FIFA 16 Ultimate Team: Sucht ein Glitch seit 7 Jahren den Modus heim? [Update]

In FIFA 16, the community has found a supposed proof of a glitch in the “Ultimate Team” mode, which is claimed to have existed unnoticed for 7 years. If this is indeed the case, it would be an extraordinary scandal for EA Sports.

“FUT” has been the most popular mode of the FIFA series since FIFA 09. Many players enthusiastically build their own Ultimate Teams, play against each other, and conduct cutthroat business in the transfer market.

Many fans will also invest real money in the mode to buy packs and thus have the chance to obtain the best players in this mode. There are also cases where young people invest thousands of dollars into the in-game currency “FIFA Points”. Since large sums of money are circulating in FUT, it is important and actually obvious for fans that everything in the mode is above board. However, for years there have been rumors that a kind of handicap exists for particularly strong teams in direct comparison to weaker teams. The term “Momentum” in FIFA is often mentioned.

Now, proof has supposedly been provided that there is a long-standing glitch in team chemistry.

Devastating Glitch in “Ultimate Team” Mode – Is It Real?

In FUT, you build a team from players you pull from packs or acquire on the transfer market. The most important aspect of this mode when assembling your team is the “chemistry”. How chemistry is calculated in FIFA 16: FUT is presented here.

You increase the chemistry attributes of your players by matching their nationality, league, and club. Players with high chemistry values receive boosts to their attributes, such as sprint speed, shot power, or dribbling. With low chemistry, these are nerfed. In short: Chemistry has a tremendous impact on your players’ performances and thus on your game.Now the community has made the following discovery:

A large portion of the best and most expensive players in FUT do not receive boosts from the chemistry value. This makes them feel sluggish, slow, and clumsy compared to other players. An observation that has been noted for some time – but always without proof. This refers to the “in-form” cards and other special cards (TOTS, TOTY) – which are not the “standard” cards that have been in the mode since day one.

This would mean that fans have been investing huge amounts of money in players who are no better than the “standard” cards – in some cases, even worse!

The gameplay mechanics of FIFA games are opaque in many ways, which is why such myths and conspiracy theories quickly establish themselves. Therefore: How did the players find evidence for the glitch?

The Evidence for the FUT Glitch

The glitch was discovered thanks to a skill move that can only be executed with a dribbling value of 86 or higher. The user RighteousOnix conducted experiments based on this, which you can view in this video:

What he discovered: First, he took a day-1 player (standard card) whose dribbling is below 86. He increased the chemistry value, causing the dribbling value to rise above 86 and he was then able to execute the move. Here, chemistry works – everything is wonderful.

Now he took a card with similar dribbling values. But this time it was a non-day-1 player card, but an upgraded card. This player could not execute the move. Now the YouTuber increased the chemistry value, and yet he was unable to apply the skill move. Dribbling should now have been over 86, as with the standard card.

With this, it is claimed to be proven that the chemistry value has no effect on players who have not been in FUT since the beginning.

Therefore: In-form cards that are only slightly upgraded compared to the standard card are therefore worse than the standard cards, as chemistry does not apply to them. Only heavily upgraded cards, like TOTS or TOTY, are better than the original, as their attributes are simply outstanding. But even for them, chemistry does not apply.

In short: Apparently, the glitch means that only the day-1 standard cards are influenced by chemistry. For all others, chemistry – the actually most important aspect in FUT – is completely irrelevant. This glitch is said to have been ingrained in the code since the beginning of FUT, since FIFA 09.

So far, there is no statement from EA Sports regarding this matter. The glitch is therefore not officially confirmed. Consequently, all the information presented above should be treated with utmost caution.

If they were to prove true, dark times would lie ahead for EA Sports. Because, especially when real money is involved, fans will take to the streets.

Update: According to GameStar, the publisher has now issued the following official statement:

The FUT community has pointed out a possible discrepancy in fitness and chemistry with some FUT items. After hearing this, we have intensely scrutinized the information over the weekend and will continue to investigate the matter thoroughly. We will keep the public updated regarding the investigations. Our commitment remains to deliver an entertaining, fair, and safe gaming experience in FIFA and FIFA Ultimate Team, and the feedback from the community helps us achieve this goal. At this point, we would like to extend our special thanks to our community for their continuous efforts across all channels.

We have played FIFA 17 already. Here you can read our first impressions.