In a reaction, MontanaBlack commented on the realism debate regarding women in EA FC 24. He does not see the balanced ratings between men and women as a problem. He views the addition of women as an obstacle to his preferred male players.
What’s it about? MontanaBlack published a video on his YouTube channel in which he responds to the comments of his friend and opinion blogger KuchenTV about EA FC 24. Among other things, he addressed a comment related to the realism debate concerning the topic of “equal ratings for men and women” in the new FIFA successor.
At the beginning, MontanaBlack seemed relatively indifferent regarding the overall topic of women’s football and EA FC 24. He merely notes that he is not really interested in women’s football, but would not boycott the game for that reason. However, he does consider one thing to be a major disadvantage. For this, check out the video clip on YouTube.
MontanaBlack: Women are “failures” in the gambling of EA FC 24
What does MontanaBlack criticize? He sees the main problem in the player pool in FC 24, which has grown even larger by adding the female players. This decreases the chance of getting a top male player further, as those are the only players that interest him.
MontanaBlack also mentions the monetary effort, which is already enormous. Because in the “virtual gambling,” as he calls the opening of packs, there are now even more “failures,” the costs are even higher to obtain a favorite card.
In response to a viewer’s comment, noting that the likelihood of pulling high ratings is not reduced, MontanaBlack replies that only “male ratings from male players” matter to him. He justifies this by stating that he can identify more with men’s football.
Even though the Twitch streamer does not claim universal validity for his opinion, it can be worthwhile to take a look at the facts to better contextualize the statements.
Are women really an obstacle in EA FC 24 Ultimate Team?
Does the chance of top players decrease due to the new female players? In FC 24 Ultimate Team, there are more than 19,000 professionals divided among more than 30 leagues (via ea.com).
The women’s team of FC Arsenal, for example, consists of 24 players. Projected across all women’s teams in the six existing leagues, that corresponds to a number of around 2,500 players. However, there are fewer players in total as some leagues only have twelve teams.
As of now (via database from futbin.com), there are about 1,500 women’s cards available in Ultimate Team. In contrast, there are 16,000 male professionals in the player pool who would prevent the likes of Haaland or Mbappé from appearing, resulting in generally low chances.
Overall, the chances of pulling top cards in EA Sports FC 24 are low.
Do I really have to spend real money to play my favorite player? It is not necessarily required to spend real money to obtain players or packs. By playing FUT, one can also receive rewards such as players or packs.
Obtaining a Haaland or Mbappé requires a lot of luck or a significant amount of money in the transfer market. However, by participating in various competitions (Division Rivals, Weekend League, Squad Battles), there are opportunities to gain packs and coins. Additionally, the draft mode offers the chance to play with one’s idols for significantly fewer coins, at least temporarily.
Therefore, it cannot be said that you now have to spend more real money due to the female players.
How strong are women in Ultimate Team?
Just like with men, there are different ratings for women, with some of the women certainly performing worse, while others are among the current top cards in the game.
Especially in terms of height and physique, there are drawbacks, but some of the women excel with good ball handling, high agility, and strong dribbling and have already been played and praised by some streamers.
As an example, here is a video from YouTuber Mirza Jahic. In this excerpt, one can see the close ball control that clearly pleased the streamer.
From the shown example, you can see the strengths that the female players can bring into EA FC 24. The most extreme example is the strong card of Alexia Putellas: She currently has the highest combined in-game stats of all gold cards in the game (via futbin.com) and is worth over one million coins on the transfer market. She is one of the best cards in the game.
Why are women in Ultimate Team?
For several years now, women have been playable in FIFA games, but in EA FC, they are for the first time also present in Ultimate Team.
In an interview with IGN, Electronic Arts VP John Shepherd emphasized back in July that they had thought long and hard about this. According to Shepherd, they want to bring the whole world of football together and feel they can play an important role in the growth of women’s football by helping to introduce it to the players.
Ultimate Team is a suitable place for this because it allows for teams from various nationalities, leagues, and clubs to come together. While the discussion in the community is very controversial, EA explained the decision partly by stating that Ultimate Team is rather a fantasy mode in which such matches are possible.
More about EA’s statement regarding women in Ultimate Team can be found here.
