20/03/2024 You can no longer complete this challenge in FIFA 21 because the limited-time challenge has now expired and the game's servers have since been taken offline.
Squad Building Challenges were vital for FIFA 21 players who weren't willing to splash the cash on FIFA points to get ahead in Ultimate Team. In the early game, they provided players the chance to earn packs which could result in a high-rated, high-value player.
There was a staple set of SBCs for players to complete which taught you the inner workings of the game's chemistry system and gave you the chance to earn some coins and packs as you progress. But some of them were notoriously difficult, and in the Hybrid Leagues SBC set, the First XI challenge was the most formidable of them all.
Remember, the limited-time challenge to unlock this card has now expired, meaning you can no longer earn it for your account. Furthermore, the FIFA 21 servers have since been taken offline, disabling Ultimate Team.
This tricky puzzle got pretty expensive to solve if you didn't have some of the players needed in your club, plus you'd need to have packed or completed ten games with at least a few of the players needed to get a chemistry bonus from loyalty. Crafty as ever, we had a few workarounds that helped you complete the Hybrid League set without breaking the bank.
FIFA 21 Hybrid Leagues SBC set
The Hybrid Leagues SBCs in FIFA 21 were all quite similar but varied in difficulty. The general method for solving them was to use players of the same nationality but who played in different leagues to get the desired amount of chemistry.
The first three in the set – Give Me Five, Seven-League Boots, and The Whole Nine Yards – weren't massively difficult to solve but did have minimum squad ratings to look out for. Whole Nine Yards, especially, caught people out because of its 80 squad rating requirement. It was important to make sure you saved a few high-rated players if you packed them to help complete this challenge.
FIFA 21 Hybrid Leagues SBC best nations
As explained above, using players of the same nationality was the most reliable method to complete these Hybrid Leagues SBCs. While some nations had an abundance of players in Ultimate Team, they weren't always dispersed across many leagues, making them a poor choice. England was a prime example of this, as the majority of players played in the Premier League with very few in other leagues from around the world.
There were only three nations you could use to solve the feared First XI puzzle – more on those a little later. But for the others, there were several nations that helped solve them due to their players hailing from multiple unique leagues.
The best FIFA 21 Hybrid Leagues SBC nationalities were:
- Brazil
- France
- Spain
- Argentina
- Colombia
- Portugal
- Netherlands
- Uruguay
FIFA 21 First XI SBC solutions
The First XI SBC was a daunting one. It required you to make a 100 chemistry team using 11 players, eight of which were rare, all from different leagues. The only affordable way to solve it was to use players from one of three nations, who had enough rare players in different leagues to tick off all the requirements.
The FIFA 21 First XI SBC requirements were:
- Gold Players: 11
- Min Rare Players: 8
- Leagues: 11
- Min Chemistry: 100
For the First XI SBC, you needed players from either Argentina, Brazil, or France. However, it could also be done by using players from nations like Portugal by putting some players out of position, but this required most players to have a loyalty bonus (either packed or played in ten games).
It's also worth noting that if you had already packed some Position Change consumables, you could pick up cheaper players in different positions and change them into the one you needed. For example, a CAM of the same league and nation was often a cheaper option than the CM you needed, so picking them up and using your consumable on them would have saved you some coins.
Packed players also had that extra chemistry due to their loyalty bonus, so a packed LW had as much chemistry as an LM you bought from the transfer market, for example.
Generally, the cheapest First XI solution – which required no position changes and just one player with a loyalty bonus – was this French team:
- GK: Areola (ENG 1)
- RB: Malcuit (ITA 1)
- CB: Gigot (RUS 1) and Niakhate (GER 1)
- LB: Hanin (FRA2)
- CDM: Matuidi (MLS)
- RM: Alessandrini (CHN 1)
- CM: Sanson (FRA 1) and Coquelin (ESP 1)
- LM: Valbuena (GRE 1)
- ST: Gignac (MEX 1)
You could also solve this using Nkoudou (TUR 1) instead of Valbuena and Gomis (SAU 1) instead of Gignac depending on the bargains you could find at the time. We managed to get the French solution for less than 23,000 coins.
If you had some Argentinians in your club, this First XI solution could also work:
- GK: Musso (ITA 1)
- RB: Pillud (LIB)
- CB: Donatti (ARG 1) and Abraham (GER 1)
- LB: Tagliafico (NED 1)
- CDM: Kranevitter (MEX 1)
- RM: Lamela (ENG 1)
- CM: Banega (CHN 1) and Paredes (FRA 1)
- LM: Cervi (POR 1)
- ST: Avila (ESP 1)
This Argentinian solution was slightly more expensive, but worth it if you already had a few of those players in your club. It cost around 26,000 coins.
There were also plenty of Brazilian solutions, but many of the key players needed for these methods went for extremely high prices which made it a costly solution.
So, that's how we solved the Hybrid Leagues SBC set and the infamous First XI puzzle, saving as many coins as we could.