much

[00:37:58] if you

[00:37:59] are seeing

[00:37:59] your cards

[00:38:00] drop in

[00:38:00] value

[00:38:00] especially

[00:38:01] if you're

[00:38:01] getting

[00:38:01] entertainment

[00:38:01] and good

[00:38:02] value

[00:38:02] out of

[00:38:02] them

[00:38:04] I'm sitting

[00:38:04] here with

[00:38:05] several cards

[00:38:05] as we talked

[00:38:06] about last

[00:38:06] week

[00:38:06] I think

[00:38:07] my

[00:38:07] actually

[00:38:07] Cole

[00:38:08] that I

[00:38:08] bought

[00:38:08] for

[00:38:09] 460k

[00:38:09] is now

[00:38:09] down

[00:38:10] to

[00:38:10] about

[00:38:10] 270

[00:38:12] my

[00:38:12] Cole

[00:38:12] Palm

[00:38:12] has

[00:38:13] dropped

[00:38:13] about

[00:38:13] 100k

[00:38:14] so

[00:38:16] I'm

[00:38:16] just

[00:38:16] riding

[00:38:17] it on

[00:38:17] down

[00:38:18] as you

[00:38:19] call it

[00:38:19] Dan

[00:38:19] it's

[00:38:19] your

[00:38:19] loan

[00:38:20] fees

[00:38:20] which is

[00:38:23] a nice

[00:38:23] way to

[00:38:23] do it

[00:38:24] whereas

[00:38:24] I'm

[00:38:25] a

[00:38:25] dragon

[00:38:25] and I'm

[00:38:25] just

[00:38:25] waiting

[00:38:26] for them

[00:38:26] to drop

[00:38:26] that

[00:38:27] ridiculous

[00:38:28] SPC

[00:38:28] at

[00:38:29] Black

[00:38:29] Friday

[00:38:29] where

[00:38:29] if I

[00:38:30] don't

[00:38:30] have

[00:38:30] the

[00:38:40] I'm

[00:38:40] player

[00:38:41] you

[00:38:41] want to

[00:38:42] talk

[00:38:42] about

[00:38:42] for

[00:38:42] player

[00:38:42] and

[00:38:43] review

[00:38:43] this

[00:38:43] week

[00:38:43] there's

[00:38:44] not

[00:38:44] been

[00:38:44] a lot

[00:38:45] of

[00:38:45] change

[00:38:45] to

[00:38:45] my

[00:38:45] team

[00:38:46] there's

[00:38:47] one

[00:38:47] I'm

[00:38:47] in

[00:38:48] the

[00:38:49] process

[00:38:49] of

[00:38:49] doing

[00:38:50] which

[00:38:50] seems

[00:38:53] quite

[00:38:54] nice

[00:38:55] I've

[00:38:56] got

[00:38:56] two

[00:38:56] new

[00:38:57] strikers

[00:38:58] in my

[00:38:58] starting

[00:38:58] line

[00:38:58] up

[00:38:58] I've

[00:38:59] got

[00:38:59] the

[00:38:59] 100

[00:38:59] club

[00:38:59] Alvarez

[00:39:00] and

[00:39:01] I've

[00:39:01] got

[00:39:01] Tell

[00:39:03] from

[00:39:03] the

[00:39:03] league

[00:39:03] SPC

[00:39:04] so

[00:39:04] it's

[00:39:05] probably

[00:39:05] more

[00:39:05] prevalent

[00:39:05] to

[00:39:06] talk

[00:39:06] about

[00:39:06] Tell

[00:39:06] because

[00:39:07] I

[00:39:07] know

[00:39:07] that's

[00:39:07] probably

[00:39:07] one

[00:39:08] that

[00:39:08] people

[00:39:08] may

[00:39:08] be

[00:39:08] sitting

[00:39:09] on

[00:39:09] the

[00:39:09] fence

[00:39:09] for

[00:39:10] so

[00:39:10] I'll

[00:39:10] not

[00:39:11] go

[00:39:11] deep

[00:39:11] into

[00:39:11] stats

[00:39:12] his

[00:39:12] face

[00:39:12] stats

[00:39:12] are

[00:39:12] really

[00:39:13] nice

[00:39:13] for

[00:39:13] a

[00:39:13] striker

[00:39:14] apart from

[00:39:14] I think

[00:39:14] it's

