Knock Out Abilities - Based on Depth or Assigned Zone

Do the KOs go off of depth/yardage or the zone assigned for the play?

I could be wrong but I think it’s the depth or part of the field you’re on. for example if you put a cornerback in a outside 3rd and he has mid zone, knockout and the receiver runs a slant to the middle, if your cb is in the area he should light up.

You also have to be in zone coverage obviously. Not man.

SouljaSlim91 said:

I could be wrong but I think it’s the depth or part of the field you’re on. for example if you put a cornerback in a outside 3rd and he has mid zone, knockout and the receiver runs a slant to the middle, if your cb is in the area he should light up.

Appreciate it. One example I was curious about is if you put the flat zone depth to 30 yards and ran a cover 2. Would the corner playing a hard flat, cloud flat etc would that be flat zone KO or Deep Out Zone KO at that point?

I think it would depend on where you and the receiver are at on the field when the pass is thrown. So if you have your hard flats set to 30 and your corner has deep out zone k or mid zone ko, once you get pass the normal “flat zone” those abilities will light up. flat zone ko is only gonna light up on short passes. Hope that makes sense lol

CodyWolfgang said:

Appreciate it. One example I was curious about is if you put the flat zone depth to 30 yards and ran a cover 2. Would the corner playing a hard flat, cloud flat etc would that be flat zone KO or Deep Out Zone KO at that point?

GREAT question -- as with most things in this game (and life), it depends.  Mid Zone KO tends to cover the most area of the field, so for me, personally, the goal is to run MZKO + Pick (or Lurk) Artist on as many defenders as possible.  At one point I was trying to get MZKO + DOZKO on outside corners and safeties, but given the current constraints (two free 0AP buckets) I have adjusted to Mid + PA.

The game is a buggy, inconsistent mess, so you'll start to notice yer MZKO light up ALL over the darn field.  It's technically supposed to be based on depth, but the "Mid Zone" portion is a little flexible.  It does NOT cover the Flats (which are roughly 0-10ish yards) on the edges of the field, outside the numbers.  Mid will get the entire middle of the field, from line of scrimmage in a sort of "T" shaped area, above the Flats, all the way to the sidelines.

In versus Out should be mostly self-explanatory, meaning inside our outside the hash marks.  Flat at 30 yard depth would technically be "Deep Out Zone KO" that's how i read it.  I would strongly encourage you to try out MZKO by itself and see how often you notice it trigger.  I'm sorry i've had such a difficult time trying to describe and explain my current understanding of the gameplay.

Here's the actual description:

Defenders with this ability force more catch knockouts and react quicker in any mid-field zone coverage, less than 20 yards from the LoS inside the numbers and 10-20 outside.

I neglected to include that all KOs this year are somewhat inconsistent -- you won't get a 100% guaranteed knock-out every single time.  I love that change, should at least give the receivers a fighting chance to come down with the ball.  This is the best defense has felt all year, getting 8 or 9 MZKO players on the field allows us to at least have a fighting chance to get a stop.

This is basically end-game MUT, in December.  Whoever recently described the game in this manner was spot-on correct, IMO.  Hope that helps.

peatrick said:

I neglected to include that all KOs this year are somewhat inconsistent -- you won't get a 100% guaranteed knock-out every single time.  I love that change, should at least give the receivers a fighting chance to come down with the ball.  This is the best defense has felt all year, getting 8 or 9 MZKO players on the field allows us to at least have a fighting chance to get a stop.

This is basically end-game MUT, in December.  Whoever recently described the game in this manner was spot-on correct, IMO.  Hope that helps.

Appreciate it immensely.

peatrick said:

I neglected to include that all KOs this year are somewhat inconsistent -- you won't get a 100% guaranteed knock-out every single time.  I love that change, should at least give the receivers a fighting chance to come down with the ball.  This is the best defense has felt all year, getting 8 or 9 MZKO players on the field allows us to at least have a fighting chance to get a stop.

This is basically end-game MUT, in December.  Whoever recently described the game in this manner was spot-on correct, IMO.  Hope that helps.

Great explanation. I also run the mid zone ko + pick artist combo. I find it has the most success. 

you can def tell mid zone is wayyyy less effective than last year

peatrick said:

I neglected to include that all KOs this year are somewhat inconsistent -- you won't get a 100% guaranteed knock-out every single time.  I love that change, should at least give the receivers a fighting chance to come down with the ball.  This is the best defense has felt all year, getting 8 or 9 MZKO players on the field allows us to at least have a fighting chance to get a stop.

