What MUT should learn from Regs
The new patch is amazing. It's great for the game. Keep going in this direction, please!
I have been so happy with the new patch. It fixes so many issues. The loop blitzing is now manageable. Match coverage is much improved. And defenses FINALLY (after years) have started to make adjustments and not just sit in the same defense the entire game blitzing on every down (at least the smart players have).
During the last month I've been playing Regs almost exclusively for the following reasons:
1. The game was broken (pre-patch) in ways that made MUT a toxic cesspool of intolerable play calling. Relatively speaking, that has been fixed.
2. My Browns theme team had no chance of winning more than 5% of the games I played in MUT. Now with the new patch that percentage has likely increased to about 10%. Unfortunately, the difference between my theme team and the average MUT team doesn't allow my team to do even the most basic blocking and tackling. Nor does it allow for fundamental abilities like throwing and catching. So, no more MUT for me despite spending more money on it to get Myles Garrett. He's good, but he's not going to impact much when the other 10 players on my defense are unable to cover or tackle anyone.
3. MUT is stupidly expensive. I get it, you're probably all judged on how much money you can squeeze out of 13-year-olds. But the amount of money I'm paying should at least give me the players I actually like and not the players you guys like (I'm thinking of you, EA executive that likes the west coast teams and every single year pump those theme teams up beyond what's reasonable).
I didn't want to play regs because it's not part of the MCS, the players are not as competitive (or as good at the highest levels), and I don't get to customize my team at all. But after years of paying for the pleasure of not getting what I want in MUT, I decided to give it a try. And WOW am I happy I did. Regs is fantastic, but for the limitations I mentioned above.
Regs is really balanced, it's a lot of fun to play, it's easy to learn and hard to master. It has more strategy elements because of the game planning and the lack of super players all over the field. It's really what competitive Madden should be all about in a lot of ways.
I'm going to give you a few examples:
1. In MUT, if I run stretch out of a 3 TE set, I can't set the edge. Ever. Why is that? Because I don't have Gronk. He's the only non-offensive lineman in MUT that can set the edge due to his run blocking being at 87. That's it, that's my only viable option. So forget about if I like Gronk, or if I want him on my team. Forget about can I afford to buy Gronk. That's my only option. I just have to use Gronk. After that, the next most viable TE is some guy from the Bengals or maybe Kittle, but there's a huge drop off, and you're not going to get the type of Gronk setting the edge action you need to make stretch or any other outside run viable. Gronk or nothing.
In Regs, I don't need Gronk. I can use normal TE's that have ok run blocking and get the ball outside. Furthermore, I can run to either side of whatever formation I'm in and not tip off my entire outside running game pre-snap by telegraphing to everyone "Gronk is over here, this is where I have to run!"
But it's not just about only having one good TE for blocking, it's way more than that. It's the fact that I can gameplan to "run to the outside" and get a boost that my opponent may not have game planed for. This means my opponent will have to overcompensate for my outside running game, and maybe sitting in pinch buck 0 all game isn't the best strategy for that? Spoiler, it's absolutely not. It also means that at halftime my opponent tired of seeing Jerome Ford get 160 yards off of 6 carries, may decide to game plan for the outside run instead of whatever min/max pass defense strategy gets the most interceptions, and the chess match has begun! Because I'm now running inside, or maybe I'm throwing deep in the second half and we're both going to have to THINK about what we're doing. Which is when I love Madden the most.
But it all starts with having players that can do what you need them to do in the first place. And MUT doesn't offer that unless you want to run bunch and pass on every play. MUT content assumes that the only players that are important are WR's, and DB's. And MUT content assumes that everyone's ultimate team begins and ends with those two positions, and oh yeah, all the players come from the 49ers, Seahawks, Steelers, Bucks, and Cowboys. So enjoy MUT family. If you have other teams that you like we'll see you in March when competitive play is over!
