In FIFA 21, the Icon Swaps are currently happening. But instead of a long grind, players complete the tasks in a very short time. The reason: Matches that end after just one goal.
What is currently happening in FIFA 21? Players can currently try to secure legends or other rewards through Icon Swaps. This requires completing various tasks using specially assembled teams.
The tasks are generally structured like this example: “Win 6 matches in the Live FUT Friendly Match ‘One League’ and include at least 5 first-owner Serie A players in the starting eleven.”
There are a total of such tasks for 5 leagues, along with three additional challenges in Squad Battles. But it is especially the first-owner tasks that are currently drawing attention. They are completed quite quickly this year – unlike the last FIFA installment. What is going on?
Icon Swaps creates a kind of Golden Goal mode
A brief recap: Last year, the Icon Swaps tasks primarily took place in the competitive mode “Division Rivals.” Every win matters there, which led to extremely competitive matches, but also intentional relegations of stronger players to clean up in lower leagues. Because of this, many players wished that the tasks would be moved to a different game mode. And that is exactly what happened.
This year, the games take place in the friendly match area of Ultimate Team. The special thing is: here, losses do not count towards any statistics, player contracts do not expire, and loan players can be used indefinitely. Losses essentially have no consequences.
This leads to a new curiosity: In the friendly match mode, it frequently happens that players immediately leave the game when they concede a goal. While they lose this way, it is somewhat irrelevant due to the friendly match mode. The scorer, however, gets the win and therefore the desired point for the Icon Swaps tasks. Matches sometimes last only a few seconds, and hardly any go longer than a half.
This is how the community reacts: If you look into the FIFA subreddit, this method has become quite popular there as the “Golden Goal” rule. Various posts discuss matches that simply end very quickly. A post with about 2,300 upvotes titled “Golden Goal Gang” highlights this:
A big shoutout to the FIFA community. 75% of the people I play with for swaps play Golden Goal. Sometimes I receive messages asking me to do it, but most of the time people just know they should do it. I’m all for it, even when they celebrate their goals
User “interboro” via reddit
The comments below also express positive feedback. Many describe that they also tend to give up after a goal, or at least after a two-goal deficit. This way, everyone gets to the swaps rewards much faster than last year.
Are there problems? Not all players play according to the unofficial “rule” and would like to try to catch up when they are behind. The problem: Some players seem to take this “Golden Goal” rule for granted and cause trouble if you do not leave the game. They immediately pause the game after their own goal and demand a “quit,” or there have been unfriendly messages.
This, in turn, leads to criticism from other players: “I usually leave the game when I’m down 0:1, but I do not expect others to do the same. I appreciate it when they do, but I do not get angry when they want to finish the game or play longer and try to get back into it,” writes a user (via reddit).
Will it stay like this? As it stands, the first Icon Swaps are very easy to complete. Whether that was the intent remains open – just like the question of whether future tasks may require tougher matches again. At the moment, however, you can earn the necessary tokens for the legends quite quickly.
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