Nearly a month has passed since the release of Phase 2 for WoW TBC Classic Anniversary, and while top-tier players have mostly reached BIS gear, many casual players are still struggling through raids and dungeons. In WoW TBC Classic Anniversary, the progression gap between different player groups has actually become quite large. The root of this divide does not originate from Phase 2 alone; in fact, the trend was already present during Phase 1, and Phase 2 has only widened it further. Phase 2 Raids BCC Anniversary Phase 2 raids launched in a nerfed state, which lowered the requirements for positioning, ability usage, and even gear. Along with several new speed-running techniques, some players claim that Phase 2 raids are extremely easy. Nevertheless, a significant number of players have still not managed to complete them. The efficiency of clearing all raids has not been as high as expected either. Only truly hardcore groups can compress the run time to around ninety minutes, while nearly fifty percent of players cannot finish all the instances in a single night. These players typically take on Serpentshrine Cavern one evening and The Eye the next. That means each character requires two raid nights per week. If you maintain two characters, you will spend nearly half of your week - or even more - engaged in raids. For busier players, it might take two full weeks to complete all the raids. Multiple Characters Having multiple characters is precisely where the gap originates. The most hardcore players can manage several characters at once and clear instances with remarkable efficiency. Once one character obtains the best loot, they immediately switch to another character, develop it as a main, and rapidly pull ahead of others in terms of gear. All hardcore players are doing this. Their raid groups do not need an entire evening to finish Serpentshrine Cavern or The Eye. They complete their tasks extremely quickly and then move on to the next raids. This advantage began accumulating in Phase 1. A casual player might only reach, by week three or four, the progression that hardcore players had already achieved in week one. If you also want to develop an alt account, you can participate in IGGM's WoW 60 Game Time giveway on Discord. You have the opportunity to get two months for free to develop your character. Trash Mob Trash mob mechanics are another major culprit. These mobs block your path and waste your time, and they are threatening in their own right. In the past, you could clear trash in seconds, as in Karazhan. Now, however, you need extensive explanation and coordination. Once a mistake causes a wipe, players repeatedly drop out of the group. For ordinary raid teams, this makes boss encounters like Kael'thas Sunstrider extremely difficult. No player wants to reclear trash after a wipe, and the group will almost certainly disband as a result. If players choose to leave, they might not have time to rejoin the raid until the following week, which severely slows down their progress. Split Runs Hardcore guilds encounter none of these problems. They clear instances with great ease and have highly optimized rosters. But that does not mean faster clearing teams are necessarily more skilled. Hardcore guilds are accumulating far more gear than anyone else through split runs. The world's fastest guilds are conducting four or five different split runs. In doing so, they secure more and more gear for their core members. Assuming Black Temple or Sunwell Plateau opens in an unnerfed state, these guilds will enjoy a massive item level advantage over everyone else. Consumable Costs The gap also appears in consumable costs. When your guild wipes repeatedly, each wipe consumes more consumables. Everyone uses food buffs, elixirs, and flasks. These expenses add up significantly. Essentially, each raid attempt takes hundreds of WoW TBC Classic Anniversary gold. As soon as something goes wrong, people immediately leave the group. Moreover, the most hardcore players never have anyone leave their groups. Therefore, they do not need to replace members during an instance. That is precisely why ordinary raids take so long. Loot Systems The soft reserve run system fails to keep players around. There is no mechanism binding players to a soft reserve group. They have no incentive to stay; once the item they want does not drop - or does drop - they leave immediately. In contrast, other loot team such as GDKP, you will never see people leaving. Most players may dislike GDKP, but the current pickup group environment is unnecessarily harsh. If you are currently in a TBC guild, the experience can be quite good. If you are in a pug, however, you are likely facing a 7-hour raid ordeal. Casual players are forced to do all sorts of things, such as constantly recruiting in trade chat to fill their groups, only to spend an entire evening without defeating a single boss. Meanwhile, other groups keep pulling ahead. They have split runs, and when they merge everyone back into the main team, they will be ten item levels above the average player. WoW TBC Classic Anniversary has performed reasonably well up through Phase 2, but the official team clearly needs to offer more support to casual players. Otherwise, those players may fall so far behind in progression that they choose to quit.

