For the first time, Kevin De Bruyne is among the best football players on the FIFA game. How was he admitted to that select group? By his performance on the field, the logical explanation would be. That reasoning probably applies to De Bruyne, although it is not that simple for everyone.
Kevin De Bruyne’s virtual career on the popular football game FIFA shows the same evolution as his real football career: crescendo grown to the absolute world top.
Every year we look forward to the (base) rating that each player will receive when the latest edition of the popular FIFA game is released in September.
In 2010, 19-year-old De Bruyne first appeared in the game with a rating of 64. Twelve seasons including four titles with Manchester City and two Premier League Player of the Year elections, later he will be in the latest version of the game get a rating of 91.
Professional data collectors and voluntary data reviewers
Together with Karim Benzema, Robert Lewandowski, Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi, Kevin De Bruyne can call himself the best player in the game in the latest edition. They all get a rating of 91.
How the makers of the game arrive at that rating every year is not completely transparent.
Performance on the field obviously plays an important role. Producer EA Sports has its own team of data collectors headed by the German Michael Mueller-Moehring.
In addition, there is a pyramid of people who evaluate the ratings of players. According to the company itself, it concerns trainers, scouts and fans. EA Sports calls them data reviewers.
“We have so many players and so many leagues that no single company can provide us with enough data on all the teams and players. That’s why we use the reviewers,” Mueller-Moehring once told ESPN.
For example, as a fan of STVV you can register yourself as data reviewer at EA Sports for your club. If you are accepted, you can make suggestions. Not only to say that player X’s dribbling skills are underestimated, but also to indicate how that player usually celebrates his goals or what shoes he plays with these days.
Your suggestions, in turn, will be judged by people above you in the pyramid. It is often unclear to the reviewers who the people above you are.
You can register as a voluntary data reviewer here.
Influence of community and football players themselves
FIFA ratings are therefore not just finger work, but where data is becoming increasingly important in the real world of football, the world of gamers also has its own (financial) laws.
Players, clubs and fans are often eagerly awaiting FIFA ratings and the developer is happy to respond to that.
“Players who are hyped around or who are very popular within the community often get a higher rating,” said FIFA expert Hakim El-Kaddouri, better known in the world as MrDoorey.
“An example is left-back Ferland Mendy, who ticks a lot of boxes. He is fast, plays for Real Madrid and is French. That makes him appear in many teams.”
“That helps to be rated higher in a next version. The fact that Messi and Ronaldo continue to be among the very best is not only based on their current data.”
Players who are hyped around or who are very popular within the community often get a higher rating.
EA Sports, on the other hand, does not seem insensitive to the opinions of players themselves. And it has a good reason for that. “There is no thing as bad publicity.”
Loosely translated: there is no such thing as bad advertising. That’s exactly what Romelu Lukaku sued last year. “Let’s face it, FIFA plays with the rating so that players complain. That gives more publicity. I’m not participating in this sh*t.”
Lukaku later deleted his tweet.
Kevin De Bruyne will not lose his sleep for it. He is one of the best in the world on the field and in the virtual world.
