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57-537: Ultimate Team has been described as "the most important strand of the globe-spanning [EA Sports] mega-franchise" in The Athletic . Streaming matches and pack openings in Ultimate Team is popular among influencers and often watched by younger gamers. Engaging in the Ultimate Team virtual economy is also popular in itself. The mode has been often criticized for its reliance on loot box packs, considered

114-535: A difficulty setting . In other modes, including Division Rivals and Champions, the gamer competes online against other gamers; difficulty in these modes is managed by gamers increasing in rank through winning and generally only being fielded against similarly-ranked opponents through a ladder and streak system introduced in 2021 game FIFA 22 . It is easier to find online opponents on current-generation consoles (with more gamers) than on older generation consoles and Nintendo Switch. Though competing against other gamers

171-468: A "dream team" of the best player cards for each position in FIFA 21 (see #Packs and cards ); if not opening packs to acquire the cards, the squad would have cost around 100   million in-game coins at the time, which ScudzTV calculated as requiring 22,000 hours to earn through grinding matches or 1,650 hours through trading. The thread saw many responses in agreement that it did not feel possible to have

228-478: A "gambling game" embedded within Ultimate Team that is "an illusionary and particularly addictive system." The British government spent nearly two years debating whether to regulate loot boxes as betting, before deciding to allow the video game industry to continue regulating them in 2022 due to "significant implementation challenges" in doing so itself. In 2023, the district court of Hermagor in Austria ruled that

285-475: A certain number of goals. Packs and cards in Ultimate Team have been compared to their tangible equivalents in trading cards , though player cards in Ultimate Team include a figure of the footballer that the gamer can control during in-game matches, and packs can also contain manager cards as well as other items and consumables. All teams in the game must have a manager, represented by a manager card. Items are options for aesthetic customization (e.g. kits for

342-498: A chemistry style will have more of an influence if the player card is on maximum team chemistry. There are player cards for active players in the leagues that are included in each version of the game, as well as special cards, which have higher stats. Special cards include those for retired legendary players, e.g. the Icons cards, and those for active players that have performed well (or are expected to perform well) in competitions during

399-630: A clean app and no ads. At the time, a few newspapers were trying out paywalls , but the common industry view was that information on the internet needed to be free. As part of Y Combinator's summer 2016 batch, the site originally launched in Chicago in January 2016, with Jon Greenberg serving as the founding editor, along with Sahadev Sharma ( Cubs ) and Scott Powers ( Blackhawks ). Greenberg and Powers previously worked at ESPN Chicago, while Sharma left Baseball Prospectus ' Cubs vertical to join

456-420: A competitive edge in the game without paying for packs, with the alternative being impossibly time-restrictive. Website Goal used a similar squad to make the same calculations shortly afterwards, resulting in similar (and longer) periods of time, as well as calculating that it would cost around $ 50,000/£40,000 of money in packs to trade to make enough coins. EA responded to the thread with a spokesperson telling

513-459: A controversial form of gambling . EA describes Ultimate Team as predominantly a game of skill . Ultimate Team was introduced in the 2008 game FIFA 09 . In this edition it was downloadable content only available on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 , and similar to a mode in the previous EA Sports game UEFA Champions League 2006–2007 . It allowed gamers to create a team through opening card packs and buying, selling and auctioning cards. With

570-478: A correct position to have chemistry. Teams with more connections will have higher chemistry, and teams with higher chemistry are boosted in-game to play better. The chemistry system was significantly changed in FIFA 23 (2022) and then again in EA Sports FC 24 (2023). The changes focused on removing the previous need to have player cards with connections in adjacent positions for chemistry to be applied. As

627-725: A game's release, e.g. European club competition and Team of the Week cards. As pack content can be entirely randomized or provide random items meeting certain broad requirements, they are considered loot boxes . Packs can be bought with microtransactions or earned through completing match objectives or Squad Building Challenges (SBCs); specific cards can only be purchased through in-game coins, which cannot legally be purchased with real currency. Other ways to obtain specific cards are through completing match objectives which have individual cards as rewards, or through completing SBCs. In June 2021, an option to preview one pack per day before being given

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684-464: A replacement sports department under new management. As of 2022, The Athletic provided local coverage in 47 cities and regions of North America as well as coverage in the United Kingdom . It includes the 32 National Football League teams, the 30 Major League Baseball teams, the 30 National Basketball Association teams, and 23 of the 32 National Hockey League teams. The Athletic