[00:39:14] his reactions

[00:39:15] are slightly

[00:39:16] slow

[00:39:16] the

[00:39:17] power

[00:39:17] shot

[00:39:17] pre-patch

[00:39:18] was

[00:39:19] excellent

[00:39:19] he's

[00:39:20] got

[00:39:20] top

[00:39:20] speed

[00:39:21] top

[00:39:21] pace

[00:39:22] if you

[00:39:22] put

[00:39:22] Hunter

[00:39:22] on

[00:39:22] same

[00:39:22] with

[00:39:22] his

[00:39:23] finish

[00:39:23] in

[00:39:23] like

[00:39:24] I

[00:39:24] said

[00:39:24] the

[00:39:24] power

[00:39:24] shot

[00:39:24] was

[00:39:25] ridiculous

[00:39:25] obviously

[00:39:26] I need

[00:39:26] to

[00:39:26] test

[00:39:27] out

[00:39:27] a bit

[00:39:27] more

[00:39:27] post

[00:39:28] patch

[00:39:28] but

[00:39:28] if

[00:39:29] you

[00:39:29] guys

[00:39:29] need

[00:39:30] a

[00:39:30] Bundes

[00:39:30] striker

[00:39:31] either

[00:39:31] to

[00:39:31] link

[00:39:31] to

[00:39:32] Masala

[00:39:32] or

[00:39:33] Kane

[00:39:33] that's

[00:39:33] currently

[00:39:34] able

[00:39:35] to be

[00:39:36] unlocked

[00:39:37] the BSBC

[00:39:37] or the

[00:39:38] Doniel Magdalene

[00:39:39] from

[00:39:39] level 34

[00:39:41] very

[00:39:42] good

[00:39:42] player

[00:39:43] he's

[00:39:43] got

[00:39:43] I don't

[00:39:44] know how tall

[00:39:44] he is

[00:39:45] I think

[00:39:45] he's

[00:39:45] 6162

[00:39:46] but he's

[00:39:46] actually

[00:39:46] decent in

[00:39:47] the air

[00:39:47] as well

[00:39:48] so I

[00:39:48] lack

[00:39:48] that

[00:39:48] physical

[00:39:49] presence

[00:39:49] all around

[00:39:50] good

[00:39:50] player

[00:39:51] if he was

[00:39:52] on the

[00:39:52] market

[00:39:52] he'd

[00:39:53] definitely

[00:39:53] be

[00:39:54] 100

[00:39:54] to

[00:39:54] 150

[00:39:55] K

[00:39:55] so

[00:39:55] not

[00:39:56] bad

[00:39:56] if

[00:39:57] you've

[00:39:57] got

[00:39:57] the

[00:39:57] place

[00:39:58] to

[00:39:58] do

[00:39:58] the

[00:39:58] upgrade

[00:39:59] grind

[00:39:59] so I

[00:39:59] would

[00:40:00] actually

[00:40:00] recommend

[00:40:00] doing it

[00:40:00] considering

[00:40:01] it took me

[00:40:02] a wee

[00:40:02] minute

[00:40:02] to decide

[00:40:03] that I'm

[00:40:03] going to

[00:40:03] throw myself

[00:40:04] in and

[00:40:04] get him

[00:40:06] I mean

[00:40:06] yeah

[00:40:07] my team

[00:40:07] has barely

[00:40:08] changed

[00:40:08] as well

[00:40:09] over the

[00:40:10] last two

[00:40:10] weeks

[00:40:10] it's

[00:40:11] barely

[00:40:12] evolved

[00:40:12] at all

[00:40:12] why

[00:40:12] we run

[00:40:13] the

[00:40:13] community

[00:40:14] team

[00:40:14] of the

[00:40:14] week

[00:40:15] of course

[00:40:15] over on

[00:40:16] the

[00:40:16] discord

[00:40:16] and

[00:40:16] everyone

[00:40:17] uses

[00:40:17] it

[00:40:17] as a

[00:40:18] way

[00:40:19] to

[00:40:19] keep

[00:40:19] up

[00:40:19] with

[00:40:19] their

[00:40:19] team

[00:40:19] over

[00:40:20] the

[00:40:20] year

[00:40:20] you

[00:40:20] just

[00:40:20] post

[00:40:21] a

[00:40:21] picture

[00:40:21] and I

