MUT Psychology

In a competitive environment where I will often be at a gross disadvantage due to a combination of aging, lack of experience, lack of financing, and a lack of willingness to lean into AI exploits to win games, I am finding that I am liking the Champs experience more than I originally thought I would. I am at peace with the following realities:

• Some will win because they have better stick skills than I have
• Some will win because they have a vastly superior team

Even so, I do find that I have been able to find an edge in this game: Frustration. I've seen a scant few remarks about bend-don't-break defense, and I am starting to find my footing with pre-snap adjustments in today's MUT 24 defense. My NMS defense plays dumber than the 88 OVR squad it purports to be. Even so, if I can limit big plays long enough, I can identify tendencies that will eventually lead to third- and fourth-down stops, and occasionally interceptions. This, of course, is the football psychology everyone into the game is already aware of.

Imagine my surprise when my Competitive Pass 90 Legends reward yielded Aqib Talib! My limited playtime doesn't yield a lot of time to work the Auction House, so I don't generally get to have nice things. Last season, I immediately flipped my Charles Woodson for over 600k. But Talib came with the Legends X-Factor, so I had to at least try him out. Imagine my surprise when the introductory lineups showed an LTD among my players for the first time since I started playing. And for a moment, I was like, "That's my team!" I've lost games in the meantime, so Talib hasn't been a charm, but his coverage has slowed down the stronger teams I've generally matched up against.

And for the first time today, I forced the sort of early concession I've so many times had to yield myself. I was only up 14-0 after a second quick touchdown, and would have had to kickoff to start the second half. But my opponent had had a rough go already, and I imagine he must have remembered seeing my lineup featuring Unstoppable D.K. Metcalf, Aqib Talib, and Manti Te'o and thought to himself, "Nah, not going to waste another minute against this big-money spender." I feel bad that someone feels badly outmatched, but everyone in this food chain needs to eat. I'm not sure I could eke out 7 Champs wins over one week if I had to play games out. I'm sure my next NPE is lurking right around the corner.

With each hour that passes, the resale value of my Talib drops rapidly. Still, he's contributed to some wins early on. I've been able to keep the losses close, enabling me to play balanced football, and keeping my offense on the field to achieve previously untouchable Competitive Pass objectives. As much as I could use a coin balance north of a mere million, I think not reselling Talib was the right call for my team. And if I can rack up a handful of wins by scaring off would-be opponents as my guys are coming out of the tunnel, my return on not selling Talib will be greater.

Game on!

Congrats on the Talib pull man

Insane pull. Happy for you dude

Thanks to both of you. First LTD pull. No expectation. It's only been two days, but I do wonder just how much my MUT experience will change just by virtue of that pull, or for how long.

Congrats on the LTD!!  I just started playing MUT last year and pulled 99 OVR LTD Kam Chancellor for my first LTD when it was going for 1.6M coins.  Like you, I resisted the quick coin and enjoyed Kam at SS the rest of the year.   I am NMS and rarely had available coins for buying packs, but lucked out in one of the TVP packs they had last year.

A word of caution......I can tell that you are an older adult like me.  Mainly because you write in complete sentences and use paragraph breaks and punctuation appropriately.  A word to the wise, it won't be long before you get the first "Fool, I ain't reading all that sh**.  You just suck and need to get better", or something similar!!!  

Good to see the aged crowd represented in the forum.  Keep on keeping on, and good luck to you the rest of the year!!

phatalerror said:

In a competitive environment where I will often be at a gross disadvantage due to a combination of aging, lack of experience, lack of financing, and a lack of willingness to lean into AI exploits to win games, I am finding that I am liking the Champs experience more than I originally thought I would. I am at peace with the following realities:

• Some will win because they have better stick skills than I have
• Some will win because they have a vastly superior team

Even so, I do find that I have been able to find an edge in this game: Frustration. I've seen a scant few remarks about bend-don't-break defense, and I am starting to find my footing with pre-snap adjustments in today's MUT 24 defense. My NMS defense plays dumber than the 88 OVR squad it purports to be. Even so, if I can limit big plays long enough, I can identify tendencies that will eventually lead to third- and fourth-down stops, and occasionally interceptions. This, of course, is the football psychology everyone into the game is already aware of.

Imagine my surprise when my Competitive Pass 90 Legends reward yielded Aqib Talib! My limited playtime doesn't yield a lot of time to work the Auction House, so I don't generally get to have nice things. Last season, I immediately flipped my Charles Woodson for over 600k. But Talib came with the Legends X-Factor, so I had to at least try him out. Imagine my surprise when the introductory lineups showed an LTD among my players for the first time since I started playing. And for a moment, I was like, "That's my team!" I've lost games in the meantime, so Talib hasn't been a charm, but his coverage has slowed down the stronger teams I've generally matched up against.

And for the first time today, I forced the sort of early concession I've so many times had to yield myself. I was only up 14-0 after a second quick touchdown, and would have had to kickoff to start the second half. But my opponent had had a rough go already, and I imagine he must have remembered seeing my lineup featuring Unstoppable D.K. Metcalf, Aqib Talib, and Manti Te'o and thought to himself, "Nah, not going to waste another minute against this big-money spender." I feel bad that someone feels badly outmatched, but everyone in this food chain needs to eat. I'm not sure I could eke out 7 Champs wins over one week if I had to play games out. I'm sure my next NPE is lurking right around the corner.