This is basically end-game MUT, in December.  Whoever recently described the game in this manner was spot-on correct, IMO.  Hope that helps.

What have you been doing at safety? I’ve been getting a lot of great plays out of Calvin Johnson using both in and out deep zone KO. Depending on if I’m running cover 2  vs cover 3 or cover 4.

CodyWolfgang said:

What have you been doing at safety? I’ve been getting a lot of great plays out of Calvin Johnson using both in and out deep zone KO. Depending on if I’m running cover 2  vs cover 3 or cover 4.

Playing tons of Cover 4 Drop (Dollar 1-4), Cover 4 (3-4 Odd), some Even 6-1, with the occasional shaded down Cover 2 Man, but it's risky, especially against any type of cheat motion which can seriously muck up alignment. I do work in some Cover 4 Palms, but a competent opponent will pick apart match coverage. 

I'm basically just continually adjusting to find what works. My defensive philosophy is pretty much, bend but don't break type basic shit. I'll randomly drop hard flats, but for the most part, I'm okay giving up the little dink and dunk stuff underneath. Especially if they're not playing on Conservative ball carrier. I'm confident I'll eventually knock that loose. I try to give my opponents tons of opportunities to beat themselves. Force them to work for every yard. 

Sorry, neglected to answer your actual question. MZKO + PA (all around; DBs, LBs, USERs) and maybe some height at Safety. I user Calvin or Anthony Barr, have Kyle Hamilton + Ed Reed as deep safety help on 40/40 Ravens, 5/40 Lions & 5/40 Commanders at the moment. 

I feel liek a traitor, first time in my MUT career I haven't run a 49ers theme team. But we're just plain bad, I want to win. This is a competitive H2H game, sadly my guys have not been anything such (competitive) this season. Uff.

EDIT: I think my roster is mostly up to date.

I should add that I'm not trying to pretend I'm a Top 100 tier Comp guy, by any means... but I've got an above average squad and most of my focus and ongoing learning surrounds defense... I'm defense captain for our little squads group, first time getting into that this year and it's been an absolute blast. 

I breezed through Ranked to 2900 RP, despite a shoddy effort in my placement games (oof, went 2-3) started at Bronze and decided to just stay put. In hindsight I probably could have tried for 3200 and hope everyone gets Top 100 rewards, but this only my second month with Ranked play... not trying to turn this into a job. I chose my sanity and decided to stay put, taking the final 3 weeks of December off to relax. 😵

I think I went 31-15 this cycle for Ranked play. I'm wildly inconsistent, especially on offense.

peatrick said:

I should add that I'm not trying to pretend I'm a Top 100 tier Comp guy, by any means... but I've got an above average squad and most of my focus and ongoing learning surrounds defense... I'm defense captain for our little squads group, first time getting into that this year and it's been an absolute blast. 

I breezed through Ranked to 2900 RP, despite a shoddy effort in my placement games (oof, went 2-3) started at Bronze and decided to just stay put. In hindsight I probably could have tried for 3200 and hope everyone gets Top 100 rewards, but this only my second month with Ranked play... not trying to turn this into a job. I chose my sanity and decided to stay put, taking the final 3 weeks of December off to relax. 😵

I think I went 31-15 this cycle for Ranked play. I'm wildly inconsistent, especially on offense.

Yeah, in my opinion you are better off fielding the best team possible in online games at the expense of repping your favorite team.

Its fun to use a theme team, but it sucks to lose to dudes that rub it in your face.

Appreciate the in depth write ups.

CodyWolfgang said:

Yeah, in my opinion you are better off fielding the best team possible in online games at the expense of repping your favorite team.

Its fun to use a theme team, but it sucks to lose to dudes that rub it in your face.

Appreciate the in depth write ups.

The theory behind MZKO (originally I tried doing exactly what you are, albeit with less amazing DBs) -- I almost always walk both Safeties down into the box, I need them to actually react and respond, hopefully making a play on quick snap throws to TE / Slot Seam Streaks, or even stemmed down Corner routes. I'm less concerned about getting beat deep, especially when we've got NBA sized Safeties up top, with at or near max 99 SPD. Usually Pick Artist takes over for deep bombs, reaching up to snatch it with two hands over the head is an extremely common animation in seeing all the time.

Happy New Year.