[00:40:22] looked at

[00:40:22] the team

[00:40:22] that I posted

[00:40:23] two

[00:40:23] three

[00:40:23] weeks

[00:40:42] is

[00:40:43] down

[00:40:43] to

[00:40:44] 640k

[00:40:45] and he's

[00:40:45] just

[00:40:45] an

[00:40:45] absolutely

[00:40:46] fantastic

[00:40:46] defender

[00:40:47] he's

[00:40:47] not

[00:40:48] really

[00:40:48] going to

[00:40:48] get

[00:40:48] any

[00:40:49] more

[00:40:49] upgrades

[00:40:52] I

[00:41:12] up

[00:41:12] I

[00:41:13] think

[00:41:13] he's

[00:41:13] absolutely

[00:41:14] worth

[00:41:15] 640k

[00:41:15] if you

[00:41:16] do have

[00:41:16] that kind

[00:41:17] of budget

[00:41:17] for a

[00:41:18] defender

[00:41:18] can very

[00:41:19] much

[00:41:19] give him

[00:41:19] a

[00:41:19] thumbs

[00:41:20] up

[00:41:20] so

[00:41:20] that

[00:41:20] would

[00:41:20] be

[00:41:21] mine

[00:41:21] the

[00:41:21] player

[00:41:21] I'm

[00:41:21] hoping

[00:41:22] to

[00:41:22] review

[00:41:22] next

[00:41:22] week

[00:41:22] is

[00:41:37] I

[00:41:42] impressed

[00:41:43] with

[00:41:43] him

[00:41:43] considering

[00:41:43] he's

[00:41:44] well

[00:41:44] he was

[00:41:44] about

[00:41:44] 700k

[00:41:45] I

[00:41:45] don't

[00:41:45] know

[00:41:45] what

[00:41:45] he

[00:41:46] is

[00:41:46] today

[00:41:47] unfortunately

[00:41:48] he's

[00:41:48] untradeable

[00:41:49] so I

[00:41:49] can't

[00:41:49] cash

[00:41:50] in

[00:41:50] but

[00:41:51] he's

[00:41:51] decent

[00:41:52] he's

[00:41:52] what

[00:41:52] you'd

[00:41:52] expect

[00:41:52] from

[00:41:53] Van

[00:41:53] Deven

[00:41:53] but

[00:41:53] I

[00:41:53] think

[00:41:54] because

[00:41:54] he's

[00:41:54] not

[00:41:54] that

[00:41:54] big

[00:41:55] bodied

[00:41:55] bruiser

[00:41:56] then

[00:41:56] he's

[00:41:56] not

[00:41:57] quite

[00:41:57] as

[00:41:57] fun

[00:41:57] for

[00:41:58] me

[00:41:58] as

[00:41:58] a

[00:41:58] bat

[00:41:59] run

[00:41:59] down

[00:42:00] to

[00:42:01] 620k

[00:42:01] would

[00:42:02] you

[00:42:02] pay

[00:42:03] that

[00:42:03] no

[00:42:04] I

[00:42:04] think

[00:42:04] if

[00:42:05] you

[00:42:05] say

[00:42:05] he

[00:42:05] was

[00:42:05] about

[00:42:06] 400k

[00:42:06] I'd

[00:42:07] say

[00:42:07] yes

[00:42:07] because

[00:42:07] he's

[00:42:07] miles

[00:42:08] better

[00:42:08] than

[00:42:09] Saliba

[00:42:10] in my

[00:42:10] opinion

[00:42:10] he is

[00:42:11] better

[00:42:11] than

[00:42:11] Rudiger

[00:42:12] he's

[00:42:12] kind of

[00:42:13] on

[00:42:13] par

[00:42:13] with

[00:42:13] Varane

[00:42:13] so

[00:42:14] he's

[00:42:15] not

[00:42:15] dreadful

[00:42:15] I'm

[00:42:15] not

[00:42:16] saying

[00:42:16] he's

[00:42:16] a bad

[00:42:16] card

[00:42:16] but

[00:42:17] I

[00:42:17] very rarely

[00:42:18] would

[00:42:18] pay

[00:42:18] that amount

[00:42:19] for any

[00:42:19] defender

[00:42:20] in all

[00:42:20] honesty

[00:42:21] I don't

[00:42:22] think

[00:42:22] you'd

[00:42:22] pay

[00:42:23] 42k

[00:42:24] for