741-497: A single card and multiple complete starting XIs of cards in exchange for the reward, and typically have the "challenge" of one or more of the cards needing to meet certain requirements (e.g. in rating, containing specific leagues, etc.). The benefit of SBCs is the ability to swap unwanted player cards directly for desirable limited edition ones, which Screen Rant said was the "easiest and cheapest way" to acquire good cards. Player cards acquired directly from SBCs cannot be traded in

798-749: A transaction expected to close in the first quarter of 2022. The Times noted that The Athletic would continue to run independently of the Times , and co-founders Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann would continue to lead the operation. In June 2023, The Athletic underwent a reorganization, cutting 4% of its staff, reassigning 20 journalists, and discontinuing the use of team-specific beat reporters. The following month, The New York Times announced that it would shut down its own sports department in favor of distributing content from The Athletic and its reporters via its platforms. Existing New York Times sports reporters will be reassigned to other departments. The decision

855-581: A way of doing this while still keeping some restrictions on playing position , the changes ultimately allowed gamers to assign player cards to any of their realistic alternative positions (based on how the footballers played in real life). A Squad Building Challenge (SBC) is an item swapping option that allows gamers to swap player cards they own in exchange for packs or specific items, which can include player cards and other items. SBCs typically have an expiration date, making specific items obtainable through them limited. SBCs require gamers to swap anywhere between

912-410: Is a subscription-based sports journalism department of The New York Times . It provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom . The Athletic also covers national stories from top professional and college sports. The Athletic ' s coverage focuses on a mix of long-form journalism, original reporting, and in-depth analysis. Its business model

969-459: Is more closely related to gambling addiction than it is to video game addiction . People who have video game addiction are likely to suffer financial harm as games become increasingly monetized. The issues related to loot box packs "are considered especially problematic for the younger generation of [gamers]". Though EA has said only gamers aged 13 or older can play Ultimate Team, there are no enforced restrictions on gamers who are children accessing

1026-402: Is often done on YouTube and Twitch . Streamers for the game include IShowSpeed , Erbz, El Xokas and TheGrefg . According to Oloman, as Ultimate Team streaming became more popular, this encouraged gamers to focus less on building an ultimate team of their choosing and to instead engage with the highest-priced player cards or on trading within the game's virtual economy . In his research on

1083-409: Is predicated on dis-aggregating the sports section of local newspapers, and reaching non-local fans not reached by a local newspaper. The Athletic was founded in 2016 by Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann as an independent subscription-based online sports magazine, and it gradually expanded its stable of writers over the next few years to provide better coverage of more teams in more markets, including in

1140-408: Is seen as the main appeal of Ultimate Team, Squad Battles (which also requires an online connection ) is an alternative for gamers using platforms with fewer players; it is also considered easier than playing against online opponents, and so is useful for gamers who do not wish to spend to build up coins and rewards in the early stages of the game. Another way to play and earn rewards in Ultimate Team

1197-489: Is the dominant focus of coverage, The Athletic aims to be a destination for all motorsports fans by including other major events, such as the Indianapolis 500 . In August 2019, The Athletic expanded to the United Kingdom , predominantly covering domestic and international football . The team was initially led by managing director Ed Malyon and editor-in-chief Alex Kay-Jelski . In April 2024, Laura Williamson

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1254-680: Is through the Moments, though this is not considered a gaming mode and is a form of in-game skills training. Moments is also played against the AI, and it does not typically have gamers play through a full match (instead only moments). Playing matches provides the gamer with a certain number of coins and – depending on the game mode and the player cards in the team that was used – can count towards objectives that may provide XP (to level up for other rewards), coins, packs, or cards. Rewards can also be won for completing certain in-match requirements, like scoring

1311-567: The United Kingdom . However, the magazine remained unable to earn enough revenue without advertising to make a profit, and the owners began to seek an outside buyer. The New York Times Company acquired The Athletic for $ 550 million in 2022, initially as a semi-independent entity under the continued direction of Mather and Hansmann. In July 2023, the company dissolved the New York Times' existing sports department, laid off or reassigned its sports staff, and began operating The Athletic as

1368-833: The addition of Jayson Stark , Jim Bowden , Eno Sarris, and editor Emma Span. The site announced full coverage in Denver and Boston starting in April 2018. In Denver, The Athletic hired several reporters from The Denver Post . In Boston, the initial staff consisted of beat writers previously employed at The Boston Globe , the Boston Herald , and the Springfield Republican ' s web portal MassLive . Adding to college football coverage, The Athletic added dedicated beat writers for major programs like Alabama , Georgia , and Tennessee . In May 2018,

