Taking part in the Nexon PEAK Post Challenge

FC ONLINE is fun on your own, but playing with a friend makes it twice as enjoyable. There’s the tension of facing each other in 1v1 matches, and a different kind of fun in building up a club together.

Today, I’d like to share what it’s been like playing FC ONLINE with a friend.

There’s a particular feeling I get when I challenge a friend to a match in FC ONLINE. It’s completely different from facing a stranger through random matchmaking. Just knowing that someone I know well is on the other side makes my grip tighten a little.

Sometimes we go into a match already knowing how we’ve each put our squads together, and sometimes an invitation arrives out of nowhere, leaving me a little nervous as I accept. I’ve enjoyed both in their own way. Planning my tactics around the formation I think my friend will use and the players they might field feels quite different from random matchmaking.

FC ONLINE has a salary cap system, so how I approach a match depends on how my opponent has allocated their squad’s salary budget. When I already know my friend’s squad, part of the fun is changing my formation or adjusting my lineup to counter it. Ranked matches require us to stay within the salary cap, so competing with each other naturally gets us exploring which player combinations make the most of the same budget.

If I win, I send a screenshot straight to my friend over Discord or KakaoTalk; if I lose, I can’t quite accept it and immediately ask for a rematch. That routine is one of the reasons we keep playing FC ONLINE together. Losing to a stranger usually means moving on to the next game, but losing to a friend brings out that stubborn need to win the next one. It makes me put more effort into the game, and the more effort I put in, the more I enjoy it, so one feeds into the other.

When I play FC ONLINE alone, even a goal that turns a deficit into a lead ends with me celebrating by myself and moving on. Having a friend who plays changes that, because every dramatic moment becomes something I want to share.

Whether I score a goal in the closing moments of the second half to turn a match around, stop my opponent just as they’re about to score, or score the winner in a penalty shootout, I find myself sending my friend a screenshot or video right away. Without someone to share it with, I would have simply moved on to the next match, but sharing it makes the moment feel more special and helps it stay with me. Those thrilling moments in FC ONLINE feel twice as intense when a friend is part of the experience.

I also learn things from the comeback goal videos my friend sends me. Watching them, I naturally start thinking about why they chose a particular shot in that situation or which passing routes they used. Along with enjoying the game together, we end up learning from each other’s play.

FC ONLINE also has a 2v2 matchmaking mode, where I can invite a friend to play on the same team. It feels completely different from playing alone. Added in 2019, the mode lets players join 2v2 matches through invitations or random matchmaking.

In 2v2, we each control some of the players on the team, so we need to be in sync for a match to go well. That might mean my friend timing a run as I bring the attack forward, or pressing the opponent while I hold the defensive line. It’s even more fun when we talk in real time over Discord. With calls like “Send it up now” and “Play it out to the left” going back and forth, 2v2 feels completely different from playing alone.

At first, we sometimes get in each other’s way and end up making awkward plays, but after a few matches, our roles start to emerge naturally. One of us handles the attacking buildup while the other organizes the defense. The real fun of 2v2 begins when those roles fall into place. Playing alone means keeping an eye on both attack and defense at once, but in 2v2, dividing the responsibilities gives each of us something we can focus on more closely.

Winning in 2v2 brings a different sense of achievement from winning alone, because it feels like something we’ve earned by working together. When our tactics pay off, or we win a match because we’ve both played our roles perfectly, there’s a kind of satisfaction that only cooperative play can offer.

Clubs offer another way for the two of us to enjoy FC ONLINE together. Creating and running a club while working toward a shared goal brings a different kind of enjoyment from facing each other in 1v1 matches.

There’s plenty to decide together from the moment we create a club. Choosing a name, settling on the colors for the club kit, and working out the emblem design are all fun even before we start playing. Making those small decisions together helps us grow attached to the club.

Facing other clubs in Club Battles, earning club points, and moving up the club rankings together gives us another reason to play FC ONLINE. Unlike playing ranked matches alone, having a club gives us something to work toward together, so making plans to play a few Club Battles that day comes naturally. That reason to log in is what keeps us coming back regularly.

It’s fun to look back over our Club Battle results together, too. As we talk about what went well and what could have been better, a strategy for the next match starts to take shape. Details I might have overlooked alone become things we both pay attention to. Along the way, we get to know each other’s play styles better, and our teamwork improves naturally.

Another thing I enjoy about playing FC ONLINE with a friend is sharing our squads and exchanging feedback. When I sign a new player, my friend is the first person I want to show them off to. Looking over each other’s squads naturally leads to questions like “Why did you pick this player?” or “Wouldn’t that player be better in this position?”

Those conversations help me improve my squad, too. My friend sometimes spots something straight away that I hadn’t noticed while thinking it through on my own. I can get attached to a player I’ve used for a long time, but a recommendation from my friend, who can look at the choice more objectively, sometimes changes my mind.

It’s also fun to look over new season cards together when they come out. Working out which players are strong this season and which Team Color combinations are most efficient makes finding information and planning strategies within the game enjoyable in its own right. We look over each other’s squads, offer advice, then put that advice into practice before facing each other again. That cycle is another reason the two of us keep enjoying FC ONLINE together.

What I’ve enjoyed most about playing FC ONLINE with a friend is that we improve together even while competing. In 1v1 matches, we both want to beat each other, but in Club Battles, we’re working toward the same goal. Having both sides of that experience is what makes FC ONLINE a game we can keep enjoying together for a long time.

When I improve on my own, my friend notices, and when I can feel their improvement during a match, it encourages me to try harder, too. Competing with each other naturally helps us both get better. FC ONLINE is plenty of fun alone, but playing with a friend adds things I can’t experience on my own, from the tension of facing each other to the teamwork of 2v2 and the shared goals of running a club.

If you have a friend who likes football, try getting started in FC ONLINE together. Have you ever played FC ONLINE with a friend? Let me know in the comments.