[00:42:24] a

[00:42:24] defender

[00:42:25] knowing

[00:42:25] you

[00:42:26] yeah

[00:42:26] I'd

[00:42:27] wait

[00:42:27] for

[00:42:27] an

[00:42:27] evo

[00:42:27] and

[00:42:28] put

[00:42:28] him

[00:42:28] I

[00:42:28] was

[00:42:28] going

[00:42:30] to

[00:42:31] say

[00:42:31] you

[00:42:31] struggle

[00:42:32] to

[00:42:32] part

[00:42:32] with

[00:42:33] coins

[00:42:33] for

[00:42:33] a

[00:42:33] bronze

[00:42:33] pack

[00:42:36] Ebenezer

[00:42:37] as it's

[00:42:37] Christmas

[00:42:38] yeah

[00:42:38] I'll

[00:42:39] take

[00:42:39] that

[00:42:39] the

[00:42:40] Christmas

[00:42:40] tunes

[00:42:40] have been

[00:42:40] flowing

[00:42:40] for the

[00:42:41] last

[00:42:41] few

[00:42:58] John

[00:42:58] is

[00:42:58] doing

[00:42:59] foot

[00:42:59] 101

[00:43:01] which

[00:43:01] is

[00:43:01] basically

[00:43:02] a

[00:43:02] there

[00:43:03] is

[00:43:03] no

[00:43:03] stupid

[00:43:03] questions

[00:43:04] section

[00:43:04] so

[00:43:05] if

[00:43:05] you

[00:43:05] are

[00:43:05] new

[00:43:06] to

[00:43:06] the

[00:43:06] game

[00:43:06] or

[00:43:06] even

[00:43:06] if

[00:43:06] you're

[00:43:07] old

[00:43:07] you've

[00:43:07] always

[00:43:07] thought

[00:43:08] can

[00:43:08] you

[00:43:28] understood

[00:43:28] or

[00:43:29] you

[00:43:29] know

[00:43:29] just

[00:43:29] getting

[00:43:30] clarification

[00:43:30] on

[00:43:30] when's

[00:43:31] the

[00:43:31] best

[00:43:31] time

[00:43:31] to

[00:43:31] use

[00:43:32] like

[00:43:32] second

[00:43:32] man

[00:43:32] press

[00:43:32] for

[00:43:32] example

[00:43:33] things

[00:43:34] like

[00:43:34] that

[00:43:34] so

[00:43:34] again

[00:43:35] there's

[00:43:35] a foot

[00:43:35] 101

[00:43:35] section

[00:43:36] but

[00:43:36] of

[00:43:36] course

[00:43:36] you

[00:43:36] can

[00:43:37] leave

[00:43:37] comments

[00:43:37] on

[00:43:37] all

[00:43:37] our

[00:43:38] socials

[00:43:38] foot

[00:43:39] in

[00:43:39] review

[00:43:39] and

[00:43:39] foot

[00:43:40] coaching

[00:43:40] best

[00:43:41] places

[00:43:41] to

[00:43:41] go

[00:43:41] for

[00:43:41] that

[00:43:42] anyway

[00:43:42] lead

[00:43:43] soldier

[00:43:43] has

[00:43:43] asked

[00:43:44] should

[00:43:44] there

[00:43:44] be

[00:43:45] a

[00:43:46] Europa

[00:43:46] league

[00:43:47] equivalent

[00:43:47] if

[00:43:47] you

[00:43:47] will

[00:43:48] somewhere

[00:43:48] lower

[00:43:48] players

[00:43:49] can

[00:43:49] still

[00:43:49] play

[00:43:49] competitive

[00:43:50] on

[00:43:50] a

[00:43:50] weekend

[00:43:50] with

[00:43:51] lower

[00:43:51] rewards

[00:43:52] I

[00:43:52] think

[00:43:52] that

[00:43:52] would

[00:43:53] get

[00:43:53] more

[00:43:53] people

[00:43:54] engaged

[00:43:54] with

[00:43:54] the

[00:43:55] game

[00:43:55] again

[00:43:55] I

[00:43:55] think

[00:44:10] this

[00:44:19] just

[00:44:19] a

[00:44:19] one

[00:44:20] weekend

[00:44:20] league

[00:44:20] maybe

[00:44:22] three

[00:44:23] wins

[00:44:23] out of

[00:44:23] five

