EA Sports FC 25 Season Mode: Still Broken?

EA Sports FC feels remarkably similar to past installments, including those previously known as FIFA. While I appreciate the live-service model's potential, my personal reservations make me hesitant to fully embrace it.

A live-service EA FC could offer better value, but might also focus heavily on Ultimate Team. However, considering the abandonment of Seasons by EA, the experience might not be significantly different.

Unlike many FIFA/EA FC players, I don't engage with FUT. I find it pointless and expensive. I primarily focus on Career Mode and Seasons, which haven't changed much from the previous year.

I'm revisiting my Career Mode strategy. I've bid farewell to Sean Longstaff and Miguel Almiron, replacing them with Marc Guehi, Morgan Gibbs-White, and Kaoru Mitoma. I enjoy building the perfect Newcastle squad and guiding them to victory.

However, I also crave a competitive edge. While I find the CPU enjoyable, I yearn for human opponents. This is where Seasons should come in, but it's increasingly becoming a frustrating experience.

Seasons allows for online matches with real teams, devoid of card-based customization. It features a league progression system with matchmaking designed to ensure balanced gameplay. However, this system is flawed.

Despite the restrictive matchmaking setting, I consistently face five-star teams, primarily Man City or Real Madrid. This issue persists regardless of the team I choose, from Newcastle United to Wrexham. The matchmaking simply doesn't work as intended.

I don't think the issue is that you always match with five-star teams. Right now, it's entirely random, as I suspect it was last year. But since most players use five-star teams, that's almost always the random outcome. As a result, people who might experiment with lower-ranked teams choose five-star teams because they need to compete.

This takes away what makes Seasons unique. In FUT, a meta dictates which players you choose. In Seasons, you could face anyone. Some teams might use meta tactics, but without signing new players, no team is perfect. As Rafa Benitez said, football is a short blanket. Combined with the range of skill levels, this should open up a world of possibilities, unlike the routine of knowing your best eleven and rotating in Career Mode.

Instead, it's less a meta and more a 'do you know how to play as Man City or Real Madrid? Do you know how to stop them?' problem. If you can answer yes to those questions, you've beaten Season Mode. Better players will still win, and it's interesting to see how different teams stack up against City's overloaded defense and Real's wealth of attackers. But it's reduced the entire collection of teams to a simple duo of the last two Champions League winners. Seasons should be the most expansive mode, but it's the most restrictive, and changes don't seem to be coming.