I Tested Relationship Builder in CFB 27
Three coach abilities touch your pipelines. Their descriptions are one sentence each and leave out the part that matters. I bought all three in my dynasty and compared the before and after. There were multiple Tier 2 pipelines. Some Tier 2 pipelines received 2 increases to end up as Tier 4 and some only received 1 increase to end up at Tier 3. I was curious about the game's choosing process and order.
The three abilities
They all live in the "Relationship Builder" tree.
- Invest (tier 1): upgrade your school's best two pipelines by one tier.
- Making Inroads (tier 2): upgrade your school's five best pipelines by one tier.
- Share The Wealth (tier 3): upgrade your school's five worst pipelines by one tier.
Sounds simple. Two questions the text does not answer: what happens when your best pipeline is already tier 5, and which pipeline counts as "best" when four of them are tied.
The test
I upgraded my coach to be a program builder in my Arizona State online dynasty. I invested in the "Relationship Builder" tree so that I could be more competitive in recruiting. Here is where they started:
| Pipeline | Tier |
|---|---|
| Southern California | 5 |
| Northern California | 3 |
| Pacific Northwest | 2 |
| Arizona | 2 |
| North Texas | 2 |
| East Texas | 2 |
| Louisiana | 1 |
| Ohio | 1 |
| Hawaii | 1 |
| Central Florida | 1 |
Ten pipelines, one Tier 5 (the highest tier), a tier 3 and multiple ties that would answer what I had been wondering.
I bought Invest, then Making Inroads, then Share The Wealth, and checked the pipeline screen after each one.
What I expected
Southern California was already tier 5, so I figured Invest would burn one of its two upgrades on it and do nothing. Northern California would go to 4. Then Making Inroads would push the top five, Share The Wealth would lift the bottom five, and East Texas would sneak up one as the fifth worst.
What actually happened
| Pipeline | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Southern California | 5 | 5 |
| Northern California | 3 | 5 |
| Arizona | 2 | 4 |
| East Texas | 2 | 4 |
| Pacific Northwest | 2 | 3 |
| North Texas | 2 | 3 |
| Louisiana | 1 | 2 |
| Ohio | 1 | 2 |
| Hawaii | 1 | 2 |
| Central Florida | 1 | 2 |
Add up the tier gains and you get 12. Invest gives two, Making Inroads five, Share The Wealth five. Twelve. Not one upgrade was wasted on Southern California.
The four rules
1. A tier 5 pipeline gets skipped. When "Invest" looked for the "best two," it passed over Southern California and gave the upgrade to the next pipeline down. Same with "Making Inroads". If your top pipeline is already maxed, these abilities are better than they read, because the upgrade lands on your second and third pipelines instead.
2. Upgrades can overlap. Northern California took one from Invest and one from Making Inroads and went from 3 to 5. Arizona did the same thing from 2 to 4.
3. The abilities resolve one at a time, in order. "Making Inroads" picked its five from the tiers as they stood after "Invest". "Share The Wealth" picked its five from the tiers after that. This is why East Texas ended at 4: after the first two abilities it was the lowest pipeline that was not tier 1, so "Share The Wealth" counted it as the fifth worst.
4. Ties are broken alphabetically. Four pipelines were tied at tier 2 when Invest needed a second pick. The game took Arizona. Not Pacific Northwest, which is listed first on the screen. Later, three were tied at tier 3 when "Share The Wealth" needed a fifth worst, and it took East Texas. First letter wins in both directions.
I checked the alphabet rule on a second school
One school could be a coincidence. So I went to Indiana, which has one tier 4 pipeline (Indiana) and then five tied at tier 2: Ohio, Central Florida, Michigan, Illinois and South Florida in the game's own order. I only upgraded "Invest" (the first tier) and if it went alphabetically then we would expect Central Florida.
Central Florida did end up going to tier 3 and Indiana went to Tier 5.
What this means when you build your coach
- If your best pipeline is already tier 5, "Invest" will grab the next best tier.
- The "best five" and "worst five" overlap once your tiers bunch up, so a mid pipeline can jump two tiers from the pair of them. Arizona and East Texas both did.
- You cannot pick which tied pipeline gets the bump. The game picks by name. If you care which one moves, check the alphabet before you buy.
Want to see what the three abilities would do to your own school? Pick your team on the pipelines map and tick the abilities. It applies these rules and shows the before and after. Arizona State is already loaded as the example.