When EA launched the FIFA franchise in 1994, there were quite a few football games around. But they fiercely executed on making it the very best experience possible and, in 1996, they introduced real players’ names for the first time. The rest is history. FIFA became and it still is — by far— the most dominant football gaming franchise. It’s hard to find another example of such undisputed supremacy in any game’s category. Yet, this is obviously not great for players as it slows innovation.

When Andreas told us that he wanted to disrupt the football category, we were sold. We have known him for a long time and knew that he was the perfect David to fight this Goliath.

Looking back at his career as a world class champion in Counter-Strike (bds), professional skier, entrepreneur, web developer, video game developer, and investor, we couldn’t think of anyone else better positioned to build this company and execute on this vision.

Our subsequent conversations kept growing our conviction and clarified our thesis. It quickly became apparent to us that Goals checked every box in the ideal startup playbook and we were honored to lead the game’s quiet pre-seed round late last year.

See for yourself:

1. Listen to your users

Goals rewards skills and passion — rather than trying to be the game that everyone plays, it will be the one its players love

As Mark Rosewater, the head designer for Magic: The Gathering, once brilliantly said at GDC: “If everyone likes your game, but no one loves it, it will fail.”

FIFA’s AI tries to level the playing field by helping the players that are less skilled and penalizing the ones who are winning. It tries to remove frustration, but it reduces excitement in the process. It basically dampens the emotional response to the game. Goals removes these catch-up mechanics so that the best gamers will win due to their skill and nothing else. That doesn’t mean that anyone can’t enjoy the game regardless of their level. Well thought through onboarding, progression, matchmaking, and game modes can make everyone feel included and have a good time while aspiring to get better on their own because they will be rewarded for it. The best players will be more excited to compete in esport tournaments and inspire others to improve.

2. Leverage the latest technology

Natively multiplayer and cross-platform rather than retro-fitted

Starting its development in 2021, Goals embraces all the new technologies and best practises to make sure the game is designed and optimised for seamless cross-platform online experience while minimising latency. This should be the standard for any big game today, but actually old franchises like FIFA carry a cumbersome tech legacy from the years when games were built for a specific platform in single player mode. This is a huge pain point for FIFA players and one that can be more effectively fixed by a nimble and agile studio that is free to make the right tech infrastructure decisions from Day 1.

3. Do things differently

Replace real world players and clubs with the metaverse

FIFA set the standard for realism in football games. Real world football players and clubs are portrayed with incredible details and football fans enjoy the emotional connection this brings to them. It is a very powerful tool and one EA heavily leaned on. Purchasing the exclusive licences to do so is very expensive, but it also creates a moat for new entrants and thus it enables a lack of innovation.

But there is a tradeoff. It also significantly limits the design space for the game. When all the assets are predetermined, there is not much you can add to it. It also means that players will aspire and gravitate towards the same limited pool of top players which makes the metagame stagnant and repetitive.

In Goals, players will not be using real football players and teams. Instead, they will be able to select from a much vaster and ever changing pool of original characters and clubs which they can grow as their own IPs within this new exciting and bigger than life digital world. Such design freedom allows for a unique visual style which can be matched by a modern and fast paced arcade gameplay, resulting in a unique experience and a more vibrant metagame that players are not used to.

4. Think beyond your product

True ownership and interoperability

Rather than Goals copying IPs from the real world in the game, players will be able to directly import and export IPs from and to other platforms simply through connecting their wallet.

By enabling this symbiotic relationship with the wider metaverse, Goals will always be ready to capture partnerships and collaborations opportunities that are not even conceivable today.

5. Seek a sustainable business model

Play-AND-earn rather than simply play-TO-earn

Rewards earned in Goals are fully owned by the users and can be sold on a marketplace for real money. Other games have pioneered this model and showed its power to attract and engage users, but many of them have been designed almost exclusively with that intent and, as a result, lack depth of gameplay. Without a true incentive for players beyond monetary gain, the play-to-earn system can become a self fulfilling prophecy doomed to failure.

Goals allows users with different incentives to find what they are looking for. There is no need to own any NFT or spend any money in order to enjoy the game. At the same time, beneath the surface there is a deep metagame and token economy for the players who are attracted to it as well. This creates a much healthier and sustainable growth loop for the community and everyone involved.

6. Don’t change what isn’t broken

Familiar mechanics and free to play can onboard mainstream users to web3

Football is the most popular sport in the world and almost everyone, even if they are not part of the 3.5 billion people who consider themselves fans, know how it’s played. They just need to get familiar with the controls and off they go. As such, it has always been a great onboarding experience for new players into new games platforms.

web3 gaming is still nascent and relatively niche. With its free to play economy and familiar mechanics, Goals can be a driving force in accelerating mainstream adoption.

7. Find the community before you build the product

True football games fans are frustrated with current offering and see Goals as the solution

Since the very beginning, Andreas and his team have been very transparent and vocal about their mission. Their message has struck a chord and it inspired a large and vocal community to come together. The numbers speak for themselves: without any marketing budget and no live product, Goals at the time of writing has amassed 25k followers on Twitter and 6k Discord members. Goals is able to capture and funnel their energy by making sure they are heard and by developing the game based on their constant feedback.

And thanks to Goals’ blockchain architecture, early adopters and believers will soon be able to truly own assets from the game and thus be rewarded for their support in growing it.

8. Create the right culture for your mission

Diversity where it historically lacked

Disrupting the status quo requires the whole team to fully embrace the values that will change it. For example, historically football games have been predominantly developed and played by males and have been exclusively featuring male football players. This could be superficially justified by the fact that male football is significantly more popular than female football and that the current audience for the sport is heavily skewed toward males.

But if the game can detach from the real world and focus on rewarding players ability and passion, why can’t this be changed as well?

Goals plans to have a much stronger presence of female characters in the game and it’s building the team with a great emphasis on balancing gender diversity from the beginning (check the team here — not your typical game studio!). While this might not automatically mean that a wider female user base will love the game, it will surely help Goals figuring ways to achieve that.

Also, on an organizational level, cofounder and COO Liza Lind is leading their inclusion efforts. Check out their D&I statement — it’s a must read. “Making a game where we eradicate hate and let everyone just be a gamer — playing the sport they love — is key to GOALS,” she says.

9. Focus

One incumbent to disrupt, one game to build, and one perfect name for the job: Goals!

Many games studios are born to simply make games. There is nothing wrong with that, but it sometimes takes time to find what they really want to work on and organise themselves around it. The Goals team has been on a mission since day 1 and, while it might take time and different attempts to find the right path toward it, there is something very powerful in that. It’s a north star that can drive clarity in moments of uncertainty, it’s a reference that can always be checked to track progress and more importantly, it’s what drives the passion of talented people to do everything they have to build the best possible product.

These are the main reasons why we are so excited about Goals and its mission. What Andreas, Hampus, Göran, Liza, and the entire team are set to accomplish is bold, challenging and something many haven’t dared before.

But like Malcom Gladwell explained in his famous analysis of the David and Goliath story: “Giants are not as strong and powerful as they seem. And sometimes the shepherd boy has a sling in his pocket”.