EA SPORTS FC™ 26 News

EA Sports has revealed Team 1 of FC 26’s Ultimate Scream promo, featuring the likes of Vini Jr, Rafael Leao and Saeed Al Owairan.

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[p]FC 26 v1.1.0 is releasing soon with a number of improvements based on your feedback, and in this article we’re digging deeper into what you can expect from this update and in the near future.[/p][p]From empowering manual defending, to adding in your much-requested Objectives tracking, and even fine-tuning your Football Ultimate Team experience based on your feedback, let’s jump right into it.
[/p][p]Table Of Contents[/p]

• [p]Faster Jockeying For More Effective Manual Defending[/p]

• [p]More Aggressive Marking During Competitive Gameplay Kick-Offs[/p]
• [p]Additional Gameplay Improvements Based On Your Feedback[/p]
• [p]New Objective Tracking In Football Ultimate Team[/p]
• [p]New Evolution Consumable Preview In Football Ultimate Team[/p]
• [p]New SBC Sorting Filters In Football Ultimate Team[/p]
• [p]Football Ultimate Team Feedback Update[/p]
• [p]Division Rivals Rewards[/p]
• [p]Evolutions[/p]
• [p]Live Events, Tournaments, And Gauntlet[/p]
• [p]Limited Checkpoints[/p]
• [p]Manager, Clubs, And PC Updates
  [/p]

[h3]Faster Jockeying For More Effective Manual Defending[/h3][p]As we mentioned in our October Feedback Update, FC 26 v1.1.0 aims to empower manual defending. Here’s the change we’re making:[/p]

• [p]Slightly increased Sprint Jockey speed for user controlled players.[/p]
• [p]Moderately increased Jockey and Sprint Jockey responsiveness for user controlled players.[/p]

[p]With this change we’re looking to have more of a balance between attacking and defending, but without compromising the attacking responsiveness you enjoy. [/p][p]We’ve heard your feedback about skilled dribblers being too strong when attacking, and we want you to have an improved defensive option when dealing with them.[/p][p]Here’s a quick comparison of a defender Jockeying before and after FC 26 1.1.0:
Jockey_B&A_Final_2.mp4[/p][p]As usual, we’ll continue to closely watch your feedback in this space. You can expect to see a poll about this change in our Discord soon, and you can give us more detailed feedback in the FC Feedback Portal.[/p][p][/p][h3]More Aggressive Marking During Competitive Gameplay Kick-Offs[/h3][p]FC 26 v1.1.0 introduces an additional change to kick-off defending aimed at making kick-offs significantly harder to score from.[/p]

• [p]\[Competitive Gameplay] Increased aggressiveness of player marking that only applies to the defensive side’s AI players around kick-off.[/p]

[p]We heard your feedback that kick-offs previously led to too many goals being scored, and now you can expect to see the defensive side’s AI players work harder and more urgently to prevent that.[/p][p]Keep in mind that this change only applies to kick-offs, AI player marking has not changed for other scenarios, and this update does not affect Authentic Gameplay at all.[/p][p][/p][h3]Additional Gameplay Improvements Based On Your Feedback[/h3][p]While the main gameplay focus of FC 26 v1.1.0 is to empower manual defending and reduce kick-off goals, we’re adding in a number of improvements based on your feedback. For example, we’re:[/p]

• [p]Making Through Passes more consistent, less assisted, and respectful of your aim input.[/p]
• [p]Lowering Controlled Sprint Dribbling speed.[/p]
• [p]Improving goalkeeper in specific cases, such as during corner kicks.[/p]
• [p]Plus we’re addressing a number of issues you’ve told us about.[/p]

