100%. I’'ve never tried playing on easy in any rugby game ever. It’s sad that it’s become a pattern for all rugby games. AI suck and they cant get them to be good
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Since when Wales and England are T1 and Japan and Fiji T2 ? 
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None of those teams are remotely similar to Estonia or Libya etc though are they?
Japan are not a low rated team, Fiji is definitely not a low rated team.
Japan and Italy are not too far apart either. None of those wins you mentioned can really be regarded as massive shocks outside the game against South Africa.
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Yeah and my point was that the teams you mentioned are not low rated when you consider the global list of teams.
This thread is about a team being 30 points rating difference winning a game to get an achievement. The comment is about THOSE types of low rated teams beating Tier 1 nations. Not Japan and Fiji who go to World Cups regularly lol.
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Played with Guatamala against France just now, was level 42-42 all after 60 odd minutes before game crashed… I was able to defend my own ruck most of the time, which is what I would want to see happen and I was able to force a couple of turnovers from their ruck, so I would say it’s very much possible to still get the achievement. Match was actually great to play!!!
France 88 rating
Guatamala 60 rating
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Yeah I got you, after I wrote that I figured you had read it as *lower rated teams. Which you are right. Totally happens.
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I think youve misunderstood the point of the thread. I doubt in the real world any of the 40 rated teams would ever be able to take on a fully stacked Springboks or All Blacks side. Not even sure how a match would be arranged in the real world.
But this is a video game. BigAnt went to the effort to travel the world and collect data/facescans/official kits, for more teams than any other rugby game ever, so all these teams can feature in 1 game, and face off against each other. If they didnt want you to take on a 90 rated team with a 40 rated team, the game wouldnt let you.
You cant play Walaroos vs Wallabies, because they locked out the genders from playing against each other.
But they did themselves add the achievement to beat a team rated 25+ more than you.
Which means many people will want to play those tough challenges, for the achievement or the fun.
So there should be the possibility to take on these matches as a test of your ability. The games should be hard, you may take 20-30 attempts, maybe you grind out a 1 point win after defending your own 5m line for the last 20 minutes.
The point is, the game and the mechanics should allow the player to take on any team with any other team, and their own skill level determines if they can win.
Playing lower rated vs higher rated is a good way to find flaws in the existing system.
Take lineouts for example. When ratings are about 15 rated lower, if the AI chooses a jumper equal, or closer to the thrower, they WILL win the linout, doesnt matter where you throw. So if they just pick front jumper, you physically cannot win a lineout, and theres no work around.
Thats a flaw, that could be looked in to, that you may not realise if you only play NZ vs SA 200 times in a row.
It also bleeds in to multiplayer, changes that have come mean you cant really player with low rated teams on multiplayer any more. Theres a livestream I did shortly after release where I played against the Rugby Guru as Cyprus and he was New Zealand. And I barely lost the game (because conversion mechanics suck), and it was an incredibly enjoyable game, and was also a way to showcase a team like Cyprus, who never get representation in rugby, and got people excited for the underdog in a big match up. The game probably wasnt “as good” back then, but atleast the option to compete with a lower rated team was on the cards. And the mechanics werent against you instantly just for picking a lower rated team.
Being able to win a game with a low rated team isnt some way to bash the Tier 1 teams, it should be looked at as a positive achievement in a test of player skill.
Im also not sure what the other options are in this game. Playing same rated teams on this game is neither equal nor enjoyable, if you sit down and just play NZ vs SA you just win by 40 points on hardest. So if you never play as lower rated teams because you dont feel that represents rugby union properly, do you just play endless games of same rated teams, winning all of them by 40 points and never challenge yourself.
We also need the rugby community to grow. Bigant have actually done a great step with going to the effort of gathering all these teams in 1 game. But put yourself in the shoes of someone who lived in Cyprus their whole lives, never seen their team at the world cup, never seen their team in the world ranking top 10, never see your team in big tournaments broadcast on TV. You finally pick up a rugby game that has YOUR national team on it. And you want to take on the big teams you see in the world cup in TV, you want to take on NZ or SA or France. Imagine the excitement of giving that challenge a go, only to find out the mechanics might litterally make it impossible. And if its impossible, then why bother playing?
The idea of the thread is 1 to show off how good you are at the game by saying how big of a challenge you can win with a low rated team. But 2, to find out what mechanics simply stop players from being able to progress with the challenge of playing with an even lower rated team. Because fixing the mechanics on the extremes, helps tighten the mechanics for more equal match ups, and suddenly might make a game like NZ vs SA feel enjoyable. Rather than a walkover.
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Just noticed in all of the screenshots I gave that the AI stats say they had 0 missed tackles every time. So I guess another stat that is not working?
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100%. Yeah the missed tackle count seems to only count when getting through a player using the right analog stick, but ive notived as ratings get lower, the handoffs work less and less. So even though the AI get through 4 players per phase, you cant get through 1 using the same thing. So they never miss or slip off a tackle.
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I know a guy on youtube who won the RWC with Madagascar on hardest ,but that happened some months ago !
Beating the Lions 42-21 with QLD Reds.
Lions 87 overall. Reds 80.
Set on the Hardest Difficulty. PS5.
Match was too easy. It was a disappointing match as not enough fight or attacking display from the Ai controlled Lions.
As I mentioned in a post this week, seems that there is an invisible “Momentum” shift in the game but too much momentum goes to the user team once they score a Try. From there it gets easier to score and Ai defence gets more weaker.
Also two high tackles by QLD Reds players. The Referee did not sin bin or send off the offending players
