Putting EA's claim "you can acquire all items without spending money" in FIFA Ultimate Team to the test

EA has had a tough month. It’s money-printing FIFA series has come under fire from multiple angles, but perhaps most shocking of all is the accusation an EA employee allegedly sold coveted Ultimate Team cards for thousands of pounds.

Unconfirmed direct messages unearthed by the FIFA community appeared to show a company employee selling Icon cards in packages priced €750-1000. In one WhatsApp message, three Prime Icon Moments cards are offered for €1700.

EA’s investigation is ongoing, but it has already admitted “one or more EA accounts, which were either compromised or being used inappropriately by someone within EA, directly entitled items to these individual accounts”.

It is a development that has rocked the FIFA community – and shone a light on the shady mechanics of FIFA Ultimate Team – a mode that already stands accused of being pay-to-win and encouraging gambling via loot boxes.

But first, it’s worth running through why FUT’s Icon cards are so prized – and why someone would spend over a thousand pounds trying to get one on the black market.

Icon cards are among the most sought after in FIFA Ultimate Team. They include legendary players such as Brazilian Ronaldo, Pele, Ronaldinho, Zinedine Zidane and Ruud Gullit, and are near impossible to obtain through the mode’s controversial loot boxes.

Even rarer are Prime Icon Moments – special versions of Icon cards that mark one game or tournament that was special for the players. Of the four versions of each Icon in FUT 21, the Moment is the highest-rated.

Players are known to have spent thousands of pounds on packs in a bid to obtain these super rare Icon cards, and EA has been criticised for not revealing the exact probability when the chance to obtain a card of a certain quality is below one per cent, as is the case with Icon cards. Making matters worse, you can get duplicates of an Icon card you already own.

The suggestion is FIFA players are willing to pay someone thousands of pounds for powerful Ultimate Team cards because they are pretty much impossible to obtain through legitimate means.

When you consider Ultimate Team essentially resets with the release of each new game in the series – this year FIFA 22 is expected to launch in October – and you are not able to bring your cards across to each new game, then these prized possessions have an effective shelf life of around nine months.

Last week, EA issued a statement to The Mirror in response to questions around the ongoing EA Gate scandal.

“FIFA Ultimate Team is a multi-faceted game of skill,” EA insisted. “It’s important to note that you can acquire all items in the game without ever spending money, with purchases being entirely optional.”

While it is technically true that you can acquire all items in the game – even these Icon cards – without ever spending money, realistically it’s almost impossible, players say.

Last week, a tweet from a FIFA player who attempted to work out exactly how long it would take to obtain his dream team went viral because it exposed FUT’s grim innards.

Twitter user ScudzTV revealed his dream team, a “mere” 100m FUT Coin team that includes 11 Icons such as Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Maldini and Pele.

Lets talk @EASPORTSFIFA (#FIFA21 A THREAD)

You claim that everyone can get all players they desire without spending money on the game …

Here’s my dream team, a mere 100 million coin team.

So this is “achievable” & here are my options according to you;

(1/7) pic.twitter.com/7vhy3HcOMo

— Scudz (@Scudz) March 16, 2021

To see this content please enable targeting cookies.

The 100m coins estimation comes from adding up each card’s value on the FUT transfer market.

ScudzTV said that, assuming an average of 1500 coins were obtained from each FUT game, including weekly rewards, it would take 66,666 games to obtain 100m coins.

Assuming an average of 1500 coins a game (accounting for weekly rewards) that’s 66,666 games. At an average of 20 minutes a game, that’s 22,000 hours of gameplay – or 916 days of gameplay 24/7.

But what about playing the FUT market to obtain 100m coins? Well, that’s pretty unrealistic, too.

Assuming an average of 10,000 coins profit per trade, ScudzTV said they’d need to make 10,000 trades.

“Assuming I trade 10k every 10 minutes, I will need to trade for 1650 hours or 69 days of trading 24/7.”

2⃣”monitoring the market” … 100 Million Coins of trading

Assuming an average of 10,000 coins profit per trade I need to make a mere 10,000 trades

Assuming I trade 10k every 10 minutes, I will need to trade for 1,650 hours or 69 days of trading 24/7

REALISTIC?? (3/7)

— Scudz (@Scudz) March 16, 2021

To see this content please enable targeting cookies.

And finally, there’s the option of throwing money at the screen. Can you spend your way to 100m coins? Assuming an average of 100,000 coins profit per 12k FIFA Points bought (this profit is an estimate derived from selling all the ‘loot’ you don’t want from these packs), you’d need to buy 1000 x 12k FIFA Points to get 100m coins. At a cost of £79.99 per 12k FIFA Points, you’d need to spend a total of £79,990 on FIFA Points. That’s right – just short of £80,000.