[p]To see the full list of gameplay updates in FC 26 v1.1.0, be sure to check out our update notes on the EASFC Tracker.[/p][p][/p][h3]New Objective Tracking In Football Ultimate Team[/h3][p]We’re delighted to be able to bring you a much-requested Football Ultimate Team feature, Objective Tracking.[/p][p]Following a Server Release shortly after FC 26 v1.1.0, you’ll be able to favorite Objectives and Objective Groups in Football Ultimate Team. Favorited Objectives and Objective Groups will show up in the pause menu when you’re playing, including Evolutions and Rivals Bounties, and you can track your progress as it happens.[/p][p]Your favorited Objectives and Objective Groups will also have their own dedicated UI tab in the FUT menus.[/p][p]You can also get gameplay notifications for completed Objectives, which can be controlled through Game Settings.[/p][p][/p][h3]New Evolution Consumable Preview In Football Ultimate Team[/h3][p]Following a Server Release shortly after FC 26 v1.1.0, you’ll be able to see Evolution challenge requirements and player eligibility criteria before even owning the corresponding EVO.[/p][p][/p][p]Here’s how you can access these previews:[/p][p]1. View an Evo consumable.[/p][p]2. Follow the on-screen button prompt for previewing (it’s the same as previewing Player Items).[/p][p]3. Enter a filtered version of the Evo hub showing your specific Evo being previewed.[/p][p]4. View entry requirements, challenges, and rewards/upgrades.[/p][p]5. You can browse through your Club for eligible Items and preview how they would look like in the Evo if you were to obtain it.[/p][p][/p][p]We know that you have to make a lot of choices as you build and upgrade your Squad in Football Ultimate Team, and we want to make the process easier and more informed in the Evolution space. [/p][p]With the new preview functionality, you can see key details before using an Evolution Consumable reward, whether it comes from Squad Building Challenges, Objectives, or other rewards sources. This gives us more flexibility to include a wider range of Evolution Consumable rewards across the mode.[/p][p][/p][h3]New SBC Sorting Filters In Football Ultimate Team[/h3][p]We’re adding 2 new SBC sorting filters for you following a Server Release shortly after FC 26 v1.1.0:[/p]

• [p]Sort By Newest[/p]
• [p]Sort By Expiry[/p]

[p]We hope these new filters make it easier and faster to navigate the SBC menu, helping you quickly find the challenges that interest you most. We’ll continue listening for your feedback and exploring more quality-of-life improvements in the future.[/p][p][/p][h3]Football Ultimate Team Feedback Update[/h3][p]As the FC 26 Ultimate Team experience continues to evolve, we’ve been listening closely to your feedback. Heading into Season 2, we’re introducing a series of updates aimed at making your experience more rewarding, balanced, and engaging across the mode.[/p][p]From balance adjustments to updates in Live Events and Rivals, to Evolutions design changes, our goal remains the same, to ensure FC 26 delivers a fun and fulfilling experience for every type of player.[/p][p]Let’s dive into what’s changing and why.[/p][p][/p][p]Division Rivals Rewards[/p][p]We’ve heard that weekly rewards in Division Rivals haven’t felt as reflective of your effort and engagement as they should.[/p][p]To address this, Season 2 will introduce increased Rivals rewards, with a particular emphasis on tradeable content and FUT Coin rewards. These changes are designed to make participation in Rivals feel more meaningful and rewarding each week.[/p][p][/p][h3]Evolutions[/h3][p]In FC 26 we shifted the focus of EVOs to provide smaller, repeatable Attribute boosts with open requirements in order to provide maximum flexibility. [/p][p]However, we heard your feedback that we focused too much on these types of boosts at the start of Season 1 and that it was taking too long to upgrade your favourite lower-rated items.[/p][p]In the past couple of weeks, we’ve made changes to focus more on EVOs that provide bigger, more comprehensive upgrades, with differing maximum OVR requirements. This allows us to tailor upgrades that are meaningful for Player Items across various OVRs.[/p][p]This focus will continue throughout Ultimate Scream to help you upgrade more of your favourite players through EVOs.[/p][p][/p][h3]Live Events, Tournaments, & Gauntlet[/h3][p]Live Events, Tournaments, and Gauntlet have created some of the most exciting moments in FC 26, giving you new ways to compete, experiment with diverse squads, and earn exclusive rewards.[/p][p]However, we’ve heard your feedback that many rewards have felt too difficult to achieve. We’re always evaluating the competitive balance across FUT, and we agree that some rewards have required more effort than intended.[/p][p]In Season 2, we’ll be adjusting how value is delivered in these modes by placing greater emphasis on play-to-earn objectives rather than win-to-earn ones. This means you’ll start seeing objectives that reward both consistent play and skill.[/p][p]For example, a Tournament objective group might let you earn rewards by winning 3 matches or playing 6 matches.[/p][p]That said, we still want to celebrate players who rise to the top. In Season 2, expect a stronger focus on exclusive cosmetic rewards for those who demonstrate competitive excellence across in these limited time modes.[/p][p][/p][h3]Limited Checkpoints[/h3][p]In FC 26, we introduced limited checkpoints to help support your progression in Rivals.[/p][p]Overall, we’ve seen positive feedback in this space. However, we’ve also heard from some players that it can feel frustrating to get stuck in Divisions above your true skill level.[/p][p]To address this, we’ll be removing the permanent checkpoint at the start of Division 6, allowing players to relegate into Division 7. This change is intended to make progression smoother and better aligned with each player’s current skill.[/p][p][/p][h3]Manager, Clubs, And PC Updates[/h3][p]Career Mode Manager Market Improvements
We’re making improvements to the Manager Market logic for a more authentic and refined experience. [/p][p]We’re addressing a number of issues that resulted in managers switching too early, or moving to teams that weren’t an intended fit for them. [/p][p]We are also tuning the AI Manager job security logic to allow for a more refined behaviour, decreasing the incidence of unrealistic board expectations set for managers hired during the season leading to unintended manager movements. [/p][p]Additionally, we’ve made improvements to the Manager Market mail notifications system, addressing issues where updates were triggered in unintended scenarios or too often.[/p][p]We’re also addressing stability issues manifesting in both Manager and Player Career Modes and restoring the Trainer functionality’s availability in Manager Career Pause Menu.[/p][p]And last but not least, we’re addressing a series of visual issues related to some Social Media posts’ composition, the number of roles presented in scout reports, and Deeper Simulation stats permanency across seasons for players transferring across leagues.  [/p][p][/p][p]Clubs Archetype Max Level Increase[/p][p]Alongside Season 2, we’ll be increasing the Clubs Archetype Max Level from 50 to 60. The Consumable max level remains the same. You can also expect to see one new customizable PlayStyle slot unlocked at level 60. You’ll now have a maximum of 300 Attribute Points you can use.[/p][p]Look out for the next step up in Max Level in December!
[/p][p]PC Optimization[/p][p]As our PC optimization efforts continue, we’ll be reaching out to players more directly to better understand the issues you’re facing, since our game runs on a wide variety of hardware. In FC 26 v1.1.0, we’re addressing the following PC specific issues:[/p]