[00:44:24] now

[00:44:24] I

[00:44:24] think

[00:44:24] three

[00:44:25] wins

[00:44:26] even

[00:44:26] out

[00:44:26] of

[00:44:26] six

[00:44:27] or

[00:44:27] something

[00:44:27] nice

[00:44:27] and

[00:44:28] it's

[00:44:28] now

[00:44:29] not

[00:44:29] weekend

[00:44:29] league

[00:44:29] it's

[00:44:30] champ

[00:44:30] so

[00:44:30] I

[00:44:30] don't

[00:44:30] understand

[00:44:31] why

[00:44:31] we

[00:44:49] the

[00:44:49] thing

[00:44:49] in

[00:44:50] terms

[00:44:50] of

[00:44:50] weekend

[00:44:50] league

[00:44:51] to

[00:44:52] do

[00:44:54] it

[00:44:55] yeah

[00:44:56] and

[00:44:56] my

[00:44:57] example

[00:44:58] would

[00:44:58] be

[00:44:59] instead

[00:45:00] of

[00:45:00] making

[00:45:00] a

[00:45:02] separate

[00:45:02] playoff

[00:45:03] and

[00:45:03] weekend

[00:45:03] league

[00:45:04] why

[00:45:04] don't

[00:45:04] you

[00:45:04] have

[00:45:05] it

[00:45:05] rolled

[00:45:05] into

[00:45:05] one

[00:45:06] and

[00:45:06] so

[00:45:06] your

[00:45:06] first

[00:45:07] six

[00:45:07] games

[00:45:08] or

[00:45:08] five

[00:45:08] games

[00:45:08] will

[00:45:09] determine

[00:45:09] what

[00:45:10] competition

[00:45:10] you

[00:45:10] go

[00:45:10] into

[00:45:11] say

[00:45:11] you

[00:45:11] win

[00:45:13] five

[00:45:14] or

[00:45:14] six

[00:45:14] you

[00:45:14] go

[00:45:15] into

[00:45:15] the

[00:45:15] Champions

[00:45:15] League

[00:45:16] three

[00:45:16] and

[00:45:17] four

[00:45:17] you

[00:45:17] go

[00:45:17] into

[00:45:18] the

[00:45:18] Europa

[00:45:18] League

[00:45:18] and

[00:45:19] one

[00:45:19] and

[00:45:19] two

[00:45:19] go

[00:45:19] into

[00:45:19] the

[00:45:20] Conference

[00:45:20] League

[00:45:20] and

[00:45:21] look

[00:45:21] the

[00:45:21] argument

[00:45:21] is

[00:45:21] always

[00:45:22] okay

[00:45:22] well

[00:45:22] people

[00:45:22] just

[00:45:23] deliberately

[00:45:23] chuck

[00:45:24] games

[00:45:24] to get

[00:45:24] easier

[00:45:25] matchmaking

[00:45:25] but if

[00:45:25] you

[00:45:25] make

[00:45:26] the

[00:45:26] rewards

[00:45:26] you

[00:45:27] know

[00:45:28] worth

[00:45:29] it

[00:45:29] people

[00:45:30] will

[00:45:30] go

[00:45:30] for

[00:45:30] the

[00:45:31] highest

[00:45:31] standard

[00:45:32] they

[00:45:32] will

[00:45:32] aim

[00:45:33] for

[00:45:33] that

[00:45:33] you

[00:45:34] know

[00:45:34] you

[00:45:35] know

[00:45:48] you

[00:45:51] next

[00:45:52] next

[00:46:03] to

[00:46:06] maybe

[00:46:07] be

[00:46:10] more

[00:46:11] inclusive

[00:46:11] in

[00:46:11] some

[00:46:12] way

[00:46:12] without maybe detracting the fact that they want champs to be the elite pinnacle of the game.

[00:46:18] Yeah, just as I said, and they talked about this on Friday's show,

[00:46:22] and as Lead Soldier said, just a place for people to play other than rivals,

[00:46:27] I think would be a very welcome thing.

[00:46:30] And again, if you make it tiered enough and give people enough incentive,

