by theygamesMillions of people play Ultimate Team each year in EA FC (and previously FIFA), and pretty much all of them will lose their minds at least once over an opponent quitting while the game is level and not receiving the win. Sure, the game could’ve gone either way, but if your opponent forfeits in a real game of soccer, you will be the one walking away with a W. Players have begged for years for EA Sports to change its stance on this, and now it’s finally happening. The next FC 25 update is going to award a win if your FUT opponent leaves while drawing. Let the celebrations commence.
One thing that’s frustrated me a lot about the FIFA and EA FC series over the years is how EA Sports tackles community feedback. Things have gotten better in recent times, but highly-requested features or improvements often take a while to be implemented – usually waiting until the next year’s new annual title, or even longer than that. Things feel a little different in FC 25, though. The sports game felt pretty good out of the box, but the developers have made a concerted effort to really improve the experience, and not just from a game balance perspective.
Carrying on that trend, the next update to FC 25 may just go down as one of the best patches in the EA FC/ FIFA series’ history. If, like me, you’ve spent hundreds or thousands of hours in Division Rivals and FUT Champions over the years, you’ll know that I’m not exaggerating when I say that.
“We have heard the community’s frustration about not receiving a win when an opponent leaves a tied Football Ultimate Team match,” EA Sports says in a new set of patch notes. “This is a complex space, and we want to ensure fair competitive play. When we change how players get wins, draws, or losses, exploits may occur, impacting fair play, so we must be careful about how we make these changes. With that said, we want to try to make progress here, so in an upcoming Server Release, we’ll update how some online match outcomes are determined.”
Here’s how things will work. You’ll only be granted the win if either of these conditions are met: 45 or more minutes have passed, the quitting player makes a foul that results in you getting a penalty kick, or the quitting player has received a red card. EA Sports also specifically states that the opponent must leave via “the Quit option from the in-game Pause Menu” for the win to be awarded, which sounds to me like the art of ‘dashboarding’ for console players may get around this.
To help prevent any cheating and coordinated boosting, EA Sports says you’ll only be able to earn five wins from an opponent quitting in a 24-hour period.
Even though there are these limitations and conditions, this is still a huge win for Ultimate Team players – especially those that grind week in and week out at FUT Champions. The crazy part is that there are two other highly requested changes coming in this patch too.
The first is a new overall rating filter that you can use when searching players. You’ll be able to put in a minimum and maximum overall and only players in that range will show. This is super handy for those looking to grab cheap players of a specific rating for Squad Building Challenges, and is another quality of life change that the community has begged for for years.
The other is a second slot for Evolutions. Evolution cards have been a welcome addition to the EA FC series, but currently you can only lock in one player at a time to upgrade. With this new patch, though, you’ll be able to run two simultaneously.
So, with the new filter, the additional Evolution slot, and the change to match outcomes, this FC 25 patch is an all-timer. No specific rollout date was given, but EA Sports says you’ll see it drop in “the coming days.”
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