• [p]Graphics settings could have reset when exiting Game Settings.[/p]
• [p]Improved shader caching to address some cases of performance drops when matches start.[/p]
• [p]Some textures could have appeared incorrectly on some Intel GPUs.[/p]
• [p]Addressed instances of vibrations and haptics being too low when using a PS5 controller.[/p]
  • [p]This issue could have also occurred on PS5.[/p]
• [p]Simplified Aspect Ration setting list.
  [/p]

[p]- - -
[/p][p]Thank you everyone for checking out the FC 26 v1.1.0 Pitch Notes. We’re excited to see your feedback on this update and we’ll keep updating you on what we’re working on throughout the season.[/p]

[p]We released EA SPORTS FC 26 last month and a lot’s happened since then. On our side, we released 3 title updates driven by your feedback, addressed a number of emergent issues, and we’ve been closely following your feedback through the Feedback Portal, Discord, and social media.[/p][p]In this article we’re covering your feedback over the past month, what we’ve done about it so far, and what we’re going to do in the future. [/p][p]So let’s start with your biggest feedback topic so far, defending.
[/p][h2]Table Of Contents[/h2][p]1. Manual Defending Is Getting Stronger[/p][p]2. Kick-Offs Are Getting Harder To Score From In Competitive Gameplay[/p][p]3. We Tackled A Number Of Emergent Issues And Feedback You Told Us About[/p][p]4. FC 26 v1.1 Is Coming Soon[/p][p]5. Implementing Your Closed Beta Feedback Was Very Important To Us[/p][p][/p][h2]Manual Defending Is Getting Stronger[/h2][p]What You’ve Told Us[/p]

• [p]Defending against dribblers can feel too difficult, especially with their precise movements around the edge of the box, resulting in a potentially increased threat of goal-scoring chances and overly high scorelines.
  [/p]

[p]What We’ve Done So Far[/p][p]We’ve been following your feedback for weeks on this topic and wanted to make sure that we gave it time to evolve before considering any changes. FC 26 is a new game and it’s important to give you time to get familiar with its mechanics. [/p][p]So for the time being, we made one update in this space in FC 26 version 1.0.4:[/p]

• [p]Addressed cases of players not being able to perform Physical Tackles, especially instances that occurred when the player had specific PlayStyles (eg. Bruiser).
  [/p]

[p]What We’re Doing Next[/p]

• [p]We’re going to be making improvements to Jockeying responsiveness.[/p]

[p]You might have seen us briefly mention this on our socials and the EASFC Tracker already, but we’re looking at empowering manual defending in an update that’s being planned for the end of October.[/p][p]We want to give you an experience that has more of a balance between attacking and manual defending, but without compromising on the responsiveness of dribbling that you’ve told us you enjoy.[/p][p]While we’re on the topic of defending, let’s take a look at another change we’ll be making.[/p][p][/p][h2]Kick-Offs Are Getting Harder To Score From In Competitive Gameplay[/h2][p]What You’ve Told Us[/p]

