EA’s FIFA and the Attempts to Develop an Esports
Yuriy SheremetFIFA is a staple of bestseller lists across many regions of the globe. It’s a phenomenon which reaches devoted to casual gamers, those who have an impassioned interest in football and those who are peripheral. The sport it replicates being so popular helps, but, nonetheless, it has taken a special effort and product for FIFA to reach the status it has. With this global standing in mind and its relationship with football, the fact that FIFA doesn’t have a considerable esports branch is somewhat surprising. If EA did manage to craft a functioning and successful competition, could it rival some of football’s events and tournaments?
FIFA and Football Culture
FIFA and football culture are interwoven. They influence each other frequently. Clips and glitches from the game are used as memes to react to football events, dreamt-up transfer windows discussed in the comments and replies of a major team’s social media posts are labelled as ‘FIFA transfer windows’ due to their impossibility, and the sport’s superstars compete in and tweet about the same tournaments that amateur gamers are involved in. The player’s on-field performances are reflected by new representations in FIFA where average gamers can try to earn the chance to use them. It’s an ecosystem.
The player-base’s eagerness for the sport and the game creates a fertile market. However, the majority of FIFA’s success comes through one game mode – Ultimate Team – the one which they have most successfully monetized. All of their eggs are in one basket.
Ultimate Team
Ultimate Team follows the trading-card model common to many sports, where gamers open packs hoping to have the best players in them, which are then effective to use competitively. Squads of the best players can be acquired to then challenge for leagues and win-records against other gamers online. It’s a mode designed to enable the most flexibility in squad building and player combinations. However, as is the issue with all PVP games and non-PVP games alike, there are certain actions and players/items which are the most powerful. FIFA struggles to allow for differentiation with every iteration. At the beginning of every game cycle, there is a brief period when teams are new and not built to take advantage of the meta, but, quickly, that changes.
This problem creates issues for FIFA’s esports push.
FIFA’s Esports
Football is naturally competitive, and, obviously, is made up of eleven players of different physical, mental, and skill levels. Fans enjoy this difference. It is what defines competition. They will take a look at the upcoming fixtures and head to OLBG.COM, a sports betting community, for instance, to look at the latest insight and guidance for how matches could playout based on football predictions in the real world and then generate discussions with friends about what is feasible. The sanctity of competition is what drove fans to protest the formation of a European Super League.
EA struggles to translate this into FIFA’s esports scene. The crux of esports is built upon Ultimate Team. The professionals involved control teams built of similar footballers because these are the best options. While there are differences, they are only minor. Similarly, playstyles, while embracing minor differences – defensive possession, transition, etc. – all exist in a homogenous space, which canonize approaches. In short, there is not that much difference between how players play. While games do run up high scores and have the potential to be exciting spectacles, is there a way for FIFA to embrace the team-based gameplay its based upon.
FIFA’s Pro Clubs
Other sports-based titles have esports centred around teamplay – notably NBA 2K and Rocket League – and many other hugely successful esports titles – League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Overwatch – have a similar emphasis. There aren’t many broadcasted which feature solo players.
In theory, this may be because the meta creates that homogeny. Solo players will pick similar players and play in similar ways, and because there are only really two variables – the players – there isn’t much room for randomness, per se. As such, the games can become somewhat repetitive and stagnant. The meta can change game-to-game, but not drastically to the extent in which playstyles evolve considerably.
Pro Clubs is a game mode which already exists and focuses on what Ultimate Team does not: multiplayer and skill differentials. There is upwards of eleven controllable players on each team, which means there’s plenty of chance for chaos and harmony. It’s a popular mode among some content creators, as there is plenty of chance for team-talks and coordination – that intimate conversation which excites crowds as they’re being allowed to peek behind the curtain and see decision processes and tactics unfold – and for the expression of personality and character.
Professional Footballers and Professional Gamers
EA committed to expanding their esports presence with the launch of FIFA 21 in September 2020 via their Ultimate Team game mode with the restructured Global Series. Announced before the release, a preseason would precede a regional-based qualification process for the eWorld Cup. FIFA gives the chance for any players – amateur or professional – the chance to compete. As long as a player won twenty-seven matches during FUT Champions, they could become verified and therefore eligible to play in the appropriate Online Regional Cups until the end of the season. The player has to be good enough, but that player can be anyone. This access gives FIFA’s esports a communal edge, a rags-to-riches arc. There’s also a chance for players to represent their favourite clubs too, as the ePremier League teams, eLaLiga teams, and other eLeagues from around the world host tournaments to find the best players to fly their flag at events.
To attract audiences, EA opted to include high-profile current and ex-professional footballers in their preseason slate. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Sergio Aguero, and Ronaldinho were all involved in proceedings. Being able to call on these profiles who have more than a passing interest in their title is helpful. Aguero streams Ultimate Team gameplay from time-to-time. Alexander-Arnold has participated in previous FIFA events. The likes of Diogo Jota and David Meyler are regularly online too, creating brands and esports organisations around their presence and content.
EA are taking the same route that they’re taken with the general marketing of FIFA: use football culture to elevate their product. Whether this can produce a healthy and sustainable esports scene which can compete with the biggest in the world remains to be seen.
Yuriy Sheremet – Expert in mobile gaming and esports among shooters and MOBA games.
At EGamersWorld, Yuriy, as in 2020 when he joined the portal, works with content, albeit with adjustments to his area of responsibility.