Calm Before The TOTS Storm

[00:00:00] Hello, FUTIS, if you are hearing or seeing this, you are not a Patreon supporter yet and that is totally fine. Nevertheless, thank you for listening to us. Consider joining our free Discord community by clicking on the link in the show notes

[00:00:15] and if you can't throw a buck a week to our Patreon, why don't you leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcast or Spotify or better, to both of them. Also, subscribe to our YouTube channel, which is youtube.com forward slash food coaching and of course,

[00:00:32] many, many thanks to all our Patreon supporters for supporting us financially. Now, let's start this show. Hello, FUTIS, welcome back to your regular dose of FC24 Ultimate Team Podcasting Goodness. We are FUT IN REVIEW powered by Footcoaching.com.

[00:00:48] It is Tuesday the 16th of April around about midday as we record this myself down Wimbush here on the pod alongside my main man, the Scout Nathan Downs.

[00:00:58] Again, we're going to try and keep things a little bit more easy as we have done in our show last week, talking a bit more about kind of how we're finding gameplay and things that are annoying us,

[00:01:07] giving us life on the game, how we're preparing for tots because of course, that is just around the corner. And of course, we will give our thoughts briefly on the latest content, including things you may be looking to do and whether they are worth your time.

[00:01:20] The mailbag returns and much, much more. But, Nathan, my friend, how are you? Hey, Dan. Thanks for having me back. I'm really well, Ty. We've got some sunny weather up in Scotland at the moment the last couple of days.

[00:01:29] So that always makes a difference and yeah, we'll get into it. But I'm quite enjoying the grind just now. Bit of an easier week hopefully. So yeah, let's go all things EA FC. Mate, it's not a case of letting you back on. You never leave.

[00:01:44] You're just here when I turn up in the studio. So I'm not well, you might as well have recorded you. So it's very... I might have got a croat you can't get rid of me. Well, you know, it's a foot in review locking.

[00:01:53] So we keep you here for a whole week. But look, good to be back on with you. And yeah, it's team of the season season. And I've got that excitement as well. I mean, look, this week is dead. We knew it was going to be dead.

[00:02:04] We talked about this last week, didn't we? We, you know, you joked that I got it wrong with Galazzo and I'll hold my hands up. I thought Galazzo was going to be a bit more chill and that turned into a really frantic promo. But this is the proper...

[00:02:16] You know, we are in the... We're not quite in the freezer, but we're certainly in the fridge at the moment, Nathan. We're being kept on ice. Let me... You've got the... You know, the guys talked about it on Friday show.

[00:02:25] You've got the best of the team of the week in packs. But beyond that, there's not really a single reason to be opening anything in an actual live pack is there. No, there's not much impact just now.

[00:02:34] But what I will say is it's not beyond EA to release an absolute, you know, boosts in sort of, you know, open packs and send all your players into this massive SPC. So, you know, we saw one last night, which we'll get into,

[00:02:46] which I think some people were super hyped for until they realized what it was. But, you know, I still think there may be something on the horizon that may try and entice you to kind of open packs

[00:02:56] and spend some coins just before the actual sort of promo kicks off live. Yeah, look, it's always in EA's interest to have your club as empty as possible because that is what will drive you to the store. And speaking of store, of course, massive packs being out there,

[00:03:09] four icons and heroes in packs. And I don't even keep up with it, Nathan, because I'm just... I know I'm not going to open these packs, especially now, so I'm just leaving it.

[00:03:18] But, you know, EA is still doing their best to hold us by the ankles and shake us down. Yeah, to be fair, up until the last week or so, I'd always keep an eye on the store just in case there's something

[00:03:27] that I wanted to put my coins into. But we're getting into silly season. And to be honest, for this really easy to come by just now, icon packs are in, you know, SPCs are going, people getting towards level 40 rewards where you've got the icon pick as well.

[00:03:40] So, in my head, there's no real need to be going towards that. The SPCs at the moment aren't must do or at least must do right now. So, there's nothing there that I'm like, I need to go and get extra ways of getting these players into the club.

[00:03:53] Yeah, well, look, you talked about the SPC being released again. We're not going to go beat by beat and review everything that's come out since the Friday show, but a couple of showdowns have been out. We've got Muki Ele against Roberto from Basel against PSG.

[00:04:05] I mean, that game is taking place tonight as we record this. It might already be done by the time we hear this. And you've got Eric Der against Trossard for Arsenal against Bayern, that game taking place on Wednesday.

[00:04:16] I mean, any of those four get your attention this week? Not really to be honest. Showdowns, like because of where we're at and you know that the Superduse cards are coming, I've kind of just kind of glanced over them.

[00:04:27] I've not really even looked into them in too much detail. Like Muki Ele in recent years has been so pee and he's been kind of like it must have, but usually a bit early in the game cycle.

[00:04:38] John and Engvee have put together the player review for Eric Dyer and said that he's actually really good if you ignore his balance of agility. But again, it's nobody that would really improve my team even with the upgrades.

[00:04:51] There's so many good players out there just now as your team. I know is absolutely stacked up. But yeah, this just seems to be better alternatives. And we had a wee chat off air about prices of some of these SPCs.

[00:05:04] And I think Eric Dyer is coming in about 160K. For 160K, there's better options and you may develop a point that it's not really 160K with all the players that you can come by quite easily. But on the other hand, if you're not open in packs,

[00:05:18] then it is a little bit more costly either coin-wise or to your club. Yeah. I mean, Muki Ele is the only one that really caught my eye. And that was again because I think because of the price, he's 55K.

[00:05:28] But again, PSG are up against it going to Barcelona looking to try and get through the tie. And that is how I do believe that these showdowns are going to be decided by the way.

[00:05:38] I think it's going to be who goes through the tie, not just who wins the game. But again, I'm not 100% positive on that because EA have gone and done it both ways. But I would think to win the to get through on the tie,

[00:05:49] PSG are going to have to win anyway. So that doesn't really matter in this case. So that is going to be tough for them to go to the new camp. Sorry, not the new camp. They're playing Espanyol to go there and get a victory will be tough.

[00:06:02] But I do like it. It's only 55K. He's got that whipped pass plus that I really like. And you mentioned he's had really solid cars in his past. But all of them and it's just been a theme, I think, for the past three months, isn't it, Nate?

[00:06:13] All of them are sideways steps at best unless you've got a new account. Yeah, absolutely. And to be fair, like we spoke quite in depth last week, it's kind of credit to EA that so many good cards have been quite easily available.