1425-710: The allegations, first reported to the club in 2016, were partially responsible for the decision not to renew his contract in Portland. Riley, however, immediately assumed a new coaching position within the NWSL. The NWSL, and Riley's current team , responded with no comment. Paul Riley denied all allegations. Riley was fired shortly afterward, and the relevant soccer bodies (NWSL, FIFA and the United States Soccer Federation ) launched investigations. UEFA league (disambiguation) From Misplaced Pages,

1482-400: The attributes of the player figures for matches. Radio Times compared the feature to an RPG , and suggested it would be most popular among gamers who wanted to play as their favorite footballers from lower divisions in the game and could make such player cards better. Gamers can layer different Evolutions on certain player cards to improve them even further. Sports Illustrated wrote that

1539-513: The best ways to complete them, using the lowest-rated or cheapest possible player card combinations; however, following such recommendations may require gamers to pay for suitable player cards they do not already own to then swap, incurring additional cost, rather than swapping better cards they already own. A new feature was added to Ultimate Team for EA Sports FC 24 in Evolutions, which allows gamers to "evolve" certain player cards to improve

1596-1184: The company raised another $ 5.4 million in Series A funding also led by Courtside Ventures. In March 2018, the company announced a $ 20 million third round of funding led by Evolution Media. Mather reported that this money would be invested into expanding coverage to new cities and increasing the number of writers from the then staff of 120. The Athletic raised another $ 40 million in a Series C funding round in October 2018, co-led by Founders Fund and Bedrock Capital . The money will be used to invest in expanding teams focused on audience, data and editorial teams, subscriptions, podcasts and video. As of August 2019, The Athletic had 600,000 paying subscribers with an 80% retention rate year-over-year. Most of its subscribers, 60%, follow sports teams in two or more cities. In September 2020, The Athletic announced one million global subscribers, as well as expansion into additional breaking news content formats. The Athletic has published multiple investigations regarding workplace misconduct, sexual abuse, and other transgressions in

1653-535: The effectiveness of loot boxes [...] considered similar, if not identical, to the reward schedules that are used in the design of slot machines , making them addictive by design." Various research has argued that the similarities to gambling make loot boxes more motivational than the rewards already are, increasing engagement, and that the similarities to gambling make gamers perceive gambling to be more effective than it is, leading to gamers developing habitual gambling behavior . Research has shown that problem loot box use

1710-399: The feature allowed for player cards to stay relevant for longer – rather than become obsolete as higher-rated cards were released later in the game – and so gamers would not need to buy as many packs to have good cards. It is common for influencers as well as regular gamers to stream videos of themselves either playing matches in Ultimate Team or, commonly, opening lots of packs. Streaming

1767-563: The 💕 (Redirected from UEFA league (disambiguation) ) The following are league -based football competitions run by UEFA : UEFA European Championship , a continental international team's championship played every four years UEFA Women's Championship , the women's equivalent of the UEFA European Championship UEFA Champions League , the premier men's club competition (formerly European Cup) UEFA Europa League ,

Ultimate Team - Misplaced Pages Continue

1824-425: The game's market (not including those in packs acquired from SBCs, which may be able to be traded). There are introductory Squad Building Challenges available early in the game, with low-value player cards swapped for low-value packs, to introduce new players to the feature, as well as some advanced fundamental challenges that do not expire. SBCs are popular enough that there are many websites dedicated to discovering

1881-602: The hiring of Craig Custance from ESPN as editor-in-chief. In August 2017, the site launched in the San Francisco -area market with long-time San Jose Mercury News writers Tim Kawakami as editor-in-chief and Marcus Thompson as columnist. The Athletic also added national coverage with new writers including baseball veteran Ken Rosenthal , shortly after Fox Sports eliminated its entire writing staff, as well as college basketball standout Seth Davis and college football institution Stewart Mandel . Mandel led

1938-769: The item itself were. ScudzTV suggested that if EA wanted to show commitment to not requiring pay-to-win, they could change the pack weight – generally, odds – so that acquiring better cards in any pack was more likely. Besides making these player cards easier to acquire without paying for packs, more of them would also make them cheaper on the resale market. The random nature of packs and the ability to buy them with real currency has caused them to be negatively compared to gambling "for as long as they've been around". Gamers are incentivized to continue opening more packs through intermittent reinforcement schedules – being irregularly vindicated in their behavior – due to packs providing better content irregularly, with "the mechanisms underlying

