What is Connection Quality in EA SPORTS FC™?

1 min read

Overview

Your Connection Quality affects the quality of your online gameplay experience and responsiveness while playing EA SPORTS FC™. Use this guide to learn more about Connection Quality, things that affect it, and how to measure it.

Table of Contents

Connection Quality impacts your online gaming

Need help connecting to The Grounds? Check out our article on troubleshooting The Grounds connection issues. 
When you push a button during an FC online match, it sends a game data packet from your home network to an FC game data center. After we receive it, the data packet travels back to trigger the corresponding in-game action. Any delays or interruptions during this process can cause lag, visual stuttering, or a full disconnection. You might notice the game becomes less responsive. Measuring that trip—and the thousands of other game data packet trips that take place during every applicable FC Online Match—is how we understand and measure Connection Quality.

Things that affect your Connection Quality as data travels

Game data packets travel through three key stages: 
  • Your personal network: Game data packets travel through your personal network before they leave your home and travel over the internet. You have the most control over your personal network, like if you’re using an Ethernet (wired) or Wi-Fi (wireless) connection.
  • The internet: Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) influences this part of the trip. While you don’t have direct control over how an ISP works, you might have the ability to choose between ISPs in your area.
  • FC game data centers: Game data packets end the first leg of their trip at FC game data centers, then begin the return leg back to your console or PC.

How to measure Connection Quality

View your EA SPORTS FC™ Connection Score and compare ISPs with the EA Connection Quality Report.
We measure Connection Quality using three metrics, which make up the Connection Score; ping, packet loss, and jitter. The Connection Score makes it easier to understand and compare different metrics for overall Connection Quality.

Ping measures speed

Ping measures the time it takes for game data to be sent from your console or PC to the FC game data centers and back. 

Packet loss measures reliability 

Packet loss measures the number or percentage of game data packets that fail to make the round trip. 

Jitter measures consistency

Jitter measures the changes to your ping values over time.
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