[00:06:27] So that's a good thing, but it does make things a little bit slower. I was going to say stale, but I don't think it's quite stale because you've got plenty of options, but it's definitely slower in terms of increasing and improving your squad.

[00:06:38] Yeah. And EA don't want to let everyone have massive boosts and dampen their hype for Tots. These are just cars where if you are a Basta fan, if you have got an opening and you need a league and right back,

[00:06:49] these are the kind of SBCs that work for you. And I do think their reason to price, I don't think any of them are higher than 160K. And like you mentioned with the amount of fodder on the market,

[00:06:58] we need to almost get away from how we talk about the prices of SBCs because it's never been so easy to get fodder. We've never had things like the exchanges and the player picks out constantly. It's more about time than actual cost, I think now,

[00:07:11] Nate, because if you invest enough time, you will get any of these done for free. It's not even a case of you're restricted to only 10 player picks a day or whatever. You know, if you want to spend 160K on Dia, Dyer, what am I saying, Dia?

[00:07:23] Dyer, it's a Dyer podcasting moment for me. You will be able to do that fairly quickly. It's just a case of, okay, you might just have to spend a couple of hours doing player picks instead. Yeah, absolutely. The grind, I'm having a Dan moment now,

[00:07:37] the grind is basically endless, isn't it? Like between league SBCs and picks and stuff. I'm on burnout to be fair. I'm chilling because last week I had a hard time trying to get G-Sum Park top rated one or the vintage top rated one,

[00:07:51] which just didn't happen for me, but I did spend a ridiculous amount of time and I still kept about 40 exchange packs and I just ran out of time to use. So it's a good time to be a menu grinder. It is.

[00:08:03] It's just a bit unfortunate there's not a lot in packs to grind for. But if you want to do these SBCs, then you could probably do all of them fairly quickly and fairly easily if you have a little bit of luck on your side.

[00:08:13] Yeah, with the upgrade SBCs that we're out at the moment, we're going to talk about how we're prepping for Tots in just a moment and the kind of things we're doing on the menus. But the only other player to really talk about was Florensi.

[00:08:23] I remember Florensi had an absolutely juice card. Was it like a road to the final card for the Euros with Italy a couple of years ago? That was just so good. I think it ended at like 5-5. I have very fond memories of that card.

[00:08:36] This card, very, very good. I mean to think that you've got a card that is very nearly 90s all-round for 125,000 coins with two plays and two good playstyle pluses as well in pinged pass and Anticipate Plus. It's a fantastic card. Five-star week foot as well, three-star skills.

[00:08:56] There is nothing to hate about this card at all. It's just a case of how many people have a vacancy for this card. Yeah, absolutely. You can play center mid and right back as well, which is quite cool. The only thing is his strength is pretty low at 73.

[00:09:11] So if you're coming up in midfield against a Hullet, he's going to get brushed over quite easily. But if you're looking for a box-to-box, he looks like a perfect box-to-box to me. He's not really got weaknesses apart from that little bit of strength

[00:09:22] of missing, which you can boost with, say, an anchor, which I think is the sort of popular way to go by the looks of things on foot, Ben. That puts him up to 81, so he can handle his own. I think out of all the recent releases of cards,

[00:09:36] that's the one I would be tempted to do just to supplement the midfield. No weaknesses and I think that could be quite decent. But again, I'm being quite stingy. I'm being Scrooge or a Dragon, as I think I called myself last week,

[00:09:50] and I'm just not really wanting to put anything in knowing Tots is just around the corner. Yeah, look, for me, this is a perfect fodder dump. He's available until the 28th of April, so well after Tots kicks off.

[00:10:01] So this is, I think, going to be the perfect place if you just need to place fodder because it is so achievable. It's an 87 rated squad and an 85 rated squad. No informs required as well. So perfect.

[00:10:12] If you are opening those 83-10s at the start of the promo on Friday, it's a great place to put it. And I said, I don't think there's... I can't really criticize this card. I think it's a good, great right back or great center mid.

[00:10:23] I don't think there's a lot of weaknesses on either. It's just a case of how many people need that kind of player right now when we've had so many good options. But I will be completing it eventually.

[00:10:32] And again, I can only praise the A for the pricing point because that's the kind of card in the past. Remember they used to release cards like... It always used to get a really overpriced Gunda one just before the team of the season.

[00:10:42] A stupid card like that that would have been 600,000, 700,000 coins to lure you in and they've resisted the temptation to do that. If you did want to go on the bigger budget side, Pet Check did come out as well.

[00:10:54] Lots of people say he's the best goalkeeper in the game. Nate, I'd have a hard time. I agree. And again, I agree with you. I always have a hard time facing this team of the year checking goal.

[00:11:02] But again, to me, this screams, if you want to do it, just wait, just wait and complete in a week or two. Yeah, 100%. I mean, we had a chat last night when it was released about whether it's worth doing. I think we've both got team of the year,

[00:11:14] Casillas and goals who, to be fair, has been incredible. Like he's probably the best keeper I've used so far. I've not used check or the top of answer. But I still see very little differences in most of the goalkeepers, to be fair.

[00:11:26] And then when you go on to the pricing originally, I was like, wow, his card's like 120k cheaper than his SPC. But when you look at the graph, actually EA on release had him at sort of similar price to his card.

[00:11:40] But obviously with the SPC, he came out the price of the tradable card absolutely plummeted. So sometimes you kind of think they should maybe see this because that's a trend that happens every time as an SPC release. But it's not, I think it's about 400ishk.

[00:11:54] It's not terrible value. And to be honest, that will do you pretty much to the end of the game cycle anyway with the icon link. So it's not a bad one at all. He's going to be excellent. Like you say, if you've got a,

[00:12:05] not even if you've got a great keeper just now, if you've got an adigot keeper, keeper that's not really causing any issues then, I wouldn't be in an absolute hurry to go and change him. But it might be a slow grind with, with Jupes as you go along.

[00:12:16] Yeah, look, keepers are so subjective. I've had games where I'm sitting there swearing that pitch Michael is the best goalkeeper in the game. Then it'll be a Lev Yashin who has an absolute world e-gates being unconvinced. He's the best goalkeeper in the game and this check as well.

[00:12:27] It does happen. I do still think he is one of the best goalkeepers in the game. He's got all the right attributes, got the size and everything that matters. So definitely one worth doing. Like you said, just to get the icon links,

[00:12:38] such a boost just to be able to tick that off in your goalkeeper's thought. Yeah, being check doesn't help check in this scenario in terms of giving that extra chemistry boost. Whereas, you know, you mentioned we've got Thunderstruck Casillas. There's a lot more meta Spanish players out there.

