nothing beats watching the two star freshman you recruited in year 1 become a senior Superstar and lead your team to a national title it's all about progression in college football Dynasty mode and eafb 25 released their deep dive covering some new changes on how your players go from riding the bench to winning the Heisman trophy so let's Dive Right into player progression just like NCAA games of the past player progression is divided into two separate categories inseason and offseason inseason progression is based on onfield performance which is nothing new for veterans of the game however in NCAA 14 for example we didn't often see large jumps in progression throughout the season in fact I dug up a post from 2015 on Operation Sports where someone simulated Seasons to see the impact of inseason progression and he found that his team had A3 overall point per player per season increase that's not much but it does make you wonder how large of improvements we can expect our players to make throughout the season in eafb 25 especially in situations where you have freshmen that break out for Monster years while in season progression seems simple enough offseason progression is where the new features come into play offseason progression is the most impactful time of improvement for college football players and they reflect this in the game in eafb 25 progression in the offseason will be based on three factors school year coach abilities and their development trait school year will play a role in that younger players will see more significant boost in their offseason than the Vets which makes sense freshmen and sophomores are often still learning the ropes of offseason strengthen add conditioning programs while upper classmen are more acclimated to the offseason grind coaching staff and abilities will also now play a significant role in player progression if you choose to be a motivator for example you can have the Pay It Forward ability which Awards bonus XP to a position group every time a player at that position is drafted in the first three rounds turning out NFL Talent will now benefit the Improvement of an entire position on the team motivators can also have the Puttin work ability which gives a general offseason development increase for players in a particular position group it looks like between motivator recruiter and tactician motivator will give you the best opportunity to improve the overall of your players so if you don't choose motivator as your coach archetype you better search for a coordinator that is one finally progression is further Modified by a player's development trait in eafb 25 there are four player development traits normal impact star and Elite normal players are the most common and progress at a steady and standard rate impact players are game changers that progress faster than normal with a higher upside star players are potential NFL talents who are rare and progress quickly finally elite players are the cream of the crop with a potential to be alltime great so how do you know what a player's development trait is the thing is a recruits development trait will be hidden until national Signing Day so you won't be able to tell ahead of time unless you have the strategist archetypes mind reader ability which gives you a chance to learn their development trait when they come for an official visit this ability could be a GameChanger when it comes to recruiting talent that can progress into school record Breakers but how does attribute progression actually work instead of attributes progressing on an individual basis they will progress as an entire skill group these skill groups are collections of related attributes let's say you have a running back the power skill group will include Trucking strength arm toughness jumping and injury instead of improving just a single one of these attributes you would improve across the board each of these skill groups has a max level of 10 with each upgrade providing progress across all attributes in the group not all players can reach level 10 at every skill group as some may have a max level cap under 10 which adds yet another twist to player progression skill group caps can be thought of as a player's maximum potential in that area varying by player skill group position and archetype now I did say there is a skill group cap but if you have the architect archetype and the Limitless or put aen on ability can go above and beyond Limitless gives you a chance to increase a random skill cap every time a player levels up while put aren on it provides a chance to increase their highest skill cap after winning a conference or national championship things like this get me excited to play Dynasty mode because it clearly shows two things first there are so many different ways to build your coach providing for tons of replayability and second it is clear they put so much effort into this game mode something we have been begging for for years well done EA never thought I'd say that last but not least players also have physical and mental abilities up to five physical and three mental each ability has four tiers bronze silver gold and platinum similar to NBA 2k's badge system your player's physical abilities are determined by archetype while mental abilities depend on a player's position position you can improve physical abilities once you meet specific requirements such as 95 toughness for the Platinum Workhorse ability mental abilities on the other hand are not upgradeable so what you see is what you get as a freshman all this adds up to make player progression one of the most dynamic aspects of the game while gameplay is core to any sports game recruiting and watching your players progress from freshman to senior years are what make college football video games the gems that they are and if what we've seen in the Deep dive is a sign of things to come EA cfb2 is platinum tier worthy there are tons of wide receivers who fit the elite mold check out this video of the top 10 receivers in the game hit that subscribe button if you plan on putting in ridiculous hours on Dynasty mode this year and as always have a great day and see you at the next one