You are spot on about lad being caused by relative distance to the server … the EA team introduced regions a while back, and it drastically improved h2h play, but there was a huge player backlash to it because you could no longer gave league mates or friends outside of your region, so they reverted back to the previous model of a worldwide player base, with region first matching … unfortunately it does not work as well as region based player groups, and H2H is very hard to get a decent game in if you are a long way from the nearest server.
it doesn’t impact VSA as you play that locally, and it doesn’t impact MM as your inputs are irrelevant to that, it’s just AI playing each other on whichever server is closest.
if all you want from the game is to play H2h, then unless you live close to a server, it will always be a lottery as to whether it is a playable match or not.
for me, it is pretty much never playable, so I don’t bother and focus on the other game modes.
on whether the EA team test or play H2H … of course they do, they also live in very close proximity to the servers though, so you know 🤷♀️
A football game where you can’t have a decent 11v11 match is absurd, lol! And for EA to knowingly keep it that way makes me think even less of them.
Even if I wanted to play VSA all day (which I definitely don’t—it’s repetitive and dull), they’ve made it so that H2H is still an unavoidable part of the game. I mean, I still want to earn rewards that absolutely require me to play it. So it’s not as though they know it’s broken and decided to de-emphasize it by creating alternate pathways that enable users to win all the same rewards without playing H2H. Whether it’s Division Rivals, or Club Challenge, or even some of the holiday events, H2H play in the 11v11 format is pretty essential to acquiring good cards and building a strong team (particularly if, like me, you’ve decided you’ll never give EA your money so long as they fail to improve their game).
No, at the end of the day, I still maintain that EA has blown it by creating a football game where you can’t even play a proper 11v11 match. It’s a disrespect to the sport as well as all of us who love it. I get that there are trade-offs, but to sell out playability in order for people to use the game as some sort of alt “social” app speaks volumes about EA’s priorities. I’ve been playing their games long enough to remember the original tagline—“If it’s in the game, it’s in the game.” It was a commitment to making video games that were true to the sports they celebrated. But that ship seems to have sailed. They’ve turned FC Mobile into little more than a casino you visit to collect cards. Actually playing football with the players on those cards in any sort of meaningful way (namely, 11v11 against other users’ best XI) has obviously become a secondary (if not tertiary) priority. Sad.
Like I said - they moved to a regions based format that improved h2h gameplay and people complained like there was no tomorrow … so, while I agree that h2h could easily be improved by again segmenting the player base, it is unlikely to happen because that is seemingly not what the player base wants.
If that’s not to your liking, then yep, time to find a football game that better caters to your preference
