FC 27 The Grounds Guide

FC 27 The Grounds Guide Quick Overview:

• The Grounds is a new in-game social hub that contains several new activities and minigames, as well as an internal Archetype-based progression system.
• The main appeal here is competitive street football game modes: 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, Rush, and seven new Kickabouts like Bucketball and Goal Control. 
• Participating in different games provides Archetype Experience Points, which can be used to upgrade your Attributes. You can change your Archetype and reset your points at no cost. 
• The Grounds are separate from your Ultimate Team or Career. It’s an entirely optional experience.

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The Grounds in FC 27

If you were to ask an average FC fan what they would want to see in a new installment of the game, you would probably hear many different suggestions: improving the animations, adding more features to Career Mode, new Leagues, better balance, or something like that. What you likely wouldn’t expect them to mention is an interactive social hub that looks like a miniature city street with various street football activities. 

Surprising fans isn’t necessarily good or bad in itself, and, to be honest, it’s not like something similar hasn’t ever been done too. NBA 2K has used a similar system for a while now, and it seems to be working well enough for other developers to try and transfer it into their sports simulators. Let’s see what EA can offer.

What Do The Grounds Look Like?

The Grounds are divided into three areas, with The Terrace serving as a central hub connecting them all. The western area, Montclair, is clearly designed to remind you of France. The northern district, Zeiza, is heavily inspired by Argentina, while the eastern corner of the map, Parkside, is a small piece of the UK ported into your game.

It is clear that EA aimed to capture the feel of an actual real-world playground, and they generally succeed with it. If you aren’t overly critical of anything outside of Ultimate Team and Career modes, the immersion is definitely there, even if it’s clear that the graphical fidelity is not exactly on par with other modern titles. 

You can watch other people play live from the sidelines, moving your avatar around to get a better angle and occasionally bumping into other onlookers or eager players waiting for their turn. At least for the first few times you enter the Grounds, all of these little things add up, making you feel a bit like you’re passing time in your neighbourhood.

The overall tiny city aesthetic with fast food vendors, graffiti decorations, and three distinct architectural styles helps with that. The Grounds are so different from the rest of the game that they definitely won’t appeal to every player, but even when you keep that in mind, it’s really difficult to say whether EA’s choices paid off or not. 

On the one hand, you have a semi-immersive street football experience with many different games to choose from, all available in a realistic way — you will literally have to wait for your turn to play outside the court occupied by some other players. 

On the other hand, EA made a smart move by enabling fast travel right off the bat, so that once you get tired of the area, you can just queue for whatever you want to play, without having to navigate the streets. Not that that was problematic in the first place — the overall Grounds area is very small and condensed.

So, essentially, most players will probably run around the city for 30 minutes, discover that there isn’t that much to do, and then start simply clicking the icons on the map to get to their preferred minigame, which are clearly going to be the primary appeal of the entire mode.

What Can You Play in FC 27’s The Grounds?

Street Football

Street Football is exactly what you would expect — a quick 1v1, 2v2, or a 3v3 match, with the only difference being the size of the goal — 2v2 and 3v3 feature a tiny one compared to a standard goal in 1v1. 

Overall, it seems that most online players orbit around these pitches, looking for a short friendly duel before jumping into something entirely outside The Grounds. Street Football might not be as flashy as winning an actual match, but it compensates for it with its fast pace: with no outer borders, the game basically never stops, and you are free to kick the ball into the walls to come up with creative passes or multi-shot scoring combinations.  

Rush and 11v11 Drop-In

Similar to Street Football, Rush and 11v11 Drop-In follow their classic scheme. Rush is a 5v5 small-scale football game, while 11v11 is a full experience from the perspective of a single player. From what we’ve seen so far, queues here are a bit on the longer side due to the player number requirements, but the overall popularity of these pitches on The Grounds evens it all out.

 

Kickabouts

Kickabouts are seven new minigames designed to offer some variety to those wandering around The Grounds.  

Bocce Ball is a three-player game with a simple goal: kick a ball into the target zone without overshooting it. The smaller the target zone you hit, the better your score is. The court features a few surprises like Dead Zones that decrease your points if you land the ball there.

