EA Sports has introduced a new feature that represents one of the biggest additions to the Ultimate Team experience in recent years. FIFA 18 features one of the most significant additions to the Ultimate Team palette in recent years: Squad Battles.
EA Sports has introduced a whole new means of earning both points and packs this year to bolster your ranks - and all you have to do is play matches. Goal has your complete guide to Squad Battles and how to make the most of the new feature.
WHAT ARE SQUAD BATTLES?
Squad Battles sees you take on AI-controlled Ultimate Team squads built by other FIFA players.
Each competition lasts a week, with four new matches available to play once each every day (and a couple of extra sets thrown in at 17:00 UK time on Saturday and Sunday). By playing and winning those games, you earn points based on the difficulty level you have selected. The more points you earn relative to other FIFA players competing, the greater the rewards - which consist of packs and coins - you will take home at the end of each week. Some of the squads you will be challenged to beat are created by real-life stars, with Dele Alli's featuring his own special 99-rated card.
HOW CAN I EARN POINTS?
Points are earned in Squad Battles by winning matches. When you are ready to play a match, you will be asked to select a difficulty. Each difficulty has a multiplier assigned to the number of points that can be earned, with the hardest setting - Ultimate - multiplying your potential haul by 2.6 and the lowest - Beginner - halving it (0.5). It is not as simple as three points for a win, though.
You will gain and be deducted points depending on a number of stats, including goals scored and conceded, passing accuracy, tackles and fouls. It's worth weighing up, then, whether you might be able to score enough goals on a lower difficulty to outweigh the advantages of a higher multiplier on a more challenging setting. You'll also want to take a look at the squad you're facing. If it's stacked with Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and so on or has great chemistry, it's obviously worth playing it safer than when you're facing a mediocre opponent.
WHAT ARE THE REWARDS?
At the end of each week, EA ranks all the players who have taken part in Squad Battles and assigns prizes. There are special prizes for the top 100 players in the world but after that, each rank is based on the percentage of players you have earned more points than.
To get in the highest category outside of the top 100, for example - called Elite 1 - you will need to be in the top one per cent of all players that week. By participating in any way at all, you'll get in Bronze 3 as a bare minimum and collect a couple of loan players for your trouble.
The prizes get better and better as you go up the scale from there, though, and if you can break into the Gold and Elite categories you'll be landing a decent number of coins and some potentially valuable packs.