2. Here's another example of REGs being awesome.
The teams are not 100% full of great players. This creates drama, and strategy that MUT can't duplicate. What happens when Stephon Diggs goes one on one with Denzel Ward? What happens when Myles Garrett matches up with Trent Williams? Who wins the match up between a Nick Chubbless Browns team and an Aaron Rodgersless Jets team?
In MUT, every player is "the best" if you paid enough money for it. So the game just does what it does and the "pro players' exploit that to their advantage running the same plays over and over again. It's completely ignorant and it's not football. In Regs, you can still do that, but your limited by the team you have and the team the other player has. So maybe you take the Chiefs every game in Regs, as they're as close to a MUT team in Regs as you can get. But do they match up well against the Browns defense? Probably not as well as you'd like. And THAT is very important because that's how you know who the good players are in this game. There are so many people that are only good in MUT because of the team they have. They have no ability to scheme or adjust or do anything requiring skill. That just shouldn't exist in competitive play.
I would argue that many of the people that have won belts fall into this category to some degree as "finding the meta" has nothing to do with football IQ or ability. It just has to do with spending lots of money and time to find whatever dumbs down the game logic in the most effective way.
And again, yes you can do that in Regs, but the impact is not as pronounced as it is in MUT where you have no difference in players. Everyone has Josh Allen, Myles Garrett, and Derwin James. All the players are super fast and strong. There are dumb limitations on available players so you can't seven do what you want to do in the game even if you're willing to spend the money to do it. In Regs I can run inside or outside with any team. In Regs I can throw the ball down field with any team.
The Browns offense is 76 overall but I can still move the ball and win games. In MUT, I would get beat by 60 points to a kid playing with his toes. It's just not a good product.
There are three things I recommend you do to fix this:
1. Continue to make the game more authentic. This patch is a great thing, and you need to just keep going in this direction. I can't stress this enough. It's wonderful. The patch is good!
2. You need find a way to make all the MUT teams viable while still getting your money (I get it). Here's what I don't understand though, why are you forcing me to have Gronk? Why can't I put Gronk stats on Charley Hughlett from the Browns? I understand that Charley Hughlett is not Gronk, but I'll bet he can at least make a block! Why not give me a way to pump up Charley Hughlett's stats so he can be used competitively based on what he does best, block? Give me a way to make all my Browns players GOOD and let my theme team compete.
This would be soooooo good for MUT because it would open up more creatively in play calling and team building. You'd see people more engaged because they would be able to create the players they wanted; not pick from the players you wanted them to pick from. People like me would pay for that!
Myles Garrett is the best defensive lineman in the game. It's statistically proven. But in MUT he's like the 4th best this week? Let me modify his stats so that he's the best. Sell me player shells and let me fill in and mold the shells with skins and abilities and stats that scale to whatever the cap is that week. That would make the only barrier to entry money, which I doubt will ever change.
3. Be more thoughtful with the stats you allow into MUT. Apparently, it's ok to have 90 or 91 speed in the game but not allow defensive backs to have that much speed? Apparently, it's ok to allow 90 block shed but not that level of run blocking for TE's? I mean the stats really matter all over the place, and if you don't give players diversity to choose from, then you are killing playing styles that people like me care about. Even if spent $1000 to make the best team I could in MUT, it still won't be able to do what my Regs team does. And that really stinks.
If I had my way, I would create a defense built on zone coverage that would tire out the offense and be extremely tough in the redzone. I would have a ball control offense that would minimize the possessions of my opponents and efficiently and methodically move the ball down the field. That's not really possible in MUT right now because of content and gameplay. But I think that's what you guys should be working to fix so that my style of play and more diverse styles of play can be supported. To do that, you have to start thinking about how one style of play can exist but not overpower all the other styles of play. In Regs that's happening more organically because it mirrors the NFL. But in MUT it's not happening at all because the content is not diverse and the incentives (game play) have not made other styles of play viable.
Please consider. Good luck!