With each hour that passes, the resale value of my Talib drops rapidly. Still, he's contributed to some wins early on. I've been able to keep the losses close, enabling me to play balanced football, and keeping my offense on the field to achieve previously untouchable Competitive Pass objectives. As much as I could use a coin balance north of a mere million, I think not reselling Talib was the right call for my team. And if I can rack up a handful of wins by scaring off would-be opponents as my guys are coming out of the tunnel, my return on not selling Talib will be greater.

Game on!

Took awhile for me to read but im happy for you considering ive spent some money 75 dollars worth. So i have a competitive team so im glad a nms is getting blessed with good pulls, Congrats on the Aqib Talib ik your gonna start winning games for sure.

chiefsfan123456 said:

Congrats on the LTD!!  I just started playing MUT last year and pulled 99 OVR LTD Kam Chancellor for my first LTD when it was going for 1.6M coins.  Like you, I resisted the quick coin and enjoyed Kam at SS the rest of the year.   I am NMS and rarely had available coins for buying packs, but lucked out in one of the TVP packs they had last year.

A word of caution......I can tell that you are an older adult like me.  Mainly because you write in complete sentences and use paragraph breaks and punctuation appropriately.  A word to the wise, it won't be long before you get the first "Fool, I ain't reading all that sh**.  You just suck and need to get better", or something similar!!!  

Good to see the aged crowd represented in the forum.  Keep on keeping on, and good luck to you the rest of the year!!

Thanks! Of course, being older, I've been getting the classic short-attention-span retort for years. They bounce off me the way terrible Champs passes keep bouncing off my cornerbacks' hands.

In a competitive environment where I will often be at a gross disadvantage due to a combination of aging, lack of experience, lack of financing, and a lack of willingness to lean into AI exploits to win games

LMAO bro basically said he's too old and too poor to try to be good at the game

congrats on the Talib pull, I was able to buy him for 698K yesterday little after new promo launched, Rams chems are noice

i feel like no matter how old i get i will always be good at madden because unlike call of duty you are paying the cpu more than the actual person to be good at madden you need to find a way to dumb out the cpu

phatalerror said:

In a competitive environment where I will often be at a gross disadvantage due to a combination of aging, lack of experience, lack of financing, and a lack of willingness to lean into AI exploits to win games, I am finding that I am liking the Champs experience more than I originally thought I would. I am at peace with the following realities:

• Some will win because they have better stick skills than I have
• Some will win because they have a vastly superior team

Even so, I do find that I have been able to find an edge in this game: Frustration. I've seen a scant few remarks about bend-don't-break defense, and I am starting to find my footing with pre-snap adjustments in today's MUT 24 defense. My NMS defense plays dumber than the 88 OVR squad it purports to be. Even so, if I can limit big plays long enough, I can identify tendencies that will eventually lead to third- and fourth-down stops, and occasionally interceptions. This, of course, is the football psychology everyone into the game is already aware of.

Imagine my surprise when my Competitive Pass 90 Legends reward yielded Aqib Talib! My limited playtime doesn't yield a lot of time to work the Auction House, so I don't generally get to have nice things. Last season, I immediately flipped my Charles Woodson for over 600k. But Talib came with the Legends X-Factor, so I had to at least try him out. Imagine my surprise when the introductory lineups showed an LTD among my players for the first time since I started playing. And for a moment, I was like, "That's my team!" I've lost games in the meantime, so Talib hasn't been a charm, but his coverage has slowed down the stronger teams I've generally matched up against.

And for the first time today, I forced the sort of early concession I've so many times had to yield myself. I was only up 14-0 after a second quick touchdown, and would have had to kickoff to start the second half. But my opponent had had a rough go already, and I imagine he must have remembered seeing my lineup featuring Unstoppable D.K. Metcalf, Aqib Talib, and Manti Te'o and thought to himself, "Nah, not going to waste another minute against this big-money spender." I feel bad that someone feels badly outmatched, but everyone in this food chain needs to eat. I'm not sure I could eke out 7 Champs wins over one week if I had to play games out. I'm sure my next NPE is lurking right around the corner.

With each hour that passes, the resale value of my Talib drops rapidly. Still, he's contributed to some wins early on. I've been able to keep the losses close, enabling me to play balanced football, and keeping my offense on the field to achieve previously untouchable Competitive Pass objectives. As much as I could use a coin balance north of a mere million, I think not reselling Talib was the right call for my team. And if I can rack up a handful of wins by scaring off would-be opponents as my guys are coming out of the tunnel, my return on not selling Talib will be greater.

Game on!

Well written and entertaining post.

Grats on the LTD pull my man.  Now finish the Champs stats so you can get into Seasons with Talib.  That's where you can earn some really good coins and packs... go get yourself some super bowls!

StoicTrader said:

In a competitive environment where I will often be at a gross disadvantage due to a combination of aging, lack of experience, lack of financing, and a lack of willingness to lean into AI exploits to win games

LMAO bro basically said he's too old and too poor to try to be good at the game

congrats on the Talib pull, I was able to buy him for 698K yesterday little after new promo launched, Rams chems are noice

Not really what I meant, but I can understand why that's what you inferred.

Life has taught me to be at peace with disadvantages. In fact, identifying and acknowledging disadvantages is rather fundamental to football coaching. If my opponent's overall talent on the field outclasses mine, I have to find a way to exploit him strategically or tactically. If my opponent has better stick skills, I still could find an edge elsewhere. The results of late suggest I am improving, even if it's not realistic for me to play at a tournament level.

Really, the primary message of my post was that I can target my opponent psychologically (not in a trash-talk sort of way) to gain an upper hand where they otherwise have advantages over myself.