FC 26 Open Letter: Well-Being, Matchmaking, Meta, Toxicity, Scoring

Hello,

I’m writing this as someone who genuinely loves football and wants to compete — but who increasingly feels that EA SPORTS FC 26 can grind people down mentally. Not because “someone lost,” but because the online experience is structured in a way that amplifies frustration, compulsive play loops, and toxic behaviour.

I used to play football. Today, FC is one of my few real, emotional connections to the sport. I’m also post-addiction therapy, so I’m extremely aware of how certain designs create pressure loops: FOMO, “one more game,” anger escalation, helplessness, and the shame that comes after you get dragged into it. That’s why I believe player well-being should be treated as a real design responsibility — not a PR checkbox.

1. Matchmaking & events: “testing yourself” shouldn’t mean getting executed
   I’m in Division 5 and I consider that a big achievement. In FUT Champions I went 7–8 and I was genuinely happy with my rewards. So I can compete. The problem is that in events/tournaments (like the recent lightweight/middleweight/heavyweight formats), I’m too often matched against players clearly far beyond my level, and the games end in scorelines like 10–2 or worse.

The most mentally damaging part isn’t losing — it’s how many matches feel like an execution. Even when it’s obvious I’m not keeping up anymore and I’ve stopped pressing, some opponents keep going full throttle: constant pressure, forcing more and more goals as if the objective is humiliation. The game doesn’t discourage it — and in practice, it often rewards it (objectives, stat-padding, faster progress, the “thrill” of domination).

This isn’t only a community problem. Design shapes behaviour.

1. Meta abuse & anti-football as the “optimal” path
   Online is flooded with the same patterns: 4-5-1 and 4-4-2, two lines on top of the box, deep blocks, and automated pressure/auto-closing. I play my own way — 4-3-3 (4), attacking, high line — because I want to feel football and be different. I accept the risk. The issue is that FC 26 often feels like it systemically rewards repetition and automation over actual football-like competition.

The result is that even when I match someone “around my level,” the game becomes a draining loop: circulating the ball for minutes, waiting for a single mistake, because the opponent is sitting with two lines in front of their box. That’s not just boring — it’s mentally exhausting. It turns matches into constant tension with very little joy.

1. Ultimate Team creativity: I’m not asking to remove it — I’m asking to protect it
   I’m not here to complain about playstyles or the concept of Evolutions. I actually like that they require careful choices and that decisions have consequences.

I build my squad my way: a full team from my region, based on players from the Polish Ekstraklasa. That’s the point of UT for me. If I make a bad choice, that’s on me — not because a YouTuber told me to do it. That sense of ownership is healthy. It’s meaningful. And it’s exactly why the online ecosystem shouldn’t feel dominated by copy-paste meta setups and toxic win-at-all-costs behaviour.

1. Scoring balance & “hockey scorelines”
   In FC 26, I regularly see matches ending 6–7, 7–8, and similar. I even see “pro” content and card reviews where someone calls a card “amazing” while the background score is 6–7. That raises a serious question: has online drifted too far away from football-like scoring and defensive reliability?

I also want to mention the finesse shot situation. At one point, there was a bug/balance change that effectively nerfed finesse shots, and suddenly people stopped spamming them every attack. The community complained loudly — and I get it, you can’t satisfy everyone — but from my perspective it was one of the rare moments where gameplay finally breathed, because there wasn’t one obvious “press this for a goal” pattern dominating every match.

I’m not asking for the game to be “easy” or “hard” for one side. I’m asking for goals to feel more earned and matches to feel more football-like: 1–0, 2–1, 3–2 as the norm — and 7–8 as the exception. Less chaos reduces tilt, reduces toxicity, and lowers the mental pressure that drives people into unhealthy loops.

1. What EA can actually do (concrete, actionable)
   A) Event matchmaking protection

• Narrow the skill gaps in limited-time events and tournaments.
• Match more strongly by performance within the event (form/results), not just broad profiles.
• Add stronger protection for average players so “testing yourself” doesn’t mean a chain of humiliating blowouts.

1. B) Meta / automation pressure balancing

• If 4-5-1 / 4-4-2 deep blocks plus automated pressure dominate this heavily, that’s a balance signal — not “player preference.”
• Reduce the efficiency of the most repeatable, low-decision patterns that turn matches into a grind and push people into one-style gameplay.

1. C) Sportsmanship & anti-toxicity incentives

• Introduce systems that promote sportsmanlike play and discourage farming goals against clearly weaker opponents.
• Remove or reduce incentives that reward running up the score until the final minute.
• Reward “normal” match behaviour rather than humiliation gameplay.

1. D) Small event idea (a well-being lever, mentioned briefly)

• Consider goals/objectives that promote “a normal match” rather than total domination — e.g., an objective where both teams must score, counted only when the opponent scores normally (not via own goals). Small rules like this can shift player mentality from “crush” to “play the match.”

To be clear: I want competition. I want to test myself. I want to build and play my own squad identity. But I don’t want online to mean constant humiliating blowouts and contact with behaviour that looks like deliberately breaking the opponent.

FC 26 can be football for different kinds of people — but that requires design choices that reduce toxic incentives and reduce the dominance of one repeatable meta path.

Please forward this feedback to the teams responsible for: matchmaking, gameplay balance, UT/event design, and player well-being/community safety. If you need platform/region details, playtime windows, or match examples, I can provide them.

Sincerely,
Damian