$50 for a single 117 OVR is too much

The FCM store is currently advertising a “400% value” — 100 draft vouchers for $50. As we all know, those 100 vouchers are enough to guarantee you a single Pool A player (either a 117 or 116). That means it costs at least $50 to win a 117 (because although you might luck out and win a Pool A card before your 100th draft, 50% of the time it’s going to be a 116, not a 117!).

So, let’s say you want to assemble an entire squad of these top-rated 117 players. Simple math suggests that will run you about $550! Why? Because most of the time you will need all 100 drafts to bag a Pool A player, 50% of which will be 116s, and some are bound to be either duplicates or players at positions for which you already have a top-rated player. This means that, even if you take into account the use of the exchanges as well as earned vouchers, you are still probably looking at a cost of somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 (if not more) to assemble a meta squad. And how long will those players remain top/meta players — maybe three months if you’re lucky?!

The math here is not rocket science (it’s mostly multiplication and addition), but the conclusion is inescapable — it is now impossible for anyone of modest means to build a top squad in FCM. $500 is well beyond the reach of the vast majority of FCM users. And since the grind of F2P has been greatly devalued under the new draft/exchange regime, there is really no path whatsoever for the majority of users to remain competitive. For example, I’m F2P and since the drafts began I’ve won just two 116s and one 117 (and the last wasn’t even at a position [CDM] that I use). Folks like me used to be able to claim at least 1-2 meta cards (of our choosing!) per event under the old system and maintain a squad capable of competing at the lower tiers of FC Champions across the various modes. But now the squads we spent more than a year (and hundreds of hours) to assemble are being nerfed to oblivion as the drafts bring forth 116s and 117s that are priced totally out of reach. 

I can’t express how disheartening and disrespectful this feels. The message EA is sending (however unintentionally) is that it does not care about MOST of the FCM community. It has set the price point for competitiveness out of our reach and thereby made us second-class citizens literally overnight. What’s the point in spending $50 (much less $500!) if it provides no guarantee of improving my team in the immediate term, AND why spend $50 in the first place for momentary competitiveness if sustaining it is ENTIRELY beyond my means? It’s all a recipe for making whole lot of us want to quit.

So, my question to EA is this:  Is this just how it’s going to be from here on out? Is the game now geared to exploit the “whales” with the deep pockets and leave the rest of us to suck eggs? If not, then something has to change…and soon. Those of us who are watching more than a year’s worth of work go up in smoke are not going to forget this disrespect, and when we leave we won’t be coming back.