MattHDGamer Interview: FIFA 21 needs major changes to FUT Champs & TOTW
MattHDGamer / Dexerto[jwplayer JRIEZvjy]YouTuber Matthew ‘MattHDGamer’ Craig has laid out his vision for a revised FUT Champs competition and Team of the Week promo system in FIFA 21, in an exclusive interview with Dexerto.
The popular content creator has enjoyed a successful year of creating Ultimate Team videos for his channel, which boasts over 2.3 million subscribers. Those who regularly watch his channel can find pack openings, reactions to updates, and more posted regularly by the Liverpool supporter.
With a shed load of FIFA 21 details now out in the open – including new stadiums for Ultimate Team, a major overhaul to gameplay, and more – we wanted to gage his thoughts about the new title.
On top of that, he gave us a bit of a wish list as well.
MattHDGamer on FIFA 21
EA SPORTSDespite EA working long and hard on fresh features for FIFA 20, the game ultimately was marred by gameplay frustrations. We heard similar things from fellow YouTuber Manny, when interviewing him as well.
MattHDGamer wants to see these issues go away well, just like much of the community, and believes it should be a top priority.
He told us: “So far I’m impressed from what I’ve seen EA are focusing on in terms of gameplay. Gameplay is by far the most important part of FIFA they need to focus on. If they get it right in FIFA 21, then it’ll be brilliant for all of us. However, I can’t say I’m impressed fully yet as I haven’t played the game! If the gameplay is fun then that will fix a lot of issues.”
FUT Champs Weekend League
EA SPORTSIf there’s one thing FIFA players know by now, it’s that the weekends can be fairly stressful at times. 30 matches to play, huge rewards up for grabs, and many of the top competitors loading into the tournament to compete. It’s not always enough to fit the games in, either.
Though, the YouTuber proposed something more practical. A simple change that could shake up Ultimate Team’s competitive scene for the better.
“I would like to see FUT Champions extended to Monday night,” he said. “Only 11.7% of FIFA players qualified for Weekend League in FIFA 20 the whole year, so obviously EA need to do a better job of bringing more players into FUT Champs.
“A lot of people work weekends or just don’t have the time to play 30 games over a three day period, extending that would go a long way. I’d like to see zero glitches such as the no loss glitch. If players are cheating they should be banned straight away. Plus monthly rewards need to return as they were good fun to open back in FIFA 17/18.”
With more time to play and less games to cram into a short window, this could make competitive FIFA more accessible as well. That said, EA have confirmed no major changes for the competition as of August 2020. It looks unlikely.
Ultimate Team promos
MattHDGamer, InstagrsmOne criticism that has been made among the community, certainly in recent years, is the number of promos in Ultimate Team. There are now more special card events in the game than you can count on both hands, meaning many players have boosted stats like you would never imagine by the end of the game’s life cycle.
MattHDGamer: “I think TOTW needs to be reworked”
EA SPORTSMattHDGamer said: “I think if each promo could be a bit more unique, then that would be brilliant. We saw the positive feedback people had for Summer Heat, because you could play the game and earn fantastic rewards.
“I think if Team of the Week wasn’t so bad we wouldn’t need as many promos. I think TOTW needs to be reworked or even add back in a TOTW tournament to earn some of the best TOTW cards. Each promo needs to have solid cards you can grind towards and not have to buy FIFA packs in order to earn them. They need more creative ideas with promos too, as Summer Heat showed.”
If you look at how late Summer Heat was released in FIFA 20 and the mega popularity that come with it, there’s definitely a blueprint there to build on. It was held up as one of the best in recent memory by a lot of people, with rewarding SBC content released throughout.
Whether or not any of these changes will be actioned in the next game remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain. MattHDGamer certainly has his finger on the pulse with the community. Many players have wanted this type of overhaul for years. Hopefully, they won’t have to wait many more years to see them come to fruition.