[00:12:52] But again, lots of people use Michael. Let's lots of people use the Yashin and that doesn't stop them from getting me in the team. So lots to be getting on with. And again, this one's out for a long time.

[00:13:01] So you've got plenty of time to get and do it once you have ripped open your packs. It's another good place to park some of that fodder if you are stacking 83-10s and such. And that's what I'm doing, Nathan, because you know, let's talk about our grinds

[00:13:13] for team of the season. I hate more than anything in this game having to save packs. You know this, you know, my disdain towards saving packs, but even I cannot justify ripping these big, these big boy packs at the moment. So I am saving the 83-10s.

[00:13:29] I've saved 84-7s. I've saved some of my later season rewards. Basically, if it's got a guaranteed 83 plus rating on it, I'm not opening. If it's anything less, I am opening away because I need that fuel to do those 83-10s,

[00:13:44] to do the team of the weak picks. But I am also staying away from most of the gambles. So I've not yet done any icons, not done any heroes this week, and I'm not done any campaigns either. You say you've not done any icons yet,

[00:13:57] but there's still time for me to persuade you to fodder dump some of them into an icon pack. No way. No way. No way. And I'm saving packs as people that have heard me on here know that I do like to back save in a pack opening,

[00:14:10] but slightly different to you. I'm just saving everything just because I just don't see the point in opening. And I am basically just holding on. I had quite a few from the exchanges from the last week, which I just kept. I'm not doing any player picks or anything.

[00:14:24] I'm just holding on. I haven't decided from the leaks if I'm going to open next week or the week after. There's a good chance I'll probably just open next week if the grind looks like it's going to be good and easy like last week.

[00:14:36] So I'm just prepping by holding all. I've not been able to do hundreds of 83 plus. I've still got a few team of the weeks left and that'll probably well. And to be fair, I'm sitting on 1.8 miles. So there's a good chance I'll probably just start buying

[00:14:49] a few team of the weeks just to put in while they're cheap before they go completely out of pack. So that's probably the way I'm going to do it. I don't mind putting 2, 300K in the team of the weeks and just holding them if I need them

[00:14:58] or potentially selling later on. Yeah. And there's look, you need to do a hybrid approach. You know, you get three 83 pluses, a three by tens a day, open one maybe and save two just to keep the fodder fuel going. And that fodder can then filter

[00:15:11] into the team of the week picks as well. There are still some usable team, you know, you could still hit the jackpot in those team of the week picks and they give you tradable packs as well for doing them. So I'd very much recommend everybody

[00:15:21] goes through that process. I'm still doing league SBCs. I've never stopped doing league SBCs. They pay for themselves and they get you all to the fodder you need. So if you've got that patience, yes it takes a little bit longer.

[00:15:32] Yes, you have to go and buy the Lipsud squad over and over again. And you might have to buy a few players from the same French club or Eredivisi club. But the two trade all packs in there is a 50k pack at the end.

[00:15:44] It is a very, very worthy grind to do those league SBCs. And the prices at the moment are just so through the floor. If you get a nice setup going, like for example, I've got a dummy LibreTutora squad just saved on my squad list.

[00:15:59] So I can just go into that and just click and buy through those same players and get it done really quickly. So I'm enjoying it as I'm still doing any spare bits of fodder. I'm still opening the 81 plus picks. It got refreshed yesterday.

[00:16:10] The only one I'm not doing anything, I don't really understand the logic here from EA. Is that 85 plus? Because it's very hard to hold onto player picks. Yeah, I mean, if you're somebody like me that's holding onto everything, you probably could do that.

[00:16:25] But I think it's not an 84, it's squad for an 85 plus pick anyway. So it's quite expensive for what it is. I wouldn't recommend that because it'll be far too tempting to kind of to crack open anyway. And unless you get a good team of the week,

[00:16:38] it's not really worth it because I packed Golden Baffy for the first time last week and he's only really in for objectives. And that's the best value goal player there is. So it's not the best grind. Same with the 82 times 11,

[00:16:56] I think it is that's out at the moment. Oh yeah, I'm staying clear of that one. I think I've done one and then realized it was just staffed. Like it was just a bit of a waste. So I've again kept clear of that.

[00:17:07] So yeah, there's ways that they're trying to entice us in. And to be fair, it's not one approach for everybody. Like we're doing slightly different approaches and all people that are still opening everything because they think fodder packs are so easy to come by,

[00:17:19] which will actually will be season reset so we come Thursday as well, I think doesn't it? So there'll be more ways to get packs then as well. So I don't think EA are going to dry up the way that we can get packs.

[00:17:31] They might change the ground a little bit in terms of the player picks and whatnot. And I think the goal, the daily gold, bronze and silver expire in a couple of weeks as well. So we're interested to see if they just refresh or what they do with them.

[00:17:44] They should come back. My faith in EA is gradually building up by the very fact they keep refreshing things like the exchanges and the 81 plus picks and the 80 plus picks keep swapping. I think they seem to now be happier to give us access to that grind,

[00:18:01] which I've been calling for all year and I'm very happy about it, even though we talked about last week, is it too much? I'd certainly rather lean on this end of the scale than the other one we've had in years past.

[00:18:13] So to be going to EA, shaking things up, we've got a couple of big changes, including a different cup mode that we're going to talk about as another way to get packs and of course rewards changing as well. But just very quickly,

[00:18:24] before we move on from our prep grind, we understand it's going to be this Tots Live promo team going into packs on Friday. They're going to be similar to the, if you remember the What If promo from a couple of years ago

[00:18:36] and very similar to Foot Fancy that's just been out, whereas cars will upgrade based on real life performances. But in a much narrower scope than the Foot Fancy cars, because of course there's not that long left in the season.

[00:18:49] So they can't be talking about five, six games per hour. I think it's going to be a case of over the next two, three games. Nathan, are you going to start ripping for that promo team on Friday?

[00:18:59] Or are you going to wait for one of the big boy team this season? It's usually Premier League first or community. We still have no idea if community is even going to happen. But are you going to open basically for this Tots Live,

[00:19:10] if it does indeed come on Friday? To be honest, it totally depends what they do with these cards. We've heard various things. Some of them are players that don't have many changes. I think you'd seen somewhere that it's looking like

[00:19:24] it's going to be maybe a plus ones with play style, like extra additional play styles. So it depends if there's players in there that I'm like, yes. At the moment, I'd probably try and save, but no, in me I'll get bored and open some of the packs.

[00:19:36] But I think it totally depends because a couple of play styles on some of the players leaps, which we will not discuss in individual players, but a couple extra play styles or different play styles could actually be massive, be a massive boost and do something better for it.

