It meant high-quality data could finally be captured in FUT 22 Coins a real football match. "We chose the two teams in Spain's third tier because of their historical rivalry" Eaves says. They are both professionalteams that have been well-coached and have an amazing technique. They play possession-based football, with control and finesse. This is great for a video game because we need it to be quick and fun."

The direction of EA was minimal, if that is to say providing the players and coaching personnel that this was the type of game that was a "must-win match." The game didn't need an extra edge. Eaves remembers that players were sub-contracted, so we could capture tired defenders or fresh forwards as the game moved on. "You could feel the animosity. There were so many fouls in the opening five minutes - it was exactly what we wanted."

EA has been able to capture the intensity and physicality of real-life sports with the off-the-ball activities that include shouting, pointing, or posturing. Eaves says that when a stuntman slides against someone in motion capture space the player will then pop up. The game doesn't provide the aggression of a real challenge. The physicality of the game is very real. We take the anger of the player and make it our own game.

EA has been able to create 8.75 million frames of animation by only taking in 22 players over 90 minutes. Machine learning is then activated. "Previously when an athlete is preparing to complete the next move such as a pass, shot or dribble - we've picked an animation from our database," Eaves explains. "But it's not aware of the context. All this data trains the network and helps blend animations."

But how can the desire for authenticity affect an event that ultimately is able to compress 90 minutes of professional football to ten minutes or so of action? "It's a positive," says FIFA YouTuber and streamer Chris Wood, aka Chesnoid Gaming. "The concept behind the sport video games is to recreate the games you experience every week in cheap FIFA 22 Coins reality. So it brings the game to life more. It is now close to the five-minute half-hour halves of video games than the real game of football.