EA has applied a cap on the number of games that will be included in the Weekly Score accumulation in the Division Rivals of FIFA 21. In the title, after wrapping up your first 30 games of Rivals, which is Ultimate Team’s popular online competitive multiplayer mode, the matches will not be added to your Weekly Score anymore.
If you play Rivals over 30 times per week, you can continue to make progress against Objectives, gain higher Skill Ratings, and rise to new Divisions, but post-30 matches won’t make it more difficult for players with fuller play schedules to compete in the weekly leaderboard.
“This change is being made after seeing positive results in Squad Battles as a way to ensure that those who play in the Division Rivals weekly competition have a more predictable experience week to week,” EA said.
Changes in Division Rivals
For now, your Division Rivals weekly awards are decided by your position on the weekly leaderboard or your rank. And, currently, you can keep adding points to your Weekly Score by playing as many games as you want.
The issue with this mechanism is that those who spend numerous hours into Division Rivals every week are rewarded more Weekly Score than those who aren’t able to play as much. Division Rivals rewards are more of a test of the time you spend into the mode, and not about your results.
This important adjustment is brought along a new rank in the leaderboards used to balance the attempts required to attain some of the middle rank rewards. Therefore, Division Rivals will now have six ranks rather than five to divide players a bit more, which then makes their results and weekly matches a somewhat higher aspect in where they finish in the competition.
FIFA 21 also has a different method of deciding your initial Division Rivals rank. In other years, online Skill Rating was only calculated via your placement matches and then further match-to-match as you kept playing Division Rivals.
“For many players who came from primarily playing against the AI, this was at times a challenging transition,” EA said.
An Alternative Placement Method
However, this year, layers will have another placement method to help them find their rank in Division Rivals. The outcomes of the first 30 matches played in Squad Battles, along with the difficulty level you play at, will decide your placement Division.
“In FUT 21 one of the things we’re looking to create is a friendlier path that Squad Battles players can take when they’re ready to transition from a single player experience to online play in Division Rivals,” EA explained.
“The aim here is to identify the right Division for you through single-player gameplay. We believe that this alternative placement method will lead to a better overall online experience for those players who are not used to playing head-to-head, and for those who prefer to learn the game through single-player before heading online.”
Those who want to get directly into Rivals have the usual five placement match way as an option; EA said it had enhanced the placement logic.