• [p]Defenders can give too much room to attackers during kick-offs, causing an increase in potential attacking threats resulting from a kick-off.[/p]
  • [p]In practice, this has led to too many goals getting scored from kick-offs.
    [/p]

[p]What We’ve Done So Far[/p][p]We started updating kick-offs in v1.0.3: [/p]

• [p]The defending team will now position themselves more compactly for a short period of time after a kick off.[/p]
  • [p]Updated positions of defending players prior to kick off for all formations.[/p]

[p]However, we’ve seen from your feedback that there’s more room for improvement here, as we mentioned on social media previously.[/p][p][/p][p]What We’re Doing Next[/p]

• [p]We’re going to be making further improvements to AI defensive positioning during kick-offs.[/p]

[p]With this update, we're planning on implementing more aggressive man marking that only applies to the defensive side around kick-off. This is in order to reduce the amount of goalscoring threats that can occur due to general kick-off positioning. Like with the Jockeying change, we’re targeting the end of October for this update.[/p][p]By the way, as you might have seen from FC 26 v.1.0.4, these kick-off changes are intended for Competitive gameplay. We want to ensure that Authentic gameplay continues to provide a different experience that’s more true-to-football with an emphasis on immersion.[/p][h2]
We Tackled A Number Of Emergent Issues And Feedback You Told Us About[/h2][p]Our teams are always looking to address emergent issues and give you the best in-game experience possible, and we want to say thank you for helping us recognize and investigate new issues as they happen. [/p][p]Below are our updates on a number of emergent issues and feedback you’ve told us about.[/p][p][/p][p]Matchmaking In Football Ultimate Team Champions[/p][p]We discovered that the first FUT Champions of the season had a matchmaking issue and we addressed it server-side as fast as we could.[/p][p]What happened was that the Form aspect of FUT Champs matchmaking wasn’t quite working as intended, so there was more potential skill level variety in the opponents you faced.[/p][p]While matchmaking is always complex and tries to give you the best available match at any given time, generally speaking we can say that you can expect to be playing with players who are in similar Form as you in FUT Champions matches.[/p][p][/p][p]Career Mode Contract And Transfer Negotiations[/p][p]You’ve told us about several Manager Career issues that were impacting contract negotiations and transfers, with players seemingly communicating to managers in ways that are contradictory to their actual contracts and transfers.[/p][p]We’ve been addressing instances of these situations occurring across FC 26 v.1.0.3 and v1.0.4, and we’re continuing to look at your feedback for future updates[/p][p]For now we’ve tackled the following issues:[/p]

• [p]After signing a new contract, players could have acted unhappy leading to a notification about a lack of contract offer and eventually leading to a transfer request.[/p]
• [p]When a player started discussions around contract extensions, the corresponding messages were not displayed in the Central Hub.[/p]
• [p]It was not always possible to interact with transfer offers for players requesting a transfer.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Ultimate Team Content[/p][p]Over the past month we:[/p]

• [p]Updated incorrect Ultimate Team Online Draft rewards.[/p]
  • [p]Impacted players will be contacted in-game with correct rewards.[/p]
• [p]Addressed Path To Pro Objective issues affecting progression.[/p]
  • [p]Impacted players have been contacted in-game with correct rewards.[/p]
• [p]Corrected Challengers rewards in-game before the event was live.[/p]
• [p]Removed any non-functional Objectives and re-released them where possible.[/p]
  • [p]Impacted players have been contacted in-game with correct rewards.[/p]
• [p]Addressed incorrect FUT Challengers Objectives progress.[/p]