[00:19:52] But if they just leave it, players as is with the plus one and the potential for another plus one or plus two, then I'll probably just save because the players at the moment aren't gripping me. Like I must have that X, Y or Z player.

[00:20:04] How about you Dan? What are you thinking? I mean, look, you know me, I'm probably going to rip. I'm going to be honest. Maybe I will save a couple of big packs, but as you mentioned, they're going to release more upgrade packs during the week.

[00:20:16] And I'm happy to menu grind. So yeah, I might get through, you know, say I end up with 12 to 15, 83 by 10s by the end of this process, I'd be more than happy opening 10 of those. Just to get the fodder grind back going again,

[00:20:28] now packing some of these cards with values, working towards the species I want to do. I want to finish like Beckham, for example. So I'm going to open. I don't really want to save too long. Also, I just pack saves just never seem to work for most people.

[00:20:42] I know, of course, there's the odd person that gets think amazing, but the way has generally been terrible on the very best players of promos, especially during the big, big promos, like for birthday, like team of the year. So I don't really have that much hope

[00:20:58] that even if I saved 100 really good packs, I would get a team of the season, Harland team of the season, Salary, etc. I thought I'd find my chance of getting them all from the red picks. We're getting weekend league than from a pack in the wild.

[00:21:12] So yeah, I'm going to rip and get into it. But red picks coming back to champs, as we mentioned EA confirming yesterday as we logged into the game on Monday night that new rewards are coming to footchamps, to rivals, to squad battles.

[00:21:26] Now we don't know exactly what they are, Nate, but we do know that red picks are coming back last year. It was a case of if you got to 11 wins plus, you were guaranteed picks from the major league that was out this week.

[00:21:37] But again, we talked about this last week. We're not quite sure what they're going to do in terms of releasing how they're going to release the women's leagues, how they're going to release and which minor leagues are coming. So lots of questions,

[00:21:48] but I think we can all agree it's positive that they're going to revamp rewards. Yeah, absolutely. We spoke last week in the rewards, we thought were actually really good as is. So the fact that potentially going even better, I think that's a bonus.

[00:22:01] One thing on that though, Dan, I don't know whether you've noticed some of the rewards are like Premier League and WSL or La Liga and Liga F, I think it is. So I think that's a bit of a key to include that they may end up releasing

[00:22:13] Premier League and WSL together. And like the men's and women's league for these major tournaments, I think could potentially come together. Otherwise it's a bit tempting, isn't it? It's a bit of a tease otherwise if they're releasing these packs

[00:22:26] where you can have like one or both these leagues and you can only get one at a time type thing. So I think that unless they do one on a Monday, one on a Friday, sorry, one on the Tuesday say,

[00:22:37] have them both in for two or three days. But I'm hoping they'll both be together. So at least if you've saved up packs, you've got a good chance of getting something decent from that. I think you're more than likely to be right.

[00:22:48] I think that's what we saw with team of the year, they released men's and women's teams at the same time. I think they'll do the same here. I think we talked about this last week. Like you said, I could see Premier League and WSL releasing on Friday

[00:22:59] on Tuesday getting your Turkish Super League or your Saudi Pro League, whatever that minor league they want to pair them with happens. But I'm excited. I'm just really excited. I think the new rewards are good. Like you said, I don't want them to nerf the rivals rewards.

[00:23:12] Like I'd be really annoyed if they replaced like some of these like 84, sorry, 87 by fours and things like that in favor of just a random generic gamble pack, for example, of that particular team of the team of this season card. So that remains to be seen.

[00:23:28] Of course, the other change being foot champs is extended because they were taking some time off the front. Of course, because these team of the seasons released on Friday at six o'clock, they don't want to get into a scenario where people have to open red picks

[00:23:43] before the actual team is out. So now champs won't start until eight o'clock British summertime. So after all of these cards are in packs, so you won't have that scenario. The good news is while you lose some time off the front of your Friday,

[00:23:59] they're now extending it 24 hours the other end. So actually you're going to have until the early hours of Wednesday morning, Nate, to finish weekend league. And this is the great time of year if you are running more than one account or you just find yourself like you,

[00:24:11] I know struggling to get in foot champs over the weekend. There's only basically two days a week where you can't play champs. Yeah, absolutely. And it kind of gets rid of for people like me that that sweaty Friday morning champs grind as well.

[00:24:24] So I think it's good to be honest. I think during the good night, if the promo was good and they do well with the players, every champs match is going to be a bit of a sweat fest anyway. Is it though? I keep hearing this,

[00:24:35] but do you not actually think that because more people will be on the game, you actually probably got a better chance facing someone slightly easier? Well, let's hope so. But the other end of it is you've got the good players that are kind of

[00:24:50] bored by how easy it is to get these God squads and etc. I think to be fair, you're right. It could go both ways. It could be a lot easier because it's more player based. And that is the theme. The more players do come back,

[00:25:00] but at the same time, you could also have more people trying really, really hard because they want the 11 wins, 14 wins, whatever they may get to. So it's fun if I get five wins, I'll still take that. I mean, I'm hoping to get my 14 wins

[00:25:14] as soon as I've been 13 last too. But I think it's going to be exciting. This is a time where it's good fun because you kind of just let loose a little bit. You get good cards, good squads. You can play new formations and just enjoy it.

[00:25:29] Yeah, I hope it is going to be simple. I mean, I was getting some of my best results in Weekend League last year during Team of the Season. And again, I had that fear fact to go into it of all the best players are going to be playing.

[00:25:41] But to me, all the best players are playing now. You know, the Weekend League we've just had, I've barely had what I would call an easier game. Everybody seemed to be very knowledgeable about the meta of the game, had very, very good squads.

[00:25:54] You like to think there's a few people coming back to the game. Maybe again, some people running second squads that maybe not got quite the passion. So maybe just maybe it'll be that little bit easier. And again, it will depend on the tiers again

[00:26:06] because if 11 wins is going to get you something really decent, again, you might see a lot more people kind of giving away wins. And again, because there's less time pressure as well, it might seem more people coming into the game. So that's to look forward to as well.

[00:26:20] We have just finally before we head into the break, EA have done something that we've been asking for again all year. They've released a different mode of play in this Tots warm-up cup. It is mystery ball, Nathan. How are we feeling about mystery ball?

[00:26:36] Yeah, I mean, I think you must be listening to us because last week we were calling out for something different in one of these game modes than ever used. So mystery ball is not my first one. I'm dying for a no rules game

[00:26:47] because I would just trigger everyone to run forward and just start like hard tackling everyone. But mystery ball is fun. It's sometimes a bit demoralizing when somebody goes and scores two, two of the goals with the times three modifier.

