Can someone go deep in depth explaining seasons and H2H please?

For me, I find hearing your opponent talking during the game extremely annoying. For this, I mute my sound. Secondly, some douchebags like to message you that you and your team are trash after the game. You can go into settings and ensure that you only get messages from those on your friend's list. Those two nuggets have kept me from throwing a controller through the TV. Enjoy the ride.

Its actually really awesome to hear we have older MUT fans. Now I feel like a baby at 32 lol. Pretty surprised by this thread.

Hello to another Madden player who's on their own personal "back 9" in life. I'm actually a bit older than you... but I have always loved football and video games, so of course I love Madden. I've been actively playing MUT since M16 and started off casually playing the game with my son. The game has changed a lot over those 8 years. But again a lot has not changed. At this point I would say I am an above average MUT player. I win probably 85% of my House Rules games... and in Champions mode I'm typically around 16-18 wins out of 25 games played. I'm not great and I get soundly thrashed in some games... but I'm always trying to get better and figure out how to stop what I'm getting beat with.

Every single year, EA seems to give away less and less to players - especially those that don't want to put money into the game. I would say that M23 is by far the worst in my experience for an "NMS" (no money spent) player. And an NMS player who doesn't play Head to Head (H2H)... well they're in for a frustrating experience with the game. There are FAR less solos than we have ever had and the rewards from these have been extremely discounted. You typically get a crappy card that you can't auction... and this year you can't even put them into sets to get better cards. Top that off with the fact that Solo Battles have been glitched and unavailable to many players... and well I could not imagine playing MUT without H2H.

EA is basically forcing people down the path of H2H play anyway with the way the Comp Passes are set up. Unfortunately, the game is also glitched in that House Rules and H2H wins are not giving out the rewards they're supposed to. EA says they are aware of those issues and are working on it. But I'm not hopeful they will ever fix things or give us what we have earned... let alone give us "make rights" for our troubles.

I enjoy playing H2H but taking the plunge into competitive play in this game is not easy. It all depends on what you want out of the experience. If you're looking for good rewards, you are probably going to be disappointed - even if EA fixes the above mentioned problems. That being said...H2H is still the most fun thing for me. It's a steep learning curve... and the better you get, the more difficult your opposition becomes because behind the scenes, every player has an "Elo" rating (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elo_rating_system#:~:text=A%20player's%20Elo%20rating%20is,or%20lost%20after%20a%20game.). So you will simply ratchet up in competition as you get better and your Elo increases. EA's goal is to make sure you don't lose too much that you quit... but also don't win too much. It sounds worse than it is... and not something you have to really worry about. Just keep in mind that you're never as bad as you think and you're certainly never as good as you think either!

I agree with the post below that "House Rules" is probably the easiest way to jump into H2H play. The games are short (maybe 3-10 minutes)... versus full games in the Seasons and Champions mode which can take up to 40 minutes if no one concedes early. H2H play is just a different animal than playing against the CPU in solos. You need a solid scheme to play H2H. Huddle.gg has all the playbooks listed... (https://huddle.gg/23/playbooks/). I would suggest you use the Patriots playbook on offense because it has some of the best formations. I would also suggest you run mostly Gun Trips TE because even novice players can do well with plays like Curl Flat, Double In Sail, PA Counter Go, Pats Slant, and RPO Zone Alert Bubble. Go into practice mode and test it out.

On defense, you can use any number of playbooks and be successful. I am using the Raiders this year because I like 3-4 Odd and 4-3 Even 1 to stop heavy runners... and I like Big Nickel Over G when I face passers. But I know other guys will tell you their Defensive Playbook is the best. It's really personal preference. My only advice on defense is:

A) Be smart about what formation you come out in. If you see your opponent is coming out with 2 WR, 2 TE, and 1 HB then you probably don't want to be in a Dollar or Dime formation. Conversely... if he's coming out in 5 Wide or empty sets with a single TE... then you probably want more DBs on the field. Nickel packages are a good compromise between linebackers and defensive backs.

B) Mix things up... meaning don't keep calling the same defensive play every down. Even mediocre players will figure out a way to beat your Cover 2 or Cover 0 Blitz if you run it time after time. My entire offense is built around figuring out my opponent's tendencies and then coming out with a bomb to beat him for a 1-play TD. If I see you in Cover 0, Cover 1, Cover 2, Cover 2 Man, Cover 4 Drop, Cover 4 Quarters / Palms on back to back plays, then next play I will be hitting you with a beater. Cover 3 is more difficult to burn over the top... but still there are many "chunk" plays you can call. It's much harder to beat someone who is unpredictable on defense. Eventually you will want to learn the best defensive formations and setups to stop common or "meta" offenses that people run. But in the beginning... just try different things. Zones, Zone Blitzes, Zone Matches all can be effective.

