Fifa 19 Statement (English version)

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Dear FIFA-Community,

I would like to announce a 'little' statement about the game play of FIFA 19 because the
game has been released a month ago and we are able to review the game. Further I would
like to know if you share my opinion or not?
To begin with: This is NO BASHING against EA or FIFA 19. I was neither paid or anything
else, this is MY opinion! You can confute it or not. My prior thought is to start a discussion
and an exchange of our different views.
FIFA 19 where we start?.. Overall I have to say that I was impressed by FIFA 19 at the
beginning. New Features like the timed finishing (further shown as 'TF'), Goal-Keeper
Control, 'Dynamic Tactics' and some more have been implemented and I had great hope that all this will increase the Skill gap.
But even at the beginning there were some bugs what reduced my enthusiasm about the
game. For example shooting with the inner foot what was executed automatically but has
been patched meanwhile. Another example of an, in my opinion devastating bug, has not
been fixed yet. I'm talking about the Dynamic Tactics bug where players with correct
positions often play on wrong ones. This can be game deciding, if for example, in a close
game your Gabriel Jesus plays CDM and your Fabinho is striker.

After a month of intensive playing and analyzing hundreds of games of myself but also of other pros, I unfortunately have to say that FIFA 19 has huge weaknesses and problems which have to get fixed for the purpose of fun, fairness and the meaning of eSports.
Especially games of even skill being frequently more decided by coincidences you can't
control and randomness than it was in FIFA 18 which was far away from a perfect FIFA
game.
In detail: TF is a really cool new feature where you're being awarded if you do it
'perfect'='green'. This is an extremely important factor for a game that is looking for more acceptances in eSports.
Shortened: You do something perfect and you get awarded for it. But now there is the
problem about it. Even IF you do everything correct and the TF is used PERFECT, there are
still so many things that can happen to deny the goal. For example the way to strong AI that
intercepts by itself. Okay, you can open gaps with good pass combinations or good dribbling
but that's only the first part. The second part is the Goalkeeper which you can move, what I
generally see as a nice feature, but he can deny your safe goal. Usually I am a big fan of
such features because the right handling requires skill. The problem I have about this is that it happens way too often that you move the GK perfectly but he is 'afk' then, so nothing
happens. This means you have to think twice about moving your GK and if it makes sense.
But back to the main part - Even if the GK wasn't moved, the AI doesn't intercept the ball
and you used TF perfectly there is still the goal post which is getting hit way more often and
sometimes totally random than in previous editions. This is of course my personal thinking but it's obviously shared by some other pros.
This was only a 'little' example of how difficult it is to score a goal even if you're doing
everything right and use a perfect TF as the attacking player.

Totally unaffected by this, FIFA 19 seems to be made for the ‘Viewer’ in my opinion. El-
Tornados/Bicycle Kicks are more effective than a perfect TF. Even in this regard I like the
mechanic and the way this is going. But this shouldn’t be possible with almost every player
from every spot. This also counts for ‘bugged’ shots, when you are 35 meters away from the
goal, with your back to the net and just score a volley. This can’t be serious.

Another part are corner kicks which lead to goals way to often (meanwhile it’s happening
less than at the beginning but still too often). Also very frustrating is the ‘Kickoff Hype’
which is still in the game. About the 50/50 ‘feature’ or collisions I don’t even want to start
with.
There are a lot of things you cannot handle yourself in FIFA19. This makes ‘luck’ (some
would call this ‘momentum’) to have a huge impact (because AI controls 10 players). A little example out of many: I had a situation in my own box, opponent was pressuring, I pass the ball out of the box and my GK (who I haven’t controlled for a single second) tackles an attacking player gets a yellow/red card, he gets a PK and the game was over. And this is
really just a small example out of many. You just have to look at the clips on Twitter or
Reddit. Only then you realize how many of these situations happen in FIFA 19. Even there I have the feeling that ‘fails’ happen more often than in FIFA18. The game doesn’t feel ‘ready’ at all.

There were always games you had way more shots on target that your opponent but you
lost. Every one of us knows that. And of course some might argue now that FIFA is a casual based game, I agree with this! But I know that those ‘fails’ happen very often for casual players as well who don’t want to play the game anymore. EA are hurting them with this right? Because casual players won’t play the game anymore when they become frustrated over and over again. As a professional gamer or casual gamer you try to analyze your games and mainly your allowed goals but you’re just shaking your head in front of your monitor.
And I am not talking about the games I lost well-deserved because I am really a guy who is
looking for mistakes I made myself first.

Overall the game might be extremely funny as a neutral viewer. The skill moves, Bicycle
Kicks and Tornado goals, TF Shots from 35meters.. There is a lot of action! I think this was on purpose by EA, otherwise I can’t explain those overpowered Bicycle Kicks to myself.

Finally some thoughts about eSports: EA has presented some great Updates here. You just
see that there was a large step towards the professionalization. But at the end it counts how you realize it and the beginning was difficult. Last weekend the first Online Qualifier Cup for the first FUT Champions Offline Cup was held where we play for a lot of prize money and important points for the World Cup. To play there, you had to win 27 games in a Weekend League and register yourself online. Even before the tournament there were a lot of problems because a lot of players haven’t received an e-mail even if they had the
requirement of 27 wins. This happened to me as well until I got the information by EA, one
day later, that I haven’t got the mail because of my browser?! If my agency and I hadn’t
asked for it everywhere the tournament would have took place without me.
Also the Qualifier games were played in Online Friendly Seasons, which means Peer 2 Peer
connection between you and your opponent. I think everyone will know what this means
when you’re playing as a European against someone from Africa for example. Many players had to play with huge delay and freezes. An absolute no-go and a step way back to eSport times which have been forgotten already.
The quality of the administration was questionable as well. You got different information depending on which admin you asked, not following the rules everyone agreed to and the delay which resulted by not doing so. If you have a look at the importance of this qualifier the circumstances were pretty weak.
Like previously said this is not meant to be a ‘flame’ against EA.
I believe that EA is interested in updating the game to give the community an enjoyable game. I just want to know your opinion about all of this. Further I believe that we can cause a positive effect if we give advices as a huge and united community.
I will not give up this hope!

If I have forgotten anything I’m sorry! I wrote this entire summary pretty fast because I
wanted to share my thoughts and I am looking forward to read your feedback about this.
Now it’s your turn, do you agree with me? You got a different opinion, what are your
thoughts about game play? Please be objective and respectful!

Love ♥

TLDR:
Dynamic Tactics bug has to be fixed as soon as possible!
AI is way too strong which supports AI-defending and disadvantaged defensively good players.
Goalkeepers not working as intended sometimes, especially when moving them yourself.
Adapting the effectiveness of some shots (special shots and ‘bug’shots).
Corners result in goals way too often.
Kickoff hype still is a thing.
50/50 situations/collisions aren’t solved properly.
‘Luck’ is a deciding factor.
Quality of the Qualifiers has to improve and decisions like matching Europeans against
Africans have to be thought about.
Delay during weekend league (it depends on the time you play the game, Inconsistent servers)

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