[00:26:59] So you're winning 2-0 and all of a sudden you're 6-2 down and you look at the score going on, get hammered. But to be honest, I'm doing it for the XP. Eight games in, I think I've won four in a league, which is quite difficult.

[00:27:11] It's not quite as stringent. I don't think I am playing some players that I feel like are much better and I'm also facing some demons. But it seems to be people, if you change your squad around to have fast players, it seems to be the way to go.

[00:27:25] Everyone seems to have super fast players they can run right through. Whereas I think originally I set up with a normal team and it was getting caught a little bit. So I kind of put in some of the rockets and it was a lot better.

[00:27:35] But I think it's great. I'm really happy they're bringing, or not bringing in a new game mode because it's been there for years, but they're utilizing this sort of game mode catalog if you like. I'm hoping it's a sign of things to come.

[00:27:46] I know it's sort of my might in our discord. Some people love it. Some people aren't quite so keen on it. But I think it's great. I think there's XP for playing. The rewards aren't tremendous. The packs you get back, I think are just premium life,

[00:27:59] premium league packs from the major leagues. If you win games, but you get up to 1000 XP from just playing 10 games. So I think that's a credit. I think the game mode is quite good fun once you get your head around the different scores

[00:28:12] and the way of playing the difference of modifiers. So yeah, I think that's a small win. I won't say it's a big win because it's not the type game mode I wanted, but it's definitely a win in my book. Yeah, look if you've never played Mystery Ball before,

[00:28:24] basically you get power-ups every time the ball goes out of play. So there'll be one which makes players run faster, another one which makes your passes faster and more accurate, another one which makes your shots ridiculous and some that combine all of them together.

[00:28:36] And as Nate said, they're a multiplier. So suddenly one goal can be worth three, for example. There is reports of this, it's a bit glitched at the moment. People, some people are saying that it's only registering actual goals in terms of whether you win a game or not.

[00:28:50] So for example, like Nate said, if someone, if you scored two goals at plus one and somebody else scored four goals, one goal at a plus three and technically won the game three, two, it would actually only,

[00:29:07] it would still give you the win because you won two, one. So it remains to be seen if that bug continues. But yeah, it's good to have the mode in it. I've not started yet, but I'm all for different modes being available. I love John talking.

[00:29:21] Foot's question to us, he said, do you like this stupid cup and it's stupid mystery ball? I think, I think we get it. No, John's opinion on it. And as Nate mentioned, it's a bit marmite, but look, it is fun nonetheless.

[00:29:32] Look, we're going to take a quick break. Of course, if you're part of our Patreon, you do not have to hear this break right now. But regardless, we shall carry on. For those of you who don't have Patreon, you will hear this short break. Hi, it is John.

[00:29:46] And I know advertisements or breaks in podcast sucks, but they do keep this show running. So are you, however, tired of these advertisements or are eager to find the forward button to skip these? There's actually an easier way to do that.

[00:30:02] And getting our shows earlier while you're at it. Check out patreon.com forward slash foot in review and support us through there. Starting from a book week, you can get discounts on coaching from the team at Foot Coaching. You get no more advertisements,

[00:30:19] special bonus content and access to our events. And if you are on Spotify, you can also click the sub button there. So check out patreon.com forward slash foot in review or the sub button on the exclusive content on Spotify. And now let's return to the show.

[00:30:38] Right, welcome back. Break over. We're not going to talk again. We're going to try to keep it a bit loose. I thought we're going to be loose from the start, Nathan, but I looked down at the clock and we've already been talking for 30 minutes.

[00:30:47] So I think, yeah, obviously doing something right if we've got 30 minutes of stuff to talk about. Yeah, absolutely. There's plenty going on, even on a quiet week. There's still lots to do. So that's good. I think that's good. It means that you can kind of keep yourself

[00:31:00] home and sharp without losing focus, but also not needing to do everything on earth and all at once right now. Yeah, well, look, I mentioned John giving us a question about the stupid mystery ball in his words. The other part of his question was John,

[00:31:16] other John, just going to get really confused with the maths of John's. But basically, head of foot coaching John said that you need to be able to defend well to use four, three, two, one. So what formation would you suggest as podcasters and players as an alternative formation

[00:31:29] if you're poor at manual defending? Well, I'm pretty terrible at defending, to be honest. I tried the four, three, two, one and I just couldn't do it. I could score goals, but I got carved open, like my Sunday beef.

[00:31:44] So basically, I'm running the four, triple two just now, which foot coaching John, big boss leader man John, isn't a fan of having two CDMs because he thinks there's too much space in between your lines. But I like having my two sitting CDMs.

[00:32:00] I've got Germany and Chevy Alonso at the moment sitting there, although Chevy is going to go at some point for a box-to-box. But if you're not good at manual defending, I like having the two CDMs that'll just sit there.

[00:32:10] You can also go for the three or five back, which I know is going to get some deep size when you say that. Boom! Exactly. Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak. Ratty, ratty. But four triple two, to be fair, is a very good formation.

[00:32:25] Same with the four, two, three, one. It's balanced. It'll not leave you overly exposed. Maybe not as fun and fluid going forward. But like I said, four triple two is working the charm for me. A lot of it though, even in the four, three, two, one,

[00:32:37] as you try to lead to in our Discord chat, a lot of it is about the players that you have in positions. You've got to make sure you've got the right players, the right work rates, and this year, especially with the right play styles.

[00:32:47] So I think if you get a good combination of everything, you could probably rock almost any formation semi-effectively. Yeah. And it's always difficult, I find, to know, is my formation being weak or strong, or is it the caliber of the opponent I'm playing? That I find hard.

[00:33:05] I'm with you. I'm on the four triple two bandwagon. I think it's a very solid formation and very balanced. I also would say four, two, three, one is still very, very good, especially if you've got a little bit of patience to build up. One striker doesn't suit everybody.

[00:33:18] But if you've got, especially, a bigger, stronger striker that can do it all, someone like a DVA drug butt to lead that line. I think it's an ideal formation to give you that bit of stability and almost forces you to be a bit more patient

[00:33:31] when you build up. And I think patience pays off so much in this game, Nathan. If you actually just take that time to go backwards or sideways a couple of times in the build up, you're going to create generally a better chance than rushing forward,

[00:33:44] looking for the through ball straight away, looking for the big cross into the box. But you made a really great point. It's all about personnel as well. You know, I see people trying to lob crosses into the box when they've got team the AMSE there.

