The new competitor of EA FC 25 is called UFL and will be officially released on December 5, 2024. Some streamers have already been able to play the early access version of the new football simulator. A major German content creator could not win despite having the best possible team and is punished for his mistakes. In a conclusion, he also finds praise for this.
Which streamer are we talking about? EliasN97 is one of the most successful streamers in Germany and in global comparison a true giant. He reaches an average of around 30,000 viewers with his streams, sometimes even up to 70,000 viewers (via sullygnome).
His career began back then as an e-professional for FIFA at Hertha BSC Berlin. At that time, he became known for good gameplay and a friendly approach to his community. But his outbursts in the Weekend League, the most competitive mode in FIFA, also became a trademark of EliasN97.
As his popularity grew, he expanded his repertoire of games to many more titles. His passion for eFootball has suffered a bit in recent years, as the gameplay in EA FC brought him and his streamer colleagues too often to the brink of despair.
Therefore, EliasN97 and other content creators hoped that a competitive game would appear at the start of the open beta in UFL, and indeed, experts found things about UFL that made it better than EA FC around 6 months ago.
For several years, the company has been working on its own football simulation. After the official release (December 5, 2024), it will be free to play on all consoles and will be a pure online game.
Now EliasN97 was able to test the early access with the best possible team in UFL and had much praise for the game, even though not everything worked smoothly yet.
EliasN97 praises 4 things in UFL
What does EliasN97 praise in UFL? Even before he delves into the gameplay, he praises the idea of the “unlimited game cycle,” meaning the progress you achieve in UFL is permanently retained. You do not need to buy a new version every year and start over at “0”.
After 3 hours of gameplay, he was primarily convinced by 3 things:
- the speed of the fast players is noticeable: Unlike FC 25, you can exploit the speed of faster players better again, even outsmart an opponent with a sprint
- shots are very powerful: Especially with the strongest players, shots from promising positions have a high success rate
- Defending is more manual compared to FC 25 and thus skill-based: poor defending would be punished more effectively, as the AI of the CPU players is not as strong as in FC 25
Especially the manual defending is, in his opinion, a decisive point why he could not achieve a win in his first game against a real opponent, despite having the best possible team in UFL.
You can watch the highlights of the first game here once again:
Former e-athlete punished for his mistakes – and finds it good
After EliasN97 had warmed up with streamer buddy and business partner Sidney Friede, he went into his first real game.
How did EliasN97’s first real game go? The streamer and former e-athlete went into his first game with his team filled with star players against an opponent who at that time had a record of 5 wins, 5 draws, and 6 losses, so a rather negative record.
EliasN97 had the clearly stronger team. The best player on the opponent’s team had just an 81 rating. In comparison, the content creator had 7 players with a rating of 90 or higher on his team, and the worst player in the star lineup had a rating of 85.
In the game, the streamer took an early lead but allowed too many clear chances on the other side, which he attributed to his poor defensive work. As a result, he conceded 2 goals but managed to equalize (final score 2:2).
His opponent showed him in many situations how well one can defend even with poor players in defense. EliasN97 noted on this topic that it would be proof of what one can achieve with skill in UFL. He repeatedly stated that, therefore, one does not necessarily need the best players to be successful.
That would be one of the things he finds good about UFL.
What does EliasN97 think is improvable in UFL? In conclusion of his first 3 hours of play, the expert draws a conclusion. In addition to the things he praises, he lists 4 criticisms that he finds worthy of improvement:
- the animations for goalkeepers and some shots are still too unrealistic: goalkeepers are too strong, some shots have too much power
- the graphics in general need to improve
- skill moves are still too complicated and need to be simplified
- there needs to be a game mode like the weekend league in EA FC to spark and maintain player interest
To build the perfect team for the weekend league in FC 25, you can get help from a useful tool. On MeinMMO, we have looked at and compared various squad builders. You can read the comparison of how they work and how you can use them optimally here: EA FC 25: Squad Builder – comparison and guide for your perfect team