C) Learn to "user". You get to control one defender at the start of any play. Do not user one of your Dlineman thinking you can get to the QB faster. Again... even mediocre players will pick you apart. Advanced players will user one of their high Safeties but this can be really risky. I think you should start off usering one of your MLBs. I user my MLBs in 3-4 Odd (both have lurker for 1 AP because without this ability, linebackers do not "jump" in this game... so it's much harder to get interceptions). In most Nickel, Dime, and Dollar formations you can sub in safeties for linebackers. I do that in Big Nickel Over G at the start of every game... so that way I am usering a Safety (who have built in Lurker) and just ranging the middle of the field. Developing your user skills is the most important thing you can do to win games. In the beginning it's really hard. Over time you will learn to "shoot gaps" to stop the run or for passing plays, identify the most common offensive formations, plays, and routes. You eventually need to learn to manually guard some routes that just won't be covered well by zones or man-to-man. But in the beginning just try to get in the way of open receivers and when the quarterback throws the ball, press "Y" (on Xbox) to jump and make a "user lurk" interception. Watch replays and see how other guys user... and you'll learn a lot faster.

Anyways... that's my 2 bits. Best of luck to you.

I'm 78 years old and still play. I have to laugh at the cheesers when I think of all the real issues they will have do deal with on their journey to my age group. The first couple of weeks of H2H are always the toughest, but you begin to learn what works and what doesn't. Hang in there !

Glad to see quite a few other greybeard MUT players here. Seasons with H2H tries to kind of emulate a NFL team season with a group of other players, where you try to get the most wins and get more rewards the more wins you get. Cheesing tends to increase as you get higher in the win count for the season as bigger rewards are on the line, with a Super Bowl for the top teams at the end. House rules are shorter games with funky rules (ex. score 3 points for an int), and goes on total win count rather than getting the most wins within a season.

The freeze glitch is still around, and is when an opponent is losing in H2H and will pause the game and sit there eternally, hoping that you give up waiting and quit despite being ahead to give them a win. in the meantime both of you are in limbo. Between this and cheesing that makes the game nothing remotely like live NFL, H2H can get pretty frustrating depending on the luck of the draw with opponents. H2H is pretty tough, people don't like to lose and some will go to really annoying lengths to get a win any way they can.. But that's also why H2H has pretty good rewards (in theory, although it's 50/50 EA will actually give you the rewards with all the game problems right now), and at it's best it is really fun.

I'm also 51. I enjoy H2H. Try and play a while. Don't get discouraged. It can be a pretty steep learning curve. It's a very different game. And the matchmaking is a slow learner. You may lose a few in a row. But keep at it and you'll see it get easier.

This is only my 4th year of UT and up to this year I haven’t tried any H2H. Pretty much just because I don’t want to mess around with those cheesers. But I tried some house rules this year (think it was UK with the college OT rules) and I really enjoyed it even though I lost about half of the games. So if there is house rules available you might want to try and start with those as they mostly are way shorter then seasons or champions games and might make I a bit easier to start with.

Top of the morning my man...at 51 years old...you are still a young man (I got you beat by several years). So let's take a look at H2H from the 50+ perspective. Upfront...H2H is Head to Head, you are putting your team and skills up against another human player and their team. So we have established there will another human involved in this mode...if my 50+ years have taught me anything (and it has taught me a lot), when you have more then one person involved in anything...there is a good chance one of those people is annoying (I also found in my 50+ years...it is often me). So we just gonna have to deal with that possibility. Is there "cheesing"? Sure...but what is "cheesing" and why is that bad? Folks bought the game...no one can or should tell you how to play your game, we gotta strive to extend them the same courtesy (again...I'm always gonna try to not be the annoying one). As for rewards...sure you can make some coin and if you win enough games you can win some packs. You don't get any cards directly, but you do get points toward the competitive and season passes...and this can get you cards quicker. When I was younger all I heard on the playground was how horrible carrots were. First time my mom served them I was having none of it. My mom explained there was no way for me to "know" if carrots were nasty as I had never tried them...so...a grabbed a fork, speared one of those little orange disk things and threw it in my mouth. A chew or two later and I then knew...these innocent looking little things were clearly the food of the Devil...they were (and still are) horrible...but...now I knew and survived (barely) this encounter. Same with H2H...I could listen to the folks who post about the horrors (you notice they keep playing the mode?...if it was so horrible...why they still subjecting themselves to it?) or you can jump in and take it for a drive. It is free to play H2H...will it suck? Maybe...but like carrots...there are folks out there who actually enjoy it. I try to not let other's opinions impact my decisions...sure I listen, but in the end...I give things a try and see how it turns out. If the game mode sucks...well...as a 50+ we got the option to wrap it up and not play it anymore, but on the flip...we may find it enjoyable and realize...carrots ain't likely to kill us.

Every single mode has cheesers. Its more rampant on the higher levels . Probably best if you play squads with friends and be head coach if you're not comfortable with playing h2h.

Anyways, go to h2h tab and you will get a breakdown of the reward structure .