SBC guide · 6 min read
SBC strategy: finish challenges without burning your club
A practical system for Squad Building Challenges: what to keep, what to feed in, and how to hit rating targets with the cheapest players.
Squad Building Challenges reward you for handing over players you already own. The trick is to treat your club like a pantry: some things are ingredients, some are the meal. Most people lose value because they mix the two up.
1. Sort your club before you open a single challenge
Split everything into three piles. Keepers are players you actually field. Fodder are duplicates, untradeable pack pulls and anyone you would never use. Tradeables are the cards you could sell. Build every SBC from the fodder pile first and only touch tradeables when nothing else fits.
2. Learn how squad rating really adds up
The squad rating is not a simple average. Players rated above the team's average count for a little extra, which is why one high card can pull a squad up more than you would expect. In practice that means you can often swap two mid cards for one higher card plus one very low card and still land the target. Use our squad builder to sanity-check the plain average before you commit.
3. Fill requirements in the right order
- Lock in the hard constraints first: a set league, nation or club count.
- Then fill the minimum-rating slots with your lowest cards that still qualify.
- Use the last one or two slots to nudge the rating over the line.
Working this way stops you from spending a valuable card on a slot any filler would have covered.
4. Decide if a reward is worth it
Ask three questions: will I play this player for at least a few weeks, does the reward replace someone weak in my starting eleven, and could I build the same improvement with fodder I already own? Two yes answers is a good sign. One yes usually means wait.
5. Repeatable challenges are a long game
Repeatable upgrade challenges are where fodder turns into packs. Do them in small batches after every promo drop, when you naturally have more duplicates, rather than grinding them all on day one.
TGS tip: keep a short note of which challenges you skipped. Many come back in a different form later, and you will already know your answer.
Original Top Gaming Society strategy. Not official EA instructions; for current SBCs always follow the requirements shown in game. See also our FC 27 tier lists.