Forum Discussion

ibelalramadan's avatar
ibelalramadan
Rising Scout
1 day ago

Fair Competition Should Include Experience

This is becoming a daily problem for me in Rivals, and I honestly do not understand why EA has not addressed it.

I am currently playing in Division 8, and this is an example of the type of opponent I can face.

The player in the screenshot has been playing FIFA/FC for years. His PlayStation profile shows hundreds of hours in FIFA 20, more than 800 hours in FIFA 21, and a huge amount of experience in other games as well.

So I have a simple question for EA:

How am I supposed to have a fair and competitive match against someone with this level of experience?

I am not saying that experienced players should not be allowed to play the game. Of course they should.

The problem is matchmaking.

If one account has been playing FIFA/FC for less than a year, why should that player regularly be matched against someone who has been playing the game for five, six, seven or even more years?

Division alone cannot measure a player's experience.

Two players can be in the same Division while having completely different levels of knowledge, experience, gameplay habits and understanding of the game.

This is why I believe years of experience should become one of the factors considered by the matchmaking system.

For example, an account that has been playing for one year should primarily be matched with players who have a similar level of experience, whenever the matchmaking pool allows it.

Of course, I understand that matchmaking cannot always find a perfect opponent. There will always be exceptions, and I am not asking for a system that guarantees an easy opponent.

I am asking for a system that tries to create a fair starting point.

EA already shows us information about our opponents after matches, including their Division and other information about their history.

So if this information exists, why can't some of it be used to improve matchmaking?

We constantly hear about improving the competitive experience, but competitive does not simply mean putting two players in the same Division together.

Fair competition means giving both players a reasonable opportunity to compete.

I should lose because my opponent played better than me.

I should not feel that I lost before the match even started because I was matched against someone with many more years of experience.

Please EA, consider adding experience as one of the matchmaking factors.

We don't want easier matches.

We want fairer matches.

discussion
esports

1 Reply

  • ricsilver063's avatar
    ricsilver063
    New Ace
    1 day ago

    Last year, too, there were serious matchmaking issues with FC26; we reported them here on the forum multiple times, but unfortunately, no one listened. I actually gave up on FUT in mid November because of those problems... In all my years of gaming, I had never experienced such frustration and disappointment! These issues weren't limited to Rivals, either; they affected every other online competition like Gauntlet, where winning a match was nearly impossible for me. I just don't understand how they fail to realize how important competition progression is to a player. Like you said, even in Divisions 8 and 9, I often felt like I was playing against people four or five divisions higher than me. Another major mistake they made was almost entirely removing the checkpoints that prevented relegation. In earlier editions, those checkpoints meant you didn't have to deal with the constant frustration of getting relegated and ending up back at square one like in the game *Snakes and Ladders*. I didn't buy the game this year once I realized nothing was going to change. During the promotional phase, the talk was almost exclusively about "The Ground" and the card gallery not a single word about these issues! The highly anticipated GTA comes out this November, and from what I’ve read, a lot of people are going to abandon EAFC. We’ll see if they realize whether or not it was the right move to ignore passionate players like us even if we aren't the most skilled ones out there.

Recent Discussions