One FIFA Ultimate Team player highlights the obscene costs of building a high-end squad
A FIFA Ultimate Team player believes the system is rigged.
The EAGate scandal, which saw EA staff allegedly sell rare FIFA Ultimate Team cards to players for thousands of dollars, allowing them to skip the process of playing the game or spending money on loot boxes, won't be one EA forgets very soon.
It caused EA to kick off an investigation, but it also had a ripple effect within the community. Namely, it highlighted how nearly impossible it can be for normal players to get these cards through the proper means, whether that be playing the game, or dumping money into player packs.
Twitch streamer ScudzTV took to Twitter to lay out the proper paths for players to earn these ultra-rare cards, and demonstrate how out of reach they are to the majority of players.
"You claim that everyone can get all players they desire without spending money on the game," they begin, before giving the example of their dream team, a squad worth 100 million coins (in-game currency).
To earn the 100 million coins necessary to build that team, ScudzTV would have to play 66,666 games, assuming a win of 1,500 per game. To maximise profits, those matches would need to be 20 minutes each, which translates to 22,000 hours (916 days) of gameplay - that's 916 full days of uninterrupted gameplay.
Another way of acquiring the dream squad is to monitor the transfer market for deals. "Assuming an average of 10,000 coins profit per trade I need to make a mere 10,000 trades," ScudzTV explained. "Assuming I trade 10,000 every 10 minutes, I will need to trade for 1,650 hours or 69 days of trading 24/7.
The easier, less grindy option, of course, would be to spend real money on FIFA Points, which are then used to buy and open packs in the hopes that you luck out enough times to get what you want.
"Assuming an average of 100,000 coins profit per 12,000 FIFA Points spend, I need to purchase 1000x 12,000 FIFA Points," they posit. "At a cost of £79.99 ($111) per 12,000, I will need to spend a total of £79,990 ($111,000) on FIFA Points."
"The stance you take is unethical," they added. "You are encouraging your community to spend HUGE amounts of time playing your game at detriment to mental health, or encouraging your community to spend (for most) an unethical amount of money at detriment to financial health."
These revelations aren't new, of course, but the recent controversy really helped put a spotlight on why people would go to those lengths to acquire rare FIFA Ultimate Team cards.