[00:33:57] And what's the point? They're barely going to win a header. Why are you doing that? And likewise. So yeah, try and figure out what your best team and your way of playing is and go from there. But I think John's right.

[00:34:11] You need to be able to defend well to use 4-3-2-1 at the higher levels. And I think if you're sort of Division 3 and below, I still think you can get away with it. I still think it's obviously a decent amount of protection.

[00:34:23] But yeah, you might get exposed that little bit more if you're not confident with manual defending towards the sharp end. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I'm not trying to go too much into the coaching world like we're used to, but lots of people step out.

[00:34:36] And like you say, if people are being patient, I still do it as well, but I'm very aggressive. So I do leave myself open. So that's why I don't leave it a chance for those formations anymore. Because I do love to either try and crunch somebody

[00:34:46] with a terrible tackle or just try and close the space down too quickly. Whereas if you're a little bit more passive until the right time where you need to be, it's a good formation. But also seeing people try and use 4-3-2-1

[00:34:59] to try and overwhelm the opponent. So they'll try and get two or three quick goals and try and force that rage quite which the way that rivals is just now. You don't get anything sort of negative for rage quitting.

[00:35:09] So you do see a lot of people trying to overwhelm you and creeping back in these quits, if someone goes 1-0 up and you get it back to 1-0, seeing a lot more people quitting out and even at 0-0 if you're playing better

[00:35:21] or they can't quite break you down, then it's seeing the quit cultures come straight back I think. Yeah, that kind of leads us nice. We have got one more question that we'll get to at the end of the show. That point there about quitting and sort of

[00:35:33] bailing out at games leads us nicely into just how you're feeling about this game at the moment because I watched a little clip for I think from Nepenthez who was saying one of his weekend leagues he played was made so much better by just going right.

[00:35:47] If I'm 2-0 down or I'm getting bested by this person, I'm just going to walk away. I'm just going to walk away, quit the game, go for a cup of tea or whatever and come back and play again rather than getting frustrated at being fighting and fighting

[00:36:02] and fighting in losing causes. And I think it's an attitude that I'm trying to take now going forward and I think it's really helped me with my rivals, not so much my champs, I'm still getting the same amount of wins, but certainly rivals. I'm not sticking out.

[00:36:14] I've taught so much in this podcast about feeling like I've wasted time and I lose games in rivals. Now even if it's a fairly close score, if I would get the feeling I'm being overwhelmed, I'm just like, do you know what? I'm going to move on.

[00:36:27] And I think just trying to have that more casual, if I'm not enjoying a particular game or feel I'm in a fair contest, I'm just going to move on. Yeah, I'm with you on that.

[00:36:38] I kind of have in my head that if I ever seem to go 3-0, that's where I quit out. I'll never quit when it's a draw because that really annoys me. No, no, no. I hate when people do that.

[00:36:48] Give up a golden leave if you're going to do that. 100%. And to be fair, we all know how often, and how easy the game swings. So if you're one or two down, you get the next goal, then it's a different game. So I'm all for sticking out.

[00:37:00] But as soon as I go 3-0 down and it's a warranted 3, it's not just like a three lucky goals. And I still think there's something in me. If I've missed two or three big chances, then I'll keep going. But usually if I'm 3-0 down, I'll say, right,

[00:37:11] well done, pal. And see you later. So I'm all for that. It makes me feel a lot more relaxed. I've been able to do weak and lead because I speedrun at anyway usually. So it kind of comes into that in rivals.

[00:37:21] I mean, you've managed to climb the ladder to the highest point. And once you get to elite, I don't really care about my skill rating whatsoever. I just want the rewards on a Thursday. So if I am getting beaten elite, I'll quit out.

[00:37:35] I'm not getting my milestones I need to try and hit or any checkpoints I need to hit now. It's just get my seven wins. And then if I get more than that and there's nothing else to do, then I'll try and use the game as an improvement tool.

[00:37:45] But first and foremost, I'm rewarding result driven. So if that's not happening, then I'm happy to quit out. And there are lots of players in there that are a lot better than me. So I'm happy to admit that I got beaten by a better person.

[00:37:58] Yeah, I mean, what are some of the things that you've been picking up on over the past couple of weeks of gameplay? I mentioned that I thought this week and leave was particularly tough and sweaty. I'm not noticing a lot of quote unquote casual players anymore.

[00:38:09] I think most people playing this game now are very devoted to this game. And you can tell by the squads and just the way they play, the amount of players I'm facing, not just in rivals because I'll be expecting to face really good players

[00:38:22] being in Division I and elite in rivals. I'm talking just weak and league and playoffs even. Finding even playoffs a bit harder than they have been in recent weeks. A amount of people did step over speed boosts and five-star skill moves and things like this.

[00:38:34] I'm really noticing it and green timing shots and things like that. 4-3-2-1's rampant, absolutely rampant. We just talked about it with John. I'm facing that probably in what 75% of games? The right you? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, to be fair, that has been the formation

[00:38:50] of choice all the way through. I think some of the major pros and the major streamers used it quite early on. And the attacking AI is so overpowered with that, it does overwhelm you at times. So 4-3-2-1's pretty much what I'm finding,

[00:39:00] but I'm also realising that if you're a bit more patient and especially with the 4-2-2-1, you've got the wide cams. 4-3-2-1 usually sends one of the fullbacks forward at least. So if you can pick out which one's more adventurous, you can target that side.

[00:39:14] And the team's fairly balanced just now, so that's quite good. So I'm noticing that, like I said last week, once you get to elite, actually think it's a lot more casual because people are like us. You will get the odd game where at one point,

[00:39:26] I was, I think I was 800 and I got matched with someone that was 1250. Wow. And the guy was just a demon. And to be honest, it made me sick how good he was. And the golfing class was just brutal. But on the whole, it's a lot more casual.

[00:39:39] You don't get people seem to be celebrating. People aren't taking them out, watching every replay, taking all the bosses. It seems to be the nicest place to be, which is weird because I always thought that would be the sweatiest place to be.

[00:39:50] But Diff2, I always said at Diff2 was the hardest place to be. Didn't like that at all. It seemed to be really, really sweaty. Diff1 was hit and miss. And then elite just seems to be everyone's quite just, you know, it's almost like you're at a party.

[00:40:03] You've been invited to a party. You're not quite sure if you belong. And you're just really, really happy to be there. You have almost taken the worst part of my life. I was going to say elite division is like a mosh pit at heavy metal concert.