1995-789: The launch of the national college football section, "The All-American", at the end of August. The Athletic expanded into Philadelphia , Minnesota , Pittsburgh , St. Louis , and the rest of Canada in September 2017 bringing local coverage to 15 US and Canadian pro sports markets. The vast majority of expansion was aimed at expanding coverage to underserved hockey fans. In February 2018, The Athletic announced further expansion into three new cities— New York , Dallas , and Cincinnati —and launched baseball-only coverage in Houston , Los Angeles , San Diego , Arizona , and Kansas City . The site also introduced expanded national MLB coverage with

2052-604: The major NCAA football programs. In August 2018, The Athletic launched Fantasy Sports coverage and continued expansion across US markets including Washington, D.C. , Carolina , Nashville , Indiana , Miami , and New Orleans . The site also announced expanded NBA reporting with Shams Charania and NFL coverage with Jay Glazer . The Athletic completed local coverage expansion to all NHL and NFL teams by September 2018 after adding writers in Jacksonville , Houston , Oklahoma , Oregon , and Las Vegas . Memphis

2109-429: The media that the time calculations were based on assumptions and that gamers did not need the best player cards to be successful, adding "In the real world, no football club has the world's highest-rated players in each of the 11 positions." Attempting to summarize views of the gaming community, ScudzTV said that monetization itself was not an issue, but over-monetization and paying for the chance of an item rather than

2166-484: The only places still hiring journalists? Bringing on writers for top dollar and freeing them from chasing clicks is admirable, the doubters say, but it's no way to make money. Ira Boudway, Bloomberg BusinessWeek The Athletic has raised a total of $ 139.5 million over five rounds. The first major funding was provided by Courtside Ventures, which provided $ 2.3 million in seed funding in Jan 2017. In July 2017,

2223-666: The option to purchase it was added. With Ultimate Team's launch in 2008, Electronic Arts (EA) became the first major video game developer to include loot boxes in a game, and by 2022 Ultimate Team was still the most recognizable use of them. Microtransactions used to purchase the packs are more lucrative than the sale of the video game, with the revenue generated from Ultimate Team "appraised at $ 1.6   billion in 2021". In 2022, EA reported that only 10% of packs opened in 2021 game FIFA 22 had been paid for; this raised concerns about whales , gamers who disproportionately spend on microtransactions. In 2020, NME 's Jordan Oloman described

2280-466: The pack opening sequence as featuring "glitz and pomp" and being a "glamorous runway that is engineered to give me dopamine." Building an all-star team in Ultimate Team is reliant not only on the individual quality (overall rating) of the player cards, but also on the game's chemistry system. The team chemistry is affected by manager and player cards' nationalities, leagues and teams – and is default higher for higher-rated cards. Player cards must be used in

2337-574: The packs were a form of "illegal gambling" in violation of Austria's gambling laws, and that gamers should be refunded; the lawsuit had been filed by PlayStation gamers against its manufacturer, Sony , due to packs being bought on the platform-specific PlayStation Store . Advocacy groups in the United States requested in 2022 that the Federal Trade Commission investigate Ultimate Team. The Athletic The Athletic

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2394-624: The packs. Young people are more susceptible to developing gambling addiction, and the group that spends the most time playing Ultimate Team is younger people with traits of video game addiction. Ultimate Team has also had issues facing gambling legislation in various, typically European, nations. After packs were banned in Belgium and EA initially fined in the Netherlands, two separate lawsuits were filed in France in 2020, alleging that packs are

2451-486: The relationship of gamers to Ultimate Team, academic Jeroen Lemmens determined that "opening loot boxes generally improves [gamers'] perceived competence, autonomy and relatedness", and that the amount of money spent on loot boxes ( pay-to-win ) was not the best measure of achievement in the game. In 2021, Twitch streamer and YouTuber ScudzTV wrote a viral Twitter thread criticizing the in-game encouragement, and apparent need, of pay-to-win in Ultimate Team. ScudzTV modeled

2508-692: The report, Brody Miller detailed the rampant sexual misconduct that was present at all levels of the LSU organization, and interviews with former players helped support an investigation conducted by law firm Husch Blackwell. In September 2021, The Athletic released a report detailing the gross sexual misconduct of association football coach Paul Riley in the NWSL . The report detailed Riley's sexual abuse of several players, namely Sinead Farrelly and Meleana Shim , as well as an unnamed additional player, while coaching at Portland Thorns FC . The report also revealed that

2565-458: The rest of the team; and player cards can have generic stats boosted by a chemistry style that relates to a certain playing attitude. Previously, position modifiers were available as consumables, allowing gamers to change the playing position of a player card to improve chemistry, but these were removed in EA Sports FC 24 with the chemistry changes. Chemistry styles (which affect individual player cards) are not directly related to team chemistry, but

2622-419: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title UEFA league . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=UEFA_league&oldid=1116142070 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

