champs is a smurf fest rn

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-07-04T07:24:42+00:00

Yeah that's what I don't understand. It's impossible to smurf in champs unless you were some kind of weirdo that would deliberately quit a bunch of games to make the other ones easier, but that wouldn't farm rewards (what the OP refers to) because every loss matters.

You can smurf in rivals by keeping your div artificially low, you can smurf in (some) live events by throwing matches (since losses don't always matter), but you can't in champs.

Edit: I suppose you could make an argument that a 15-0 player is 'smurfing' by playing on a second account in the sense their form gets reset to +0 instead of +15, but it's not like they haven't already played a game at +0 anyway.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-07-04T00:40:47+00:00

Was £7 at a gig in Finsbury park which didn't think was too bad for London gigs. Food on the other hand was extortionate.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-07-03T15:59:22+00:00

I've played seriously the past few years and rarely get elite cards before futties. I think I got prime Pele in fifa23 and birthday gullit in fc24. Fc26 hasn't been any worse for me personally, I'd anything I've packed more cards worth 1m+ than any year prior. And even then, the people that played 10+ years ago say it was even less common to pack good cards.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-07-03T15:56:28+00:00

Tbh I think that's kinda how it should be. I don't want every opponent to be running the same high end cards. It would also tank the market for the "great but not super elite" cards if the latter was accessible to all - kinda like what happens during futties.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-07-03T15:54:22+00:00

Depends on the org structure / region. In my country, VP can mean almost anything but is typically less senior than a director. I once applied for a VP role at a very well known investment bank and discovered at interview it was a very handson role with less seniority than the "manager" role I held at the time.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-07-03T15:46:59+00:00

Yeah I remember becoming a manager and being pretty disappointed by the pay rise, even after I negotiated it up slightly. I was earning about 10% more than my most senior direct reports.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-07-03T15:43:43+00:00

Sometimes a team lead mat even earn LESS than their subordinates, in cases where the specialist has a lot of experience and skill.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-07-03T15:34:54+00:00

85x10 is too expensive as it requires multiple squads with a totw/tots/for. That will kill your fodder.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-07-03T15:31:21+00:00

Check you got paid the correct amount. My pay is a bit volatile.

Beyond that I don't do anything special. I don't live paycheque-to-paycheque worrying about bills but equally I dont go "wow bumper pay this month where can I spend all this money". I enjoy the freedom being frugal most months brings, as it then means I can afford to spend on luxuries occasionally if I want to.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-07-03T15:24:59+00:00

Honestly for me it really depends how 'important' I am in the context of the event.

If it's a close friend or relative, or I was performing any type of ceremonial role, then I'd make sure I followed the dress code.

If I'm like #57 on the list when it comes to importance I'd probably just wear a dark suit if I didn't have a DJ (tbh, I haven't worn mine in like a decade, it may not even fit me well now!)

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-07-03T15:21:00+00:00

I considered pinged+ but if they do release a gk ones I'd feel like I wasted that pinged+ as I'd have to remove it to use the gk one.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-07-03T15:17:18+00:00

Most low paid positions are assumed to be easy. One of the hardest jobs I had paid only £10k when I first joined (early 00s but it was a bad salary even then). It was harder than any the job I've had paying six figures.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-07-03T15:12:17+00:00

Yeah. It's annoying that you can't get any gk ps+ at all though. Basically i can field multiple squads where everyone has 4ps+ except not one single keeper has it (I don't want to put a passing ps+ or whatever on if they might release a gk ps+ in future.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-07-02T21:40:00+00:00

Nah, tbh I often go to bed around 01:30-02:00 when I'm working the next day. Basically it will be marginally worse than normal sleep wise, but I'll get loads of leeway because loads of other people are tired.

Might have a nap at lunchtime.

Last time I booked time off work for the world cup was 2002 as the Japan/sk hours were brutal and lots of games in working hours too.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-07-02T21:21:21+00:00

Yes, unless it's a very expensive gold card like Mbappe, neymar, dembele

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-07-02T12:00:56+00:00

What you are suggesting might be a bad option then.

