The TOTW is one of the most popular FUT promos due to its high frequency – with the last edition before Christmas EA SPORTS broke its own rule.
Team of the Year (TOTY) and Team of the Season (TOTS) are only chosen once a year, the Player of the Month (POTM) only once a month. The Team of the Week (TOTW), however, is included in the packs of FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) every week, which is why it has almost become a sport in the community to predict the nominees and consequently players who will be awarded special cards.
This does not mean the now common leaks that announce the fixed content in advance. But designated FUT and soccer experts who analyze the results of the international leagues the week before and highlight the strongest individual performances as so-called predictions. The best among them regularly achieve odds of up to 90 percent correct players.
Twice teammates in TOTW 14
However, not only the pure performances, but also a few basic rules must be observed: Back-to-back nominations are excluded, only one professional per club can be accepted into the TOTW – with the exception of international match weeks. In TOTW 14 last Wednesday, EA SPORTS broke this unwritten law itself and brought two players from two clubs into the pack.
Robert Lewandowski and Dayot Upamecano from FC Bayern Munich and Kevin De Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez from Manchester City appeared as TOTW cards at the same time. An unusual sight, as the developer usually strictly adheres to his own maxims. The TOTW rules are of course nowhere recorded in writing, EA SPORTS would like to reserve the right to exceptions.
Lewandowski without a Recordbreaker card
Nevertheless, the approach seems strange, there was no need to accept two players from each of the two clubs: Robert Lewandowski only scored once on the last matchday of the first half of the Bundesliga – albeit a record-breaking one. The Pole scored his 43rd Bundesliga goal in the 2021 calendar year, pulverizing Gerd Müller’s old record. Traditionally, however, he should have received a Recordbreaker object for this.
The selection seems even more incomprehensible against the background that Serge Gnabry stood out in the 5-0 during the week against VfB Stuttgart with three goals and two assists through an absolute gala performance, but was not mentioned in the TOTW. It is similar with City: De Bruyne had laced a brace against Leeds United (7-0) , Mahrez recorded two scorer points twice in a row.
Inform integrity doubtful
Great performances, no question about it. But no Gnabry values. Ultimately, the FUT fans don’t care, they will primarily have been happy about the strong TOTW 14 items in the packs and as rewards – possibly a small Christmas present from EA SPORTS. In the meantime, however, it is by no means conducive to the integrity of the supposedly performance-based promos, which are already rare.
At this point, another factor comes into play that must also be taken into account for predictions: EA SPORTS would of course like to sell as many FUT packs as possible, so the most attractive professionals should also receive special cards. The sporting performance acts as a cover for the Inform objects, but ultimately the calculated profit should decide on the nominations.