[p]We also continue to see your feedback around Evolutions and Transfer Market volatility. We’ll share updates with you around this feedback and what we’re doing next week when we can go into more detail for you.[/p][p][/p][p]PC Optimization And Dropped Controller Inputs[/p][p]We’ve seen your feedback around technical performance on PC and controllers dropping inputs.[/p][p]As we’ve shared in past updates, we’ve been addressing instances of these issues with just about every new version of the game. In FC 26 v1.0.3, we addressed an issue with your graphics settings being incorrectly saved, which may have impacted your overall experience at times. We continue to listen to your feedback in this space and are planning to address another batch of issues later this month.
[/p][p]To help mitigate some of the issues on PC, we want to share more details about how your experience can be impacted. Playing FC 26 offline and online is a bit of a different experience for your PC, which is why some players only experience issues in online matches. [/p][p][/p][p]If your PC is running the game offline close to its performance limits with no issues, but you run into online issues, this can happen because online play needs consistent performance in order for your game to stay in sync with others. The combination of online play with PC hardware that is pushing itself can result in issues occurring that you might not see otherwise.[/p][p][/p][p]We know that on PC you want to play the game as maxed out as possible, and we see the need to create in-game indicators for when your PC is struggling to achieve your desired settings.[/p][p][/p][p]We’ll continue to work on PC optimization with upcoming updates, and we’ll be looking to reach out to players more directly to better understand the issues you’re facing since the variety of hardware that runs our game is quite significant. 
[/p][p]In the meantime, if you’re experiencing optimization or controller issues, lowering your graphics settings a little bit can eliminate some cases of that happening. Again, we know that’s not exactly what you want to hear at this time, but it is a workaround for a number of players, and we’ll keep working on improving optimization in general.
[/p][p]General Connectivity And General Matchmaking[/p][p]While the period around FC 26 launch has been fairly smooth overall, we know that there have been several situations where players were affected by connectivity and matchmaking issues.
[/p][p]For example, there was an issue getting into the game as it launched that we addressed as fast as possible, and there was a day where many players were not able to matchmake properly. There’s even been a case of players in certain regions being affected by their ISPs preventing them from accessing the game. 
[/p][p]We’ll continue to address these emergent issues as they pop up and provide updates on them as they happen on our X and WhatsApp channels.[/p][p][/p][h2]FC 26 v1.1 Is Coming Soon[/h2][p]We’re looking to release FC 26 v1.1 before the end of the month and include the changes we’ve mentioned throughout this article.[/p][p]We’ll be sharing many more details on v1.1 next week as we finish making it, but here’s a quick preview of what you can expect around the time it releases:[/p]

• [p]A brand new Season, Season Pass, and more Evolutions.[/p]
• [p]Improvements to manual defending and kick-offs.[/p]
• [p]Ultimate Team Objective Tracking, Consumable Evolution Previews, and new SBC sorting filters.[/p]
• [p]Manager Market improvements, including addressing managers switching to teams that don’t seem like a great fit.[/p]
• [p]An increase to the Clubs Archetype max level.[/p]
• [p]Additional PC optimizations.[/p]
• [p]And much more.
  [/p]

[h2]Implementing Your Closed Beta Feedback Was Very Important To Us[/h2][p]Though the FC 26 Closed Beta might feel like ancient history at this point, we want to take a moment to say thank you for all the great feedback you gave us during this period.
[/p][p]As you’ve probably noticed, much of what was included in the 3 updates we published over the past month was driven by your feedback. From tweaks to low driven shots to Be A Goalkeeper improvements, your feedback continues to help shape the game.[/p][p][/p][p]Here are some of the improvements we made to FC 26 based on your Closed Beta feedback:[/p]

• [p]\[Gameplay] Low Driven Shot Effectiveness[/p]
  • [p]Tuned Low Driven Shots based on your feedback in the Closed Beta to be less accurate when shooting with an extreme amount of power.[/p]
• [p]\[Gameplay] Attacking AI Positioning[/p]
  • [p]Increased frequency of wingers making attacking runs into the box.[/p]
  • [p]Wing Backs will no longer drop too deep in their own half when their team is in possession.[/p]
  • [p]Improved teammate offside awareness.[/p]
  • [p]Addressed instances of players not making runs into open space when it could be beneficial.[/p]
• [p]\[Gameplay] Heavy Dribble Touches[/p]
  • [p]Improved cases of unexpected heavy touches when sprinting in wet weather Authentic gameplay based on your feedback.[/p]
• [p]\[Gameplay] AI Defender Speed[/p]
  • [p]Addressed some ball trapping animations were slowing down the ball carrier more than intended, making the defender chasing them feel overly quick.[/p]
• [p]\[Gameplay] Be A Goalkeeper Save Delay[/p]
  • [p]Increased responsiveness of saves.[/p]
  • [p]Addressed instances of the goalkeeper not facing the ball when getting up from a save.[/p]
  • [p]Improved timing window for requesting a save.[/p]
  • [p]Increased auto positioning assistance when trying to claim a cross.[/p]

[p]
The FC 26 launch has been massive for us, thank you so much for playing our game and continuing to give us your feedback. We’ll keep tuning into what you’re saying, and we’ll do another one of these Feedback Updates in November.[/p]