2679-675: The secondary men's club competition (formerly UEFA Cup) UEFA Europa Conference League , the tertiary men's club competition UEFA Futsal Champions League , formerly the UEFA Futsal Cup UEFA Nations League , an international teams' biennial competition UEFA Women's Champions League , the main women's club competition (formerly UEFA Women's Cup) UEFA Youth League , a European club competition See also [ edit ] Euro league (disambiguation) European league (disambiguation) Continental League (disambiguation) Topics referred to by

2736-653: The site announced coverage of both domestic and international soccer. In June 2018, The Athletic increased coverage in Los Angeles and expanded into Buffalo, New York , by hiring several reporters who had been bought out from The Buffalo News the same month. The Athletic continued market expansion in July 2018 with the addition of Atlanta with former The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writers David O'Brien and Jeff Schultz, Baltimore , and Wisconsin . The site also added 19 college football writers to cover most of

2793-593: The sports community. In 2018, Athletic journalist Tim Cato published an in-depth report on allegations regarding workplace misconduct within the Dallas Mavericks organization. The report detailed how high-ranking members within the Mavericks organization ignored and tacitly approved of financial misconduct and mental abuse. In March 2021, The Athletic published an investigation regarding sexual misconduct and abuse at Louisiana State University (LSU). In

2850-418: The team they could play against other gamers, offline as well as online. Card packs were bought with Microsoft Points or in-game coins. The features of Ultimate Team on Nintendo Switch were limited until the 2023 game EA Sports FC 24 . Ultimate Team game modes all feature the gamer controlling their all-star team in a match. In Squad Battles, the gamer competes against the computer AI and can choose

2907-475: The team to wear, stadiums to play in, tifos , and many others) and consumables are single-use cards to boost or maintain player cards (including contracts, healing, manager leagues, and chemistry styles). Consumables can also be traded in the game. Player cards can only be used for a certain number of matches, which contracts extend; player figures may be injured in matches, which healing resolves; manager cards may have their league changed to improve chemistry with

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2964-586: The website. In October 2016, The Athletic expanded to a second city, Toronto , to focus on Maple Leafs , Raptors , and Blue Jays coverage. The Athletic hired James Mirtle as editor-in-chief for Toronto. Mirtle had spent over a decade as a sportswriter at The Globe and Mail before joining The Athletic . A third city, Cleveland, launched in March 2017, with Jason Lloyd as editor-in-chief. The Athletic continued city expansion to Detroit in June 2017 with

3021-531: Was added as the 47th local market covered by The Athletic in October 2018, expanding coverage to all NBA teams. The Athletic signed three veteran TV journalists in November 2018, including 60 Minutes correspondent Armen Keteyian , in the publication's efforts to produce more video content as a supplement to written coverage. In May 2019, The Athletic announced an expansion into motorsports coverage featuring veteran journalist Jeff Gluck . While NASCAR

3078-638: Was announced as the editor-in-chief for UK and Europe. Their stable of writers, includes: Michael Cox and Oliver Kay… David Ornstein and Daniel Taylor . The company began exploring a sale to a larger media company in 2021, following continued unprofitability, driven by high expenses and reliance on venture capital funding instead of operational revenue. As of that time, the site had 1.2 million subscribers and $ 80 million in revenue, having raised $ 55 million in venture capital funding. Axios entered discussions with The Athletic in March of that year but ultimately declined to make an offer. The New York Times

3135-625: Was criticized by the New York Times Guild , which alleged the paper was engaging in union busting by "outsourc[ing] union jobs on our sports desk to a non-union Times subsidiary under the preposterous argument that The Times can 'subcontract' its sports coverage to itself." Investors, media executives, and reporters who don't work for the Athletic all express skepticism about the business. But almost no one will share these sentiments publicly. Who wants to be seen badmouthing one of

3192-458: Was founded by Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann, former coworkers at subscription-based fitness company Strava , with the mission of producing "smarter coverage for die-hard fans." The company was built as an alternative to the struggling ad-supported models. The Athletic relies on subscription revenue , not advertising revenue , to support the business. Mather and Hansmann believed sports fans would be willing to pay for good reporting and writing,

3249-503: Was the leading contender for a potential acquisition as of May, with Vox Media also expressing interest. Buyout talks between The Athletic and The New York Times ended in June 2021. On November 2, 2021, reports emerged that sports betting companies DraftKings and Flutter Entertainment , among other companies, were among some of the bidders for the company. Ultimately, in January 2022, The New York Times Company announced that it would acquire The Athletic for $ 550 million, in

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