[00:46:34] you don't have to worry about the grief aspect of it.

[00:46:37] So yeah, I'm very much in favour of it.

[00:46:39] And the final question today comes from Adam.

[00:46:41] So my question is going to be,

[00:46:43] are there any SBCs you regret not doing or you do regret doing?

[00:46:47] I regret not doing the Nico Williams one.

[00:46:49] I use his gold and he's really good, though he was very expensive.

[00:46:54] So we actually had this conversation, I think, off pod yesterday, funnily enough,

[00:46:59] before Adam sent this question in.

[00:47:01] So I think my answer was very much no.

[00:47:04] I don't think there is anybody.

[00:47:05] I think maybe in the first couple of weeks, I thought,

[00:47:08] maybe I should have done Alaba because he did appear a very good fullback and defensive midfielder.

[00:47:14] But otherwise, no, I'm pretty content.

[00:47:16] Nath, you?

[00:47:17] Yeah, I'm the same.

[00:47:18] I mean, if it was out now, I probably would have done a lot of the American League women cards

[00:47:25] because they actually seem really good to come up against.

[00:47:28] And my club is like bursting with fodder.

[00:47:30] But I don't know how much that is regretting not doing them

[00:47:33] and how much I'm bored with the options that they currently are just now.

[00:47:37] So there's nothing there that I'm like, oh, I wish I did.

[00:47:39] I've done, you know, the 2-2 Rams.

[00:47:42] I've done Sissoko.

[00:47:43] I've avoided most of the gamble SBCs apart from the cheap ones.

[00:47:46] And so nothing there that I'm like, that they were must-dos that I didn't do.

[00:47:51] I missed out on doing Angel Gomez, who wouldn't get even near the team,

[00:47:54] but I would have liked him for future Evos because I was holding off doing them

[00:47:57] to do them with my SBC ones and I totally forgot and missed the cutoff.

[00:48:01] So that's more because it's a United pass and present player.

[00:48:04] But apart from that, there's not really anyone else that I'm like,

[00:48:06] oh, that one I really should have done.

[00:48:09] Yeah, I'm the same.

[00:48:09] And part of me thinks maybe I could have done one or two more gambles,

[00:48:14] like a hero pack or an icon pack.

[00:48:17] But the side is I've still got all this fodder.

[00:48:19] And if another card on that Pateus level,

[00:48:21] I think I could probably go out and do Pateus for pretty much free

[00:48:25] with the amount of stuff I've got in my club at the moment.

[00:48:27] It is that I'm a bit like you.

[00:48:28] My SBC storage is just rammed full of 85 plus cards at the moment.

[00:48:33] I've got lots of tradable ones as well that I'm hanging on to,

[00:48:35] waiting to see if they spike in value.

[00:48:37] So I'm quite, I'm more content.

[00:48:40] And it's also forced me to use my team more regularly

[00:48:44] and get to know my players more.

[00:48:46] The amount of players I've now got like 100 plus games on.

[00:48:49] And as I mentioned, my team's barely changed for two weeks.

[00:48:52] Like I'm still using goal Chloe Kelly on the right wing, for example.

