FIFA 15 scouting guide part 5: The May update & how to boost youth player potentials


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Key points:

  • Promoting players before the May update can result in you losing a lot of growth
  • The May update can turn poor and average players into brilliant prospects overnight
  • You can reload the promotion of your players to boost their potential
  • The first May update is by far the most significant


Welcome to the FIFA 15 scouting guide!

Your essential guide to the scouting system in FIFA 15

This year I’ve decided to split the guide up into separate parts. This means that instead of having to wait until I’ve finished everything before a big all-in-one guide comes out, you’ll be getting content much more quickly. Just head over to the FIFA 15 scouting guide hub page to find the other parts as they are released.

Today we’re having a look at the May update, one of the most important things to understand when scouting. How much difference does it make, and why must you ensure your players go through it? I’ll also explain how you can boost the potential of your scouted players when you promote them. It’s really easy to do and could make an important difference to their growth in the long run.

Contents

What is the May update?

In FIFA 15, players in your academy will only grow once per year: on 1st May (this is also true for all players on AI teams). When you first scout players they generally have low OVRs, but these increase massively on 1st May as the May update takes effect. The higher potential a player has, the more he is likely to grow.

So what this means is you do not want to promote your players before they’ve been through at least one May update, otherwise you can lose an entire year’s worth of growth. So make sure you don’t promote your players in March or April, just wait another month or so and promote them in May to ensure their OVRs grow.

It’s also worth noting that the first May update a player goes through is by far the largest. Players can grow 10-15 points in their first May update (and even more if they’re mispositioned; see below), whereas they generally grow around 4-6 points subsequent May updates, maybe more.

What happens if you promote a player before the May update?

If you’ve done some particularly good scouting, you may have an academy full of very promising players who you think are ready to be promoted. However, even with high potential, you may still find your players are like this when they get promoted:

FIFA 15 scouting guide

This player has 87-93 potential, but he needs a lot of growing to reach that

That player has a potential of around 90, but with a starting OVR of 58 he has an awful lot of growing to do. At a team like Barcelona he’s not going to get much game time at all, making it even harder to get him to reach his potential.

The problem is even worse if you have a mispositioned player. For instance, the player below is a left back with the ‘Attacker’ player type – clearly he shouldn’t be a left back. He has potential 88-94 but just look at his OVR when I promoted him before the May update:

FIFA 15

Despite his high potential, this player has a shocking OVR if you promote him before 1st May

Because he is in the wrong position and hasn’t had the boost from the May update, his OVR is atrocious. He’s no use even in the worst teams in the game. Promoting him before the May update means you’ve essentially wasted him, because there’s no way he’s going to grow 50 points in order to reach his potential.

Let’s see what you should do instead.

How much difference can the May update make?

Let’s have a look at those same two players we saw above, but this time after the May update. How much difference will it make to them?

Well, here’s the striker on 1st May, the day of the update:

FIFA 15 scouting guide

Now this striker is a much more viable option and has some excellent stats

He’s grown 12 points overnight and now looks much more useful. He now has a much better chance of reaching his high potential and should be able to cope well if you decide to give him some game time.

As for the ‘Attacker’ full back, let’s see how he fared in the May update:

FIFA 15 scouting guide

As with ‘Winger’ full backs, this player has some insanely overpowered stats

Amazing, isn’t it? He’s grown 35 points overnight. There’s no way you could get a player to grow 12 points in a season, never mind 35 points, so waiting until the May update has helped out this player immeasurably.

As I discussed in my article on scouted player types, full backs often get some ridiculous stats after the May update if they have the ‘Winger’ player type. As you can see here, this is also true if they have the ‘Attacker’ type. Given his strongest stats, he is best suited to playing on the wing or up front. However, because the game recognises he is a full back, his defensive stats will grow well over time. This will make him very well-rounded and good in both attack and defence.

So as you can see, you must always ensure your scouted players have been through at least one May update, otherwise you’re sacrificing a huge amount of growth that you would not be able to replicate when your players are in the first team.

The easy way to boost your scouted players’ potentials

Sometimes your promoted players’ status messages don’t seem to match up with their potential ranges before you promoted them (for an explanation of player potential statuses, see my article on how to spot top players on your reports).

For example, a scouted player may have potential 87-93 in the academy, but a status of “Showing great potential” after promotion, which indicates his potential is 80-85. Even if the player has been through the May update, you might still feel a little short-changed.

FIFA 15 scouting guide

This player had potential 89-94 in the academy but has the ‘Showing great potential’ status, which indicates his potential has now dropped to 80-85

Luckily there’s a way around this problem. Once you’ve offered your youth player a first team contract, save your game. Now advance until he accepts the contract, then check his status in the squad report screen. If it’s less than you were expecting, just quit your save, reload it and advance once more. When he accepts this time, check his status and chances are it will be different.

You can use this method to ensure your players come out with the potentials you were expecting.

Alternatively, you can use it to boost up your players’ potentials. It seems that you can alter a player’s potential by around 10 points in either direction, so a player with 80-86 potential in the academy could well be promoted with the ‘Has potential to be special’ message, indicating his potential is at least 91.

Just bear in mind potentials can go down using this method as well, so make sure you check the player’s status to make sure you haven’t made him worse!

FIFA 15 scouting guide

After reloading, his status is ‘Has potential to be special’, indicating it is now at least 91. This is closer to his potential in the academy

Other things to note

There are a few other things to take note of regarding the May update.

Firstly, while potentials can change when promoting players after the May update, OVRs can too. You may promote a player and have him come out at 71 OVR, then reload, promote him again and have him come out at 70 OVR.

Here’s why. In FIFA 15, on the first of every month promoted players’ stats will increase in a random combination (e.g. shooting and dribbling may go up 2 each, but if you reload and try again they may go up 3 each). If the right combination of stats go up, their OVR will as well.

The May update basically works like this, except on steroids. So on 1st May the stats of your academy players increase, but if you reload they will increase in a different way. If you kept promoting the same player over and over again, you’d notice his stats would be different every time.

FIFA 15 scouting guide

Note that while this player’s OVR has increased from 72 to 73, his potential has actually decreased from ‘Has potential to be special (potential 91+) to ‘An exciting prospect’ (potential 86-90)

So with enough reloading you can ensure your players come out with higher OVRs. However, while this is useful, a player’s potential status is far more important because a higher potential means more growth in the long run. So make sure you don’t sacrifice a better potential for a slightly higher OVR.

The final thing to note is that no amount of reloading the May update will change your players’ weak foot ability, skill moves and work rates. These will always be the same and can sometimes be inappropriate for their position (such as an attacking midfielder with high defensive work rate).

But don’t worry, you can alter your players’ work rates in the formations screen, so just make sure you remember to do that if you have a player with seemingly wrong work rates.


And don’t forget to enter the youth player contest! Just post your photo in the comments below, contact me on Facebook or Twitter, or share it in the comments on YouTube! I’ll pick a winner and let you all know by this time next week.

Thanks for reading part four of the FIFA 15 scouting guide. If you have any thoughts on this or the YouTube video, make sure you let me know in the comments below.

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