Bucketball requires you and your teammate to score into the opposing team’s basket in accordance with football limitations (meaning only using your head and legs). Outside of that, it’s basically a small-scale variation of basketball, with two-pointers, three-pointers, and free kicks for fouls.  

The Big Race is exactly what it sounds like — a four-player dribbling obstacle course race. It honestly can get quite difficult even on the easiest sections of the track, and it gets a lot messier when you get to the actually complicated ones — like the “defender” trying to take your ball away.

Team Keep Away features two three-player teams trying to maximize ball possession, with passes increasing the score multiplier. There are no goalkeepers or even goals at all — just you trying your best not to screw up your next pass.

Goal Control is a 1v1 game that places you into a square court with 2 goals on each side. Your objective is to score into all eight goals, taking control over them. If your opponent scores into one of the goals you possess, they take control over it. To make it all a bit more nuanced, the goals have gates that open and close somewhat unexpectedly so that it’s hard to keep track of every objective available. 

Scenarios are difficult to describe in their entirety, because the game mode itself is incredibly flexible and can feature different objectives like scoring the ball off a wall bounce or breaking a target with your kick. It is worth checking out to see whether trying to follow these objectives is fun for you.

Finally, Balloon Ball is the most unusual (if not straight-up bizarre) minigame available in FC 27. It is a four-player free-for-all deathmatch with two balls on the pitch, as well as several obstacles. The goal here is to kick the ball into another player to remove one of the three balloons attached to them. Losing all three balloons gets you knocked out of the competition. If you thought it would be cool to have dodgeball in your FC, now you do.

Kickabouts feel like a very bold choice from the game designer’s perspective. Imagine yourself being in charge of a new FC game: would you allocate resources to create Bucket Ball mode for diehard football fans? 

It might be a fun addition, but most of the fanbase is clearly mostly interested in football itself, and would maybe prefer you spend more time on adding new celebration animations, optimizing UI and performance, or adding some other game mechanics. At the same time, a game introducing a new mode that suddenly becomes massively popular isn’t unheard of — think of Hearthstone Battlegrounds or DotA, for example. 

Unfortunately, so far, Kickabouts seem to be among the least popular games available on The Grounds, and that isn’t likely to change. I personally spent around 15 minutes waiting for literally anyone to queue for a Goal Control match before giving up and going back to 1v1, and that’s likely what you’ll experience as well. While it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t check these games out, it does mean that trying to do so may be an issue due to the lack of players. You’ll have to convince a friend or two to queue with you.

 

 

Progression

The Grounds allow you to level up your Archetypes and Season Passes by playing different matches and completing various Daily, Weekly, Seasonal, or other types of objectives. The rewards include Archetype XP, Season Pass XP, Consumables, and cosmetic items.

Archetype XP is probably the one players will find most desirable, since it can be used to directly improve your player’s performance on the pitch by purchasing attribute upgrades. There is some level of depth with the system: each attribute has an individual upgrade cost, disincentivizing you from dumping everything you’ve earned into a single stat (although you still can do it if you really want). 

For instance, Balance might only cost you 1 AP per point, while Ball Control will require four times more, and Sprint Speed will demand 6 AP for a single upgrade. These figures are based on your chosen Archetype and will change depending on current attribute value — the higher you go, the more you will have to pay.

For example, here’s what it looks like in-game for a Target Archetype:

Attribute	Total points required to reach 90
Short Pass	65
Finishing	143
Sprint Speed	234

Achieving masteries in different archetypes rewards you with additional bonuses, and you are always free to reset your points at no cost. Experiment all you want and try different roles — maybe you’ll find being a Defender far more interesting than you initially imagined. 

The Grounds offers you two types of items for purchase:

1. Accelerated Match Performance items (or Amps) will boost your player’s performance for a short time. If you really need to win that one game against your friend, you can rely on them. 
2. Consumable items mostly offer increases to your Archetype experience points, whether by providing some directly or by increasing the amount you can earn through completing objectives.

Finally, there are also stores that allow you to purchase all sorts of hats and accessories to stand out in the streets.

Read our other FC 27 guides:

• FUT Champions
• Clubs
• Skill Moves
• Formations

F.A.Q.