[00:40:13] For the outside, it looks deadly. You think I'm never going to get a win here. I'm going to get bruised and battered and we're going to be lucky to escape my life. But actually, if you ever go in a mosh pit or metal gig,

[00:40:27] you'll find it's actually probably one of the safest place to be because everybody is looking out for another. If you fall down, they pick you up. And if you accidentally bump into someone a bit too hard, though it starts a fight with you,

[00:40:38] everyone just kind of goes with it. It's just a really nice, actually friendly atmosphere. That's what elite seems to be because you've done all the hard work getting there and it's like nobody's overly sweating. Because like you say, skill rating means nothing.

[00:40:50] Everybody's out there to get their wins. So yeah, I haven't actually played many games in there yet, but that's been my certainly my impression of elite in the past. But is there anything that's triggering you at the moment? Is there anything that when you go into a game

[00:41:02] or your midway through a game, is there anything that's just making you, mention words and phrases and shout at things that would get you canceled on this very podcast? There's one thing that comes to mind with that question. And to be honest, it's the unexplained part

[00:41:17] of the Red Sea as I like to call it. So I could be playing a really nice compact game, defending well and all of a sudden my two centrebacks decide to go into the touch line and just allow an absolute chasm of space for your opponent

[00:41:28] to run right through the middle. I don't know why because I check my controls and I haven't triggered any runs. I haven't pressed anything I shouldn't have. The settings are fine that even the work rates on my centrebacks are good work rates with centrebacks.

[00:41:41] So it's really unexplainable why they do that, but they just seem to just disappear. So one through ball and there's an absolute acre of space. So that's really annoying because I don't feel like it's anything I've done. I've certainly not noticed it when I've watched my games back.

[00:41:56] So yeah, if it was quite consistent, it would be different. But it's at random times and random games and even at random scores. So that's really frustrating. But that's the only thing to be fair. Everything else, I'm okay with that.

[00:42:07] Like we're still getting a sweaty cut back goals, but you learn how to deal with them. I'm now being an absolute sweaty crosser where I just give it to Beckham and pick it in the drug burn. It's tremendous. So I can't really complain about that side of things.

[00:42:18] It's just my centrebacks. Just, you know, I don't know whether they're just going for a loop break halfway through the game or they're just going for a picnic or something. You know, getting a bit hungry, but so frustrating. How about you then? What's picking out for you?

[00:42:29] I mean, anything will trigger me at any given moment in a game. Usually I'm playing when I'm tired and that's never a best place to be. So, you know, I apologise to my smart speakers that hear me shout. Just the amount of swear words

[00:42:46] is just not very family friendly, put it this way. The only thing that caught my eye the other day when I was playing is losing headers in situations you just shouldn't lose them. I was in a situation in the day where

[00:42:58] out of nowhere, bomb pastore out jumped Soul Campbell about six yards out. And I'm sat there thinking, how has this player with aerial plus who was in position been out jumped by bomb pastore? It didn't make any sense. And that just little things like that.

[00:43:17] And like you say, when passes go astray, when you know full well, now there are two kinds of stray passes in FIFA that I'm sure most of us can relate to. There's the one way you say, oh, I didn't pass there, but actually, you know, deep down

[00:43:31] that you probably did pass there. And then but then there is the one where you know 100% and you go back and look, you didn't pass there and your player passes there. And invariably it's those second one in the second category that you'll give away a goal.

[00:43:45] And that's where I do lose it because I'm like, I tried to do the right thing. I've done the right thing. And you've punished me for no reason. Yeah, that's for sure. And we've played court when that's happened to both of us as well.

[00:43:59] It's that and the AI runs is that team of earner just makes the most stupid runs at times where you'll just kind of train close the space down and almost tackle you himself, which is quite interesting as well. Yeah, it's difficult.

[00:44:11] I mean, Vandijk for a long time was triggering me when I faced him in defense. I was just so sick of it. And thankfully Vandijk Gold card seems to have been phased out for the time being. Now, I think most people have moved on.

[00:44:25] And I'm probably why I'm having such good results now because I'm not facing him all the time. He's out of my head. And I don't have to worry about it anymore. But there are loads of things. And I think just to kind of close this thing

[00:44:37] is that remember that whatever level you're at, it's very hard to get a real gauge of how good or how well you're playing at this game because it is a one-on-one environment. And so much of this game is skill-based matchmaking. So as I said, the last week show,

[00:44:56] when I went back and played on my second account that was in like Div 8, you actually realized how many players are out there that if you faced them regularly, you would be getting a much higher win percentage. Logically speaking, if you're at the right ability level,

[00:45:11] you should be winning pretty much 50-50 because you're matching up against players that are your level. But if you were exposed to a completely open matchmaking pool and say you're a Div 2, Div 3 player, you'd probably be winning closer to 70, 80% of your games

[00:45:26] because you would be facing a lot less players. So don't get disheartened. Don't get discouraged if you are having things like a bad weekend league or you're struggling to get wins and rivals because all of us are there. We've all been there.

[00:45:37] Yes, there are certainly ways to improve and none more so than footcoaching.com. But also just understand it's just a natural part of the way this game is designed. It's designed to create that frustration to be pitting you against people of your level

[00:45:51] and therefore seeking ways to upgrade your team and give you that edge again. And I wonder where you go to do that. But that, I think anything else you wanted to bring up just on gameplay or your experiences over the last couple of weeks?

[00:46:03] No, I think we've covered everything to be honest. I think both enjoying it in their own ways. It'll be interesting to see what the changes to rewards do, what the promo of Tots does because it usually brings more players back.

[00:46:15] So it'll be interesting to see how that affects the game. So quite excited to see what happens going forward. Yeah, look, we haven't really prepped a player-in review this week but I did want to single out on the fly

[00:46:29] a couple of players that I've really enjoyed using this week. Number one is Sol Campbell. I think he's been a fantastic defender. I really like, but I think I mentioned him last week. Park Chi Sung's top level hero Galazzo card is a fantastic CM box-to-box.

[00:46:44] And also the big man himself, DDA Drogba, awesome. Just awesome all-round player. Can do bits of everything. So three players that I am very, very happy have made their way into my team. Anyone that's caught your eye over the past couple of weeks, Nathan? Not really.

[00:46:59] I was trying to not say him. I know you've packed him now as well, but we're both fortunate enough to have packed the 96 Pelé as well, who is just ridiculously good. I was going to do him for my player-in review last week,

[00:47:10] but we figured a 4m player or whatever he is probably isn't the best one to put out there. But a front two of Drogba and Pelé is amazing because it's a little enlarge. It's got everything that you need. Both of them are up-shooters. Both of them just tremendous.

