FIFA 21‘s brand new objective, RTTF Knockout Stage, has divided the community. Based in the ‘Friendlies’ game mode, this is the first objective that features a game limit. You have 12 games to earn untradeable awards.
At first glance, the concept of the objective is decent. You have to compete to earn some untradeable packs – with the best a 50k pack – a bit like some of the old FIFA tournaments which rewarded you players. But the problem is that the games do not justify the rewards – here’s why.
Friendlies is hardly a friendly game mode. With strict skill-based matchmaking based on your Division Rivals rank, the games are as intense as FUT Champs at some points. Previous objectives could be completed with a friendly opponent, letting each other score goals and complete assists. This new game limit makes this a lot trickier.
The community is obviously outraged – you just need to take a quick look at Twitter and see what everyone is saying – over EA’s decisions. Division Rivals and FUT Champs are already a sweat game mode, there was no need to make “Friendlies” another competitive mode.
In terms of rewards, the amount of effort that the average player will have to put into this mode does not justify the untradeable packs. The huge difference between 5 wins and 6 wins also means many will want to push for 6 wins. You won’t find many in this game mode that will be willing to gift you a win.
On top of all of this, the Objective also requires UEFA Rare players in the squad. This comes after a day after the UCL upgrade packs are gone, by the way, meaning the price of these blue cards is going to absolutely sky-rocket. Especially meta blues.
Overall, the principle of the objective is a good one, but the rewards hardly justify the grind that this “friendly” objective is going to be for pretty much every skill-level. It’s great that EA is putting some effort into the friendly game mode, giving people more to grind for than ever before in FIFA, but the execution – as per usual – is divisive.
Compared to previous FIFA’s tournaments – where you could earn untradeable players, often pretty good ones – the untradeable packs just don’t compare. It follows a trend in FIFA 21 so far – more untradeable rewards. The main message EA is sending out is that they want your money. Simple as that.
