It should be a time of good cheer and big excitement, with the winter World Cup enhancing our usual Christmas festivities!
However, there is plenty of grumbling from the FIFA 23 community about the many mistakes and lack of impactful content coming in Ultimate Team.
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We're here to try and lift the spirits a bit and focus on a massive positive from EA this year - the Ones to Watch promo.
Staying with the Curve
In past titles, many of the Ones to Watch cards have fallen behind the power curve pretty early on in the Ultimate Team cycle, making the selected cards feel like a waste.
Yet, in FIFA 23, EA has absolutely nailed not only the players selected but also managed to keep them relevant.
This is in no small part thanks to the added Nations to Watch boost cards can gain if their nation wins a game at the World Cup.
When this is coupled with the Wins to Watch upgrade, that is two in-form bonuses most of the players are likely to get!
At the time of writing, all OTW players apart from Tyler Adams and Corentin Tolisso gained the Wins to Watch boost - with the Frenchman still able to secure it when the domestic season restarts after the World Cup.
Also, every player whose nation is at the World Cup - apart from Darwin Nunez - has secured the Nations to Watch boost, and the Uruguayan may have gained it by the time you're reading this!
Super Selection
A big win for EA has been the amount of OTW players who fulfilled their role in the promo.
Of course, this is partly down to luck, as they cannot perfectly predict the outcome of all matches when selecting the players.
At the time of writing only three of the 20 promo players have a rating lower than 85 OVR (including some Nations to Watch upgrades still pending), with three rated 90+ OVR!
EA picked the players that were likely to get both the Wins and Nations to Watch upgrades, ensuring that boosts would almost be guaranteed, then any in-form boosts are an added bonus.
Just four of the players have made a Team of the Week so far, and we hope that EA looks at OTW cards a bit more favourably down the line to keep them relevant for more of the FIFA 23 Ultimate Team campaign.
Keep on top of all the upgrades with our Ones to Watch Tracker.
Fantastic Freebie
We couldn't write this article without highlighting a great early card EA gave us the opportunity to unlock at the start of FIFA 23 Ultimate Team.
An 81-rated Ones to Watch Richarlison may not have grabbed your attention at the time, but it certainly did ours.
Spurs and Brazil were surely going to win the required matches, giving him two in-form upgrades, and that is exactly how things played out!
Now sitting on an 86 OVR and with great chemistry links, we highly rate EA giving this to us as a free Objectives player.
Richarlison currently has the base stats of an 87-rated striker, with the popular Hunter chemistry style bumping that to 90-rated, and others taking him to 91!
We think that's a pretty nice present to hand out and one that highlights the