In FIFA 19 must Pro Clubs come with some innovations – at least that is what many fans hope. Here are our ideas on how EA Sports could improve the club mode.
Update: In Pro Clubs, nothing changes in FIFA 19 – here is all the information.
FIFA 19 is on the horizon! After this year’s FIFA edition was officially revealed at EA Play in mid-June, some of the biggest innovations of FIFA 19 came to light:
- The Champions League joins the football simulation,
- the story of Alex Hunter finds its conclusion in “The Journey 3”,
- and the gameplay is also significantly improved.
More and more FUT, while fans love the “Pro Club” mode
But what about the “Pro Clubs” mode in FIFA 19? Many fans have complained for years that this mode is neglected by the developers. While every FIFA edition expands the FUT mode, Pro Clubs stagnates without inspiration. Yet the club mode has the potential to advance FIFA’s online aspect and provide intense multiplayer matches: the Pro Club mode is the mode of the hearts for FIFA fans.
Currently, there is no official information about innovations in Pro Clubs. However, we have a ton of ideas for the club mode!
The gameplay in Pro Clubs needs to improve
For many players, Pro Clubs is the most interesting mode in FIFA. In it, you create a club, design your own characters, the so-called “Pros”, and try to rise through the leagues together. Each player takes on a position, allowing for 11v11 matches. In practice, however, the player count is often much lower, such as 4v4. Nevertheless: Team play and communication are at the forefront in the club mode.
Sounds cool – it is – but one aspect regularly causes frustration and flying controllers: The gameplay in general and the CPU players in particular. Because every position not occupied by a human player is necessarily controlled by AI. And this often leads to “adventurous” moments: defenders may not mark their men or open spaces for the opponents. Suddenly they stop while sprinting, causing a pass to fail. And occasionally, a senseless sliding tackle is launched in the penalty area, leading to a penalty kick.
To avoid these annoyances, a player can take the “Any” position, which is almost exclusively referred to as “Any” in the German-speaking community. This player then controls all remaining field players not occupied by human players.
However: Numerous users can confirm that these non-human players are hardly controllable, making gameplay with them a nightmare. It takes ages for them to react. While the gameplay in other FIFA modes feels significantly more dynamic, Pro Clubs has to deal with slow and sluggish CPU players, with whom only the best “Any players” can cope.
In short:
- Gameplay can be improved in Pro Clubs.
- Moreover, it is often read in forums that the referees in club mode are particularly poor. EA Sports can also work on this.
Captains need more options
If you start a club match without “Any”, the team’s captain has a few options to influence CPU play. He can pull the goalkeeper and use the D-pad to select various quick tactics – such as offside trap, counter or high pressure.
However, the current options are far from sufficient to influence CPUs effectively. In many games, you can select team pressing or high pressure as often as you like, yet the CPU bots simply do not engage in duels. And when, despite a very defensive setup, defenders push forward and leave huge gaps in the defense, the frustration threshold is quickly exceeded.
Therefore, it is desirable for captains to receive more tactical options – and for these to be implemented by the CPUs as well. By the way, this wish is likely to be fulfilled: Because the D-pad options are expected to become more diverse in FIFA 19, allowing for more tactics during gameplay.
A more extensive progress system in “FIFA 19 Pro Clubs”
Until FIFA 16, there were so-called “achievements” in the club mode that could be unlocked, providing boosts to your Pro’s stats permanently. However, these achievements required many selfish actions on the field, so they were replaced by a new progression system with skill points since FIFA 17.
While the current system is supposed to emphasize team play more, it has several annoyances:
- The maximum skill points are reached after just a few games.
- With the skill points, only a few abilities can be unlocked – extensive customization options are lacking here.
- Additionally, this progress system lacks concrete goals to strive for. In other words, monotony sets in early on. You only complete one game after another to gain a few percentage points to the overall rating.
A mixture of skill points and achievements that do not promote “selfish actions” would be more exciting. Definitely, more goals are needed in Pro progression to enhance long-term motivation.
More customization options for the Pro and the Club
Many players want to give their club more personality, but the options for this are limited. Since FIFA 17, it is possible to create your own crests and jerseys, but only based on pre-made templates.
We wish for:
- More options for customizing Pros (more hairstyles, tattoos, etc.)
- More customization options for jerseys and crests
- Being able to build and manage your stadiums
- Customizing and naming CPU teammates
In the FIFA forums, there has been a call for EA Sports to introduce an in-game currency for Pro Clubs (which can only be earned through gameplay), which would unlock certain customization options. Whether it’s stadiums, better CPU teammates, or cosmetics.
Pro Clubs as e-sport
While there are frequent unofficial tournaments and competitions centered around the club mode, many fans wish that EA Sports would further strengthen the competitive scene of Pro Clubs. It is a shame, as some users say, that EA does not recognize and foster the passion many players have for the club mode.
So far, all efforts toward e-sport have come from the community. Little is done by EA Sports in this regard. According to reports, little will change in this area for now: Brent Koning, the FIFA Competitive Gaming Commissioner at EA SPORTS, said in an interview that the focus at the moment is on “one-on-one” matches. What the future holds, he couldn’t say.
More modes, more social interaction options
In “Pro Clubs”, you can do two things:
- Compete with your club against other clubs
- Play spontaneous games where you are matched with other Pros
This mode still has much more potential. We wish for:
- A training arena where you can practice tactics together or test game situations
- Skill games that can be played with multiple friends
- Perhaps even a kind of “social space”, where you roam around with your Pro, compete in mini-games, and meet other players to invite them to matches.
More info about opponents
A few years ago, after a game, you received information about the opponents you just played against in a club match, such as their “overall points score.” However, this feature was removed with the introduction of Seasons, which some fans now miss.
The overall points score reveals to you how strong and experienced a club is. The “Top 100” based on overall points can still be viewed in the leaderboards, but it was always exciting to receive information about the opponents directly after a game. The names of clubs with high points were always memorable, giving the club mode more personality.
Pro Club in the shadow of the lucrative FUT mode, but a little love, please
Most of these Pro Clubs wishes probably won’t be implemented anytime soon. FUT will remain the dominant game mode in the FIFA series, to which other modes are subordinate.
Nevertheless, a glance at social networks shows that many gamers enjoy playing Pro Clubs with passion because it offers a unique online experience. And perhaps the developers will soon give this mode more love…
We are curious to see what will come to the club mode in FIFA 19. What wishes do you have for this mode?
FIFA 19 is set to release on September 28, 2018, on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. If you want to start three days earlier, you need to preorder the Champions Edition or Ultimate Edition:
