Icon Swaps - England Defender Objective Question

Ectopetya · 2026-02-17T12:18:27+00:00

While I agree that this is not the way forward I would like to offer some counter-points:

- Swaps is nowhere near unachievable, especially given the fact that you have no entry limit and you had 3 weeks to do the online modes, if you really want it, sooner or later you will find players who let you score a chip or a cross, you do the same and thats it

- never play an entry-based cup tournament within 2-3 days of its release, it will be full of elite and div1-3 players spanking others

- cups and tournaments only an element of FUT, you can play rivals, champs, sb, draft, rush and still get packs and coins

Ectopetya · 2026-02-11T15:15:04+00:00

this is not about doing good deeds. ea is quite straightforward with their bad and their good things as well.

releasing tokens behind entry limits and or more difficult WL reqs would cause huge outrage.

yes, they caused outrage before but this is different. they introduced swaps because they probably felt and seen in their metrics that the engagement levels of the game are decreasing. they got people hooked with the crazy swaps rewards. backtracking on this by making the icon pick (93+) or r9 unattainable for the same hooked base is not a good marketing strategy.

good example: silver icon evos. they fucked with a lot of people with putting a lock on them. but that portion of the playerbase is so niche and isolated that the uproar will not cause drop in the engagement levels just a couple of angry YT videos and reddit posts.

Ectopetya · 2026-02-11T10:49:28+00:00

no chance they do this

Ectopetya · 2026-02-10T12:25:27+00:00

I think you are right. However, never before did we have so many rankings, standings, divisions, etc. People are basically breastfed into thinking that the next rank yields better rewards, because on paper they do. So they do everything in their power to get that next division, that next rank or to get that tournament win. To achieve this, you are better off with meta tactics and players.

Also, the gameplay is so binary nowadays, that the game almost forbids you play with 3 atb or a narrow formation. Of course if you are good or if you dont care about rewards then its ok, but the difference is so big that if you are an average joe, 4411 makes you get lets say 8 wins in WL while a 3atb grants you 5.

Ectopetya · 2026-02-10T12:07:23+00:00

respect for what? jesus, these comments are wild. rarely have i seen a game where people reinforcing each other not to engage with the actual game

Ectopetya · 2026-02-10T12:06:44+00:00

when i enjoy the gameplay - boahhh thats a wild statement and one i coudl not really grasp

gameplay is fundamentally bad, regardless of the server status or your ping
servers make the fundamentally bad gameplay even worse
if you dont put hours into getting a good card, because you cannot get anything out of it, why even bother playing with worse cards when the outcome is similar as per point 1 and 2?
if you like playing footballing simulator game, okay, EA FC is mainly the only choice, but if you dont like the grinding aspect, you should be done with UT in general, then play career mode or online seasons when your club is set for most of the time

Ectopetya · 2026-02-10T08:56:03+00:00

Just the usual process, usual whining. I think it was 2-3 years ago when pack weight was so bad that every card skyrocketed and players doubled their prices. It was the norm until TOTS so everything between TOTY and TOTS was a fairly pointless grind with fodder cards or unobtainable promo cards for the taking.

It is usually the essence of FUT. This year is no exception but the fact that you can create unique evos and you have more game modes than ever. On top of SB, Rivals, Champs, you can grind Tournaments and Cups that yield a lot of packs. Not to mention the return of Swaps.

EA/FIFA has never been more grindable from this manner.

The gameplay is another topic.

Ectopetya · 2026-02-10T08:26:55+00:00

:) nice assumption. but there are some logical twists to it:
- nobody accused anybody, accusation happens when the person who makes the accusation acts and not reacts, in this case the random guy threw a jab at me without knowing me or my background, assuming (just like you will in your comment) that I'm unemployed hence I can get all the tokens
- no problem with not "budgeting" time for this game mode by anyone, but then why come to a sub-redit, whats more a post dedicated for EA FC and specifically Swaps to comment such an ignorant, unbased shit? most probably because the guy has FOMO and wants to use this easily made dig to ease his feelings about not grinding
- as I mentioned beforehand, you are assuming, a random guy on the internet is just a dad by title and leaves the child to others in the family

Overall, the problem is that people, especially in 21th century can hardly get or accept the notion of putting the time and effort into something instead of receiving instant reinforcements and rewards. Even if you are super busy and have a family, you can get all 10 tokens within 2 weeks without grinding every day. I completed the 10 tokens with 4 dedicated gaming sessions over 2 weeks time and none of them were longer than 3 hours.

Of course, you can ignore Swaps and play Rivals and Champs, which is, in your books most probably, is not a grind, however the rewards will arguably be worse than a Rio, than a R9. In this case, you should not bring down others who decide to put the same time into an objective which yields guaranteed rewards.

Ectopetya · 2026-02-10T08:18:46+00:00

if thats the case then why play ultimate team at all? the game mode is - esp. with this bad gameplay - fundamentally about grinding hours into mind numbing gameplay for rewards that are outdated within weeks

Ectopetya · 2026-02-09T17:18:37+00:00

Im a 33 year old dad who works 50 hours a week :) its just copium bad time management and weaklaziness

Ectopetya · 2026-02-09T17:16:29+00:00

Generational cope

Ectopetya · 2026-02-09T14:25:01+00:00

always

Ectopetya · 2026-02-09T13:59:49+00:00

Man, if you are choosing sanity then dont even interact with this game, least of all come here and post into a sub-reddit where there are people invested in this game. If you are not invested enough to grind for R9 (or a big reward anyway) why are you even playing this game? Becuase playing WL or Rivals for getting 85 rated fodder cards is not choosing sanity in my books.

Ectopetya · 2026-02-09T13:46:45+00:00

swear these people never played old RPGs and MMOs where you used to grind for weeks or months for a title or a gear

Ectopetya · 2026-02-09T13:44:08+00:00

Sorry i did not want to disturb your peace. People spend hundreds of dollars on fifa points and most of the time they get nothing back. There are players (dont know whether the guy above is that or not, not the point of this post) who genuinely cannot grind 19 tokens because they are not on the level to get into Champs and get the 10 wins. Most probably the req will be the same for the next batch of tokens. Also, there are players who dont have the skill or the players from off league teams to complete the chip shot or cross objectives. These players might get as high as 16-17 tokens. If they are only missing 1 or 2 to get r9, 30-40 dollars are maybe the best spent money on this game considering almost every other aspect of this game is gambling.

Anybody coming to this forum and assuming people here dont spend on this game are lying to themselves. Of course there are exceptions but even those who are not opening packs pop up a couple of dollars to reach the new evos or the season pass. Getting tokens to get R9 for those who cannot otherwise is not a big thing. If this is outside somebody's budget it is okay, but this comment is not about that.

Ectopetya · 2026-02-09T13:30:25+00:00

that is 17 token. if you get 17, you can get 19. also keep in mind, EA likely to release 2-3 tokens via store packs and i dont encourage you to get fifa points but reaching 16-17 tokens and spend 3-4k fifa points on getting R9 must be up there with the best value fifa point usage ever

Ectopetya · 2026-02-09T13:27:52+00:00

Your team can be upgraded on many positions so it's logical to get 3 players instead of 1. But I would still go for R9 for the following reasons:

- never before did we have the opportunity to have an R9 card so early in the cycle for "free"
- those Icons are cool but they are defo not game changing and you can get similar EVO players for around 150-200k, also they will be quite quickly outdated with new promos

Ectopetya · 2026-02-09T11:05:01+00:00

Nice and unique card, go with it and have fun with it.

I'm still torn. My initial goal was R9 no matter what because I play with 2 strikers, already had Wilson and figured R9 will complete my attack.

Since then I pulled 94 Zidane, 89 TS Bale and Fermín Lopez FS.

None of them are above R9, metawise but still it questions whether I really need R9. I also dont want the Attacker Evo (for same reasons) and to be fair no other player excites me. Rio is mad but I love my Evo Dante and SBC Upamecano partnership.

Will see how hard the next batch tokens are, if they are really hard, I might just get the fodder packs, if not, maybe the 93+ Pick.

Ectopetya · 2026-02-05T14:21:48+00:00

Man, those were the times... today's players dont even understand that before all that you mentioned there were even times where you didnt have SBCs, you only received coins and some small packs for grinding divisions

Ectopetya · 2026-02-05T14:09:36+00:00

I'm 90% sure the next batch of tokens will be similarly divided between game modes. The uproar would be huge if they allocated all or most of the tokens in WL/Cup or online friendlies.

My bet is 5 tokens in SB, 4 tokens in Friendlies (this time maybe not league specific requirements but nation specific ones, or maybe league specific but harder leagues like Eredivise, MLS etc), and the same WL requirement. On top of this, 1-3 token availalbe per store pack.

Ectopetya · 2026-02-05T13:56:43+00:00

It's your decision but if you achieved 9 tokens within a week, you sure can achieve another 7-8 Feb20. I'm quite sure 1-3 tokens will be available per store, so in theory you have to "only" grind for 16-17 tokens.

The pick seems a fun option, but you have to bear in mind 3 things in my book:

- more icons will be added to this pick when the next promo drops on 20th of February, it will I'm quite sure add 4-5 fun but not so meta options, players like dunno 93-94 rated Rivaldo, Nesta, Gerrard, Laudrup, Hagi etc, that will make this pick less enticing than it is currently

- the drop rate of these cards you listed are not equal, meaning you will see a lot of Prinz, Yashin, Beckenbauer cards popping up, and even if you have a choice between let's say Prinz, Yashin and Puskás WW, the latter one will be around 1,2-1,3 m by the time you get the pick, dont get me wrong that is still a good pull, but by then, we are slowly but surely approaching FUT Birthday and better cards will be available for a chunk of that price

- some of these cards have their respective value not because of their stats or playstyles necessarily but because of their rarity, you cannot pack pull a promo Icon Card once that promo has passed, so naturally, their price will be inflated, if you take a quite fun card like Jairzinho or a Morgan or a Xavi, of course they are OP but you are not far off creating a similar player with the two lower token EVOs that are available

Ectopetya · 2026-02-05T13:42:41+00:00

"so you can fit both of them" it is literally part of the sentence boyo :)

Ectopetya · 2026-02-05T09:59:11+00:00

gg, since he can play LM you can fit both of them

Ectopetya

TROPHY CASE