Icon Swaps is set to arrive in FIFA 22 Ultimate Team very soon and one thing is on everybody's minds - will the 'Golden Goal' rule return this year?
So, find out everything you need to know below.
What is 'Golden Goal' for Icon Swaps?
'Golden Goal' was an unofficial rule that was created by the FIFA community in FIFA 21 in order to make picking up ICON Swap Tokens quicker and easier for everybody.
When coming up against another player in the FUT Friendlies mode, you would treat the game as if it was Golden Goal, with the first to concede pausing the game and forfeiting.
This meant that players could unlock their ICON Swaps much faster than in previous years, as games would only last 1/2 minutes as opposed to 12.
However, to the majority of players' disappointment, EA implemented a way of preventing the Golden Goal method in Ultimate Team.
EA has DESTROYED Golden Goal
EA has started to implement a minimum number of goals and assists as part of Icon Swap objectives too.
This means you'll have to complete games that you are losing in order for the goals score to count, which kills the 'Golden Goal' mantra.
Many of the current objectives in FIFA 22 require two goals to be scored in a single game, so we expect to see this for the Icon Swap token objectives.
EA also started bringing in more ICON Swap objectives that required wins within the offline mode, Squad Battles.
This meant there was no way to 'fast track' these matches, as the computer doesn't forfeit the match, obviously.
The Squad Battles games aren't too difficult to win, but they are very time-consuming - for example, you may have to complete 30 games in order to unlock five tokens, which works out at around six hours of gameplay.
Bring Golden Goal BACK for Icon Swaps set 1
We would absolutely LOVE EA to bring the chance of Golden Goal back in Ultimate Team, with the release of Icon Swaps set 1.
We are sure that the FIFA community would buy back into the Golden Goal idea, given that so many players are giving free FUT Champs wins away, which will make claiming the Icon Swap tokens SO much easier!
Of course, we would still need to play the squad battle games for the rest of the tokens, but Golden Goal would bring back that bit of fun and camaraderie in Ultimate Team again.
Icon Swaps set 1 release date
The official FIFA 22 Icon Swaps 1 release date has not yet been confirmed, but judging off of last year's promo, we can have a pretty good guess as to when it will arrive in Ultimate Team.
We can expect Icon Swaps 1 to be released at the start of Season 3, perhaps on Friday, 24 December.
Icon Swaps will be released into objectives at approximately 1pm ET / 6pm BST on the day of release.