As the World Cup approaches, fans unable to attend in person, or simply wanting to play the matches themselves, are turning their attention to FC 26 to experience the magic of the tournament through a virtual football game. Following the conclusion of the 2022 World Cup, players could continue to experience the World Cup Mode in FIFA 23. However, the situation has changed this time due to licensing issues. Here, we explore the relationship between the World Cup and FC 26, as well as the best ways to experience the tournament's atmosphere within the game. Can you play World Cup Mode in FC 26? While people still colloquially refer to the game as FIFA 26, the series actually lost the official FIFA license after FIFA 23; its official branding now carries EA Sports FC prefix. Consequently, no specific license was sought for the World Cup in FC 26. As a result, you won't find a dedicated World Cup Mode in the game. However, to provide a similar experience, FUT 26 has introduced The World's Game Update. You can think of this as an unofficial, yet content-rich, alternative to the traditional World Cup Mode. What does The World's Game Update include? Released on June 4, this update introduces a new tournament mode and adds World Cup-themed content to core modes like Ultimate Team and Career Mode. Additionally, Season 8: Festival of Football has launched alongside it. The World's Game Mode This mode serves as a new, indirect iteration of the classic World Cup Mode, specifically taking the form of a special tournament. Thanks to licensing agreements with select teams, you can take control of your favorite squads in this limited-time tournament and lead them to victory. There are currently 48 playable teams confirmed, with the tournament progressing through group stages, knockout rounds, and the final stages. Ultimate Team updates While not an official virtual World Cup game, The World's Game Update will roll out five promos in Ultimate Team throughout the tournament period. These promos will introduce new player cards and allow you to upgrade them based on the real-world World Cup schedule. Path to Glory Team 1 promotion is currently live. You can buy FC 26 coins on IGGM and then decide whether to trade cards directly on the transfer market or redeem packs for random draws. Additionally, by logging into the game and entering Ultimate Team between June 5 and July 24, you can claim a 93 OVR Festival of Football ICON Pelé as a free reward. Furthermore, until July 19, you can progressively apply additional Evolution effects to this player item through daily gameplay. Completing all Evolutions will boost OVR to 96 and significantly enhance the card's attributes. While playing various modes within Ultimate Team, you can now earn extra tokens to redeem for rewards, with a maximum of 1,000 tokens earnable per week. Another new feature, Journey of Nations, will periodically release five continental objectives one by one; completing each unlocks an ICON player, and finishing the entire set grants an additional JoN Diego Maradona: North America (June 4, 2026): Hugo Sánchez Asia & Oceania (June 12, 2026): Saeed Al-Owairan Africa (June 19, 2026): Jay-Jay Okocha South America (June 26, 2026): Carlos Alberto Europe - Friday (July 3, 2026): Gerd Müller Career Mode updates In this mode, you can build a glorious career as either a team manager or a player. Building on this foundation, The World's Game Update introduces international men's tournaments to the mode, following the same basic rules as The World's Game Mode. You can now add an available national team to manage when starting a Career Mode save and progress by completing specific objectives. You can also experience new ICONs and Heroes added as part of Festival of Football event. Other changes In addition to the World Cup-themed content, the simultaneous launch of Season 8 brings routine updates to FUT 26, including internal adjustments to the club system and AI optimizations. Furthermore, starting June 19, a new batch of players will be added to the game as Greats of the Game versions, with their base items arriving after June 26. Does The World's Game Update have any shortcomings? Due to the lack of an official FIFA license, The World's Game Update misses out on many official elements found in a dedicated World Cup mode; furthermore, some teams are forced to use fictional players, which somewhat detracts from the overall experience. Consequently, if you are looking for an experience that faithfully recreates the real-life World Cup, The World's Game might fall short; however, when combined with other game modes, it still offers a wealth of playable content. In short, while a dedicated World Cup mode does not appear in EA FC 26 in the strict sense, The World's Game Update indirectly makes up for this absence. If you're interested, give it a try now!