[00:47:26] Pelé is wonderful. I know his price is going to drop with all these new players going hot. So it might be a chance for some people to get a hold of him. Apart from that, my team's actually not changed in the last couple of weeks, apart from Pelé.

[00:47:36] And I brought in the 91 village that I packed and did the EVO with him to 92, who's solid. I don't think he's the best center back out there. His 94 would probably be better. And I think there's better alternatives. But he's got a soft spot in my heart

[00:47:48] for being such a united legend and one of the great captains for my team. So I'm using him probably detrimental to my team. But yeah, that's the other two that I've kind of brought in recently. The actual 94-rated village is one of the hardest defenders

[00:48:03] I've had to face in this game for a long time. I'm glad more people aren't using him because again, he gave me very much van dyke. Van dyke vibes. Theory me. I need to retire from podcasting at this rate. Retire me gracefully.

[00:48:23] But yeah, he gives Van dyke vibes. Very, very difficult to get past. So I can understand why so many people do the EVOs. I use my EVO on Desi-E and I'm very impressed with him. I'm running him and Campbell as am I back to at the moment.

[00:48:34] My front four has been a kill. By the way, if hearing people about good pack luck triggers you, please turn off at this point. As I am, yes, as Nace said, looks on the video show. I am about to flex.

[00:48:49] I've been toying around with my front four at the moment because I'm blessed with players. And at the moment, I'm going with a Timo Verna and Messi team of the year front two with Pelé and Sons foot birthday as my wide cams.

[00:49:04] I kind of want to bring Jogba back, but it's very hard to drop either Verna or Messi. Messi is that classic. And I know Envy had this conversation on the pod a few weeks ago. You almost feel that you can't drop him

[00:49:17] because he does something so magical over now and then, even though in my heart hearts, I know he's not my play style. So anyway, for those of you still listening and haven't been driven off by our pack luck, thank you for sticking with us.

[00:49:29] We will wrap up the show just after this very quick question from Envy himself who says, do you think the new rewards for squad battles, rivals and champs will bring more players back to the game? Not sure whether the rewards are alone will,

[00:49:40] but I think the promo certainly will. I think you'll see a lot more people coming back as we always do this. Usually a drop off after team of the year, maybe a couple of weeks after the team of the year,

[00:49:50] and you do usually see an upturn around the top. So I think the new rewards will help, but I certainly think that the promo itself will come back. Will bring people back. Yeah, they'll encourage more people who are on the fence,

[00:50:01] you know, people like yourself, Nathan, who are like, oh, they're not sure if I can do it for a weekend league. I'll probably just leave it. It'll encourage, I think, those people to play a bit more. So I think the player pool might go up a little bit,

[00:50:12] even if it doesn't draw in that many people either new to the game or returning. I'm sure we're going to get, we're getting close to that point where the game becomes free on EA Play as well. And of course, the game will be continually discounted

[00:50:25] as we get towards the new game. So we might see a steady trickle of new players in as we get to the summer. The Euros might spark a bit of interest as well. But yeah, I think these are good rewards

[00:50:35] that are only going to help in that regard. So look, fun of you things to mention. Nate talked about it earlier in the show. We are now doing mini player reviews. You may have seen John's face popping up on your socials.

[00:50:46] Of course, foot coaching the main place to be for all of those. He's doing these very brief reviews, giving the pros and cons of players in sort of under a minute or so. So there's mentions we've had ones on the likes of Eric Dyer

[00:50:58] for you to check out right now. And those will be continuing going forward. If you've got any feedback again, please leave them on the socials or send them to footinreview at gmail.com. Again, the Discord is open to all now. The link will be posted along the show.

[00:51:11] We've had some more new faces pop up this week. Great to see. I've had some really great conversations, discussions going in the Discord. Our Patreon very much still open for business, patreon.com, for slash foot in review. If you like what we're doing

[00:51:23] and you want to show your appreciation, no better place to do it. Look, we appreciate every five star review, every thumbs up, every like, but I'm not going to sit here and lie that the people that put in their hard earned money towards us go that extra mile

[00:51:37] and have more of our appreciation. We understand that times are tight, but the people that are directly supporting this show, you know, what's the point in sugarcoating it? We absolutely love you. And thank you very much for doing so, because it helps buy equipment,

[00:51:51] it helps improve the podcast, it helps fund lots of new things where we want to try out something new or a new piece of software. That's why that money goes. So thank you very much to those of you who do so.

[00:52:01] And of course there are lots of perks, like merch, access to other shows, ad free access to this show, and much, much more as well. We'd like to give in return as well for your generosity. And I think that's just about it, Nate.

[00:52:12] Of course, the guys will return for on Friday night, recounting all of the start of Team The Season. Again, what we believe is going to be Team The Season Live, but any closing thoughts from you, Nate? No, just enjoy it. This is the, you know,

[00:52:26] we keep saying it's entering towards silly season now. Hopefully everybody listened to this, gets really, really good patluck. Don't take it all low, because I'm sure Dan, you and I would would quite appreciate some of the top tier cards. But no, enjoy it. Exactly, feast away.

[00:52:44] But no, it's a good place to be. Hopefully people joined the Discord. Like you said, it's free. It's been really good fun recently. And yeah, just embrace it, because I think it's quite easy to get caught up in the despots rubbish, because I've done something wrong,

[00:52:56] or that's rubbish or whatever. But actually, this is the time of year where it's really good fun experiment. Just relax, Chill. Don't take things too seriously, unless you are wanting to grind to that 20 or whatever. But you know, embrace it, appreciate it.

[00:53:09] And hopefully we'll catch everybody in the Discord. Yeah, and a great example in the Discord this week. We had someone that's just gone 14 and 5 in Weekend League, his best result, 15 and 5, sorry, in Weekend League, his best result for a long time. And it's just such fantastic,

[00:53:23] and great to celebrate that with them. And then we've had somebody else that's been on a miserable losing streak in rivals and seeing them finally get wins and find new ways to win and get over that hump. It's just as satisfying.

[00:53:34] This can feel like a very lonely game at times, and that's why communities like the Discord and this podcast, we hope, you know, we try and bring you authentic experiences. Believe me, this is what me and Nathan actually think about the game. Maybe there are a few occasions

[00:53:47] where we'd like to use some spicy language. But other than that, what you hear and see if you're watching on the video show is what you get. So hopefully we're providing something for you. And again, if you've got any things

[00:54:01] that you'd like us to do more of or less of, you know, all the places to go. Only one thing for us left to do, Nathan. Drop it. They're gonna drop it.