The player picks in the Weekend League rewards of FIFA 21 are actually among the most important rewards. However, since the TOTW is hardly keeping up, they need an improvement.
These are player picks: From a certain rank in FUT Champions, you receive a so-called player choice in your Weekend League rewards. This is a pack where you are offered several players from the current TOTW – in the red “FUT Champions” version. You can now select one of these players for your team.
Depending on your performance, you will receive different amounts of player picks and suggestions within the packs. Those who achieve particularly high ranks have better chances of getting strong players.
Especially at the beginning of a FIFA season, these player picks are very valuable as they give you the chance for TOTW players and thus special cards. But as the season progresses, they become less important.
How good is the TOTW really?
This is how it looks with the TOTW: If you look at the TOTWs from the last weeks, you will indeed find a few good cards. In TOTW 23, for example, there was a strong Lewandowski, in TOTW 22 Ronaldo and Rashford were included. Also in TOTW 21, there were good cards like Aubameyang or Marcos Llorente.
If you pull one of the “main prizes” in the TOTW, the FUT Champions rewards are of course amazing. However, there are players in all TOTWs who are only somewhat useful.
These can be players who have overall such low ratings that they do not help on the field or in SBCs. Moreover, there’s a lot of “average,” which while not particularly helpful in the game, can at least assist in SBCs or on the transfer market.
However, the “player picks” are untradeable, which already restricts them on the transfer market. And unfortunately, the chances of top players in player picks are not necessarily huge, which is why you often get players from the Weekend League rewards that are rather “meh”.
You can exchange a complete team of player-pick players in the “FUT Champions Premium Upgrade” for another player choice of 3 cards with guaranteed 86+. However, you need to be either very successful or play a lot of Weekend League – and even then, there are still players who are of little use. This includes highly rated goalkeepers or players who are simply irrelevant in the meta.
And the further the season progresses, the more TOTW players fall under this category. Because almost weekly, new event teams appear that leave the TOTW far behind.
The TOTW hardly keeps up with events
The problem with the events: Nowadays there are so many special cards with unique properties in FIFA that one could almost lose track. This includes players like the current “What-If cards”, which are already strong and can also receive an upgrade.
For comparison: While Marcelo’s base and TOTW cards are hardly suitable for tough matches in the Weekend League, his What-If card is quite suitable – even without an upgrade.
The event card received a pace upgrade of +20 compared to the last TOTW card, along with other improvements.
Another example: The Future Stars card of Gladbach’s Neuhaus. Here too, the differences between TOTW and event card are extreme.
Both Marcelo and Neuhaus are not even the best cards provided in events. However, even the “weaker” cards of the events easily outperform many TOTW cards. Of course, there are still top cards in the TOTW, but in comparison, they are rare – and for some players, it feels outdated that this is an important part of the Weekend League rewards.
This is what the community says: If you take a look around in the FIFA subreddit, you will find a lot of voices wishing for a revamp of the TOTW and the player picks.
- “You can tell that the TOTW needs to be revamped when I’m more excited about fodder for the premium upgrade,” reports one player who apparently only sees his TOTW rewards as a means to the end regarding premium SBC (via reddit).
- “I seriously think promo players should be included in the red picks. I can’t think of a better idea, but promo players would be a good start,” suggests another (via reddit).
- “With each year, the number of special cards increases. TOTW upgrades are simply not strong enough to compete against the new special cards,” comments a user (via reddit).
Indeed, such a change was made towards the “end of the season” in FIFA 20. With the TOTSSF and summer heat event, special cards were also included in the picks and made the Weekend League worthwhile again, which created a lot of motivation.
Currently, however, it is the TOTW that is included in the Weekend League rewards and is regularly outdone by other special cards. What do you think about this topic? Let us know in the comments!
Recently, a player made headlines who got really lucky and pulled one of the best cards ever in his FUT Champions upgrade. Unfortunately, he chose the FIFA 21 cards without looking.