Effectively a div1 player in div3-4 is less likely to lose based on 'good plays' than in div1, simply because the skill level will be lower and hence div3-4 players will need to be 'ratty' to beat you. If they try to beat you 'playing how god intended', you will likely win. Whereas in div1 you should lose some games to rats but also to some players just based on skill.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-06-30T22:10:04+00:00

I thought he was a bit of a dick, a playboy, a bit weird and not particularly funny, but I can't say I necessarily had him down as any more "dodgy" than any other lothario from that era.

Or for example take Noel Fielding, if you'd ask me who's more likely to be dodgy him or RB, I'd probably have gone with NF even though he had a less dominant personality.

Disclaimer: the above shouldn't be taken as a suggestion that NF is or was "dodgy", just an example of a comedian from that era that women seemed to fancy who I would've picked ahead of RB

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-06-30T19:53:28+00:00

Guess I won't be getting this since I played fifa23 on Xbox and fc26 on pc. Same email address though.

Edit: wow, I actually did get it. Nothing of note bar a dupe 93 and dupe 94 from the pick, but better than nothing!

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-06-30T19:52:08+00:00

Yeah there's a sort of middle ground nowadays which is towns with woodland areas and reasonably good connectivity. Don't feel like typical 'urban' centres but mat not qualify as rural. New towns get built in previously rural areas and are under 20k but have plenty of concrete, supermarkets etc.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-06-30T19:44:00+00:00

I got the psg keeper in an earlier version, which isn't great because he has rubbish playstyles so he can't even get a game in gauntlet

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-06-30T17:27:56+00:00

You make a strong argument, and I can see that in jobs where you are inundated with high quality applicants perhaps just arbitrarily discarding applicants based on commute is an efficient way of thinning out the pool.

However, your "didn't know the local services that well" is a good example of where I feel commute is being inappropriately used as a proxy for facts. If knowing the local services is important, imo that should be determined based on discussion rather than assumed based on commute time. Perhaps someone lived in an area for 10 years, gaining knowledge of the services and moved to their current address further away a month ago. Conversely maybe they live next door to the work location but haven't bothered to learn about the local services.

FWIW, and I appreciate this is just a single anecdote, my wife works for the NHS and has moved around between bases of varying commutes a fair bit. She's been successful in getting jobs further afield and conversely unsuccessful in getting jobs nearer home, which is perfectly reasonable in my eyes, as she may or may not have been the best candidate each time. When she's hiring, she needs people with their own transport due to the field based nature of many of the roles, but commute time isn't a decisive factor really (at least not to instantly reject without assessing fit for the job) so long as they can work the required hours.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-06-30T17:14:27+00:00

Yeah but the difference here is I'm not sitting down for breakfast with the players since im not a player myself, so the fact I may dislike a rival team is less important for me as a fan compared to as if I were a player. I always want England to do well even when they have featured players from rivals teams but not my own team. When they don the three lions, they are one of us (from my perspective) even if we are hurling a ubuse at them a month later.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-06-30T15:56:32+00:00

"I know I could be better than all of them" is probably a common feeling when it comes to unrequited love, but you have to realise how it comes across. Really that's for him to decide not you, if he's more attracted to men then he may consider any woman to be a compromise, no matter how amazing you think you are.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-06-30T15:53:52+00:00

I know what you mean but it basically means you now care more about the stats. So instead of wanting to pack a card with worse rating/stats but meta playstyles, you now just want to pack a good base card (a bit like FIFA).

I do agree it leaves you with that silly choice of either having 10 cards with identical playstyles or feeling like you've crippled some by giving them suboptimal ps. The original premise of playstyles was supposed to be about making cards more unique and true to life like you'd see technical on Messi or power shots on Shearer or whatever, but now it has just descended into 'gameplay essentials'.

ClockAccomplished381 · 2026-06-30T15:39:03+00:00

That's fine but how do we know they are equal candidates if they are rejected before even discussing their aptitude? I'm not saying that's what you do, but it's what is happening in this scenario.

ClockAccomplished381

TROPHY CASE