[00:48:55] So, you know, I've had the chance to really get to know

[00:48:58] the ins and outs of those players and what they do best.

[00:49:01] So yeah, I think I'm full onto that side.

[00:49:04] But anything else for you to raise before we go?

[00:49:08] No, not a lot.

[00:49:09] I'm quite intrigued to see.

[00:49:10] I think that the content's been a slight step up.

[00:49:13] Maybe not even a step.

[00:49:14] Maybe it's tripped up a little bit rather than a full blown step.

[00:49:17] But I'm quite intrigued to see if they've kind of started to take the,

[00:49:21] take the, sort of give a bit of slack to the content.

[00:49:24] And, you know, maybe we can see it going upwards.

[00:49:26] Because while you were talking before about, you know,

[00:49:29] different things happening and the state of it,

[00:49:31] like all it takes is one beast of a promo and everyone will come and run in back.

[00:49:36] As soon as you see somebody, so one of the bigger creators go,

[00:49:39] actually, this is nuts.

[00:49:40] This is really good.

[00:49:41] The game will, like people will flood back.

[00:49:43] So I'm hoping that in the next week or so, we'll see that.

[00:49:46] And, you know, they'll unleash this absolute demon of a promo that, you know,

[00:49:50] not saying everyone gets top tier cards,

[00:49:51] but you start seeing more promos and more fun and more SBCs.

[00:49:55] And, you know, I'm hoping that happens because it will make the whole game

[00:49:58] more enjoyable if there's a wider player base as well.

[00:50:01] Yeah.

[00:50:01] And look, do we maybe get more listeners and more engagement when the game is bad?

[00:50:06] Sure.

[00:50:06] But do I want to be talking about a good game?

[00:50:09] Absolutely.

[00:50:10] I want to be sitting here talking to you about the dilemma I had between picking

[00:50:13] between three different new promo players that I've got two or three different

[00:50:17] Evo pass.

[00:50:18] I'm really torn on.

[00:50:19] I had a really durable, I mean, I got, I got my best weekend league finish of the

[00:50:23] year.

[00:50:23] The weekend, I got 10 and five, which for me is, you know,

[00:50:26] brilliant.

[00:50:27] You know, I've had some weeks this year where I've ended up with seven wins.

[00:50:31] But it was still against that backdrop of, okay, well, I've done well,

[00:50:35] but what do I do from this point?

[00:50:37] You know, it doesn't quite hit home when the overall atmosphere around the game

[00:50:43] isn't good.

[00:50:43] So look, let's hope that comes again.

[00:50:45] Stay tuned to the feed.

[00:50:46] We'll have the daily shows back the next couple of days.

[00:50:48] The main show will return Friday night for Patreon subscribers Saturday morning

[00:50:53] for the rest of you out there.

[00:50:55] Again, patreon.com forward slash photo interview.

[00:50:57] If you want to support us, use it as that digital tip jar, but it also gives you benefits.

[00:51:01] We give back as well.

[00:51:02] The Art of Foot show, exclusive early access to all bits and pieces and all the details

[00:51:07] there.

[00:51:07] And it starts, as I was mentioned from, I think it's about a fiver a month, which is

[00:51:11] less than you'd pay for a service station coffee.

[00:51:14] So Costa don't really need your money, nor does Starbucks, but we do.

[00:51:19] However, if you ask, if you ask Starbucks or Costa and want to support this show and,

[00:51:23] you know, sponsor us, we will happily shill your products.

[00:51:26] And, you know, we're open to that.

[00:51:29] So hit us up.

[00:51:31] Gingerbread lights here this way, please.

[00:51:33] Indeed.

[00:51:33] Yeah, no, we're very easily bought as well.

[00:51:37] So look, thank you to everybody out there.

[00:51:40] Best of luck over the next few days.

[00:51:43] Let's hope the patch brings a bit more enjoyable gameplay.

[00:51:46] And let's hope that the content is ramping up from this point.

[00:51:48] Only one thing left to do, Nath.

[00:51:50] Drop it.

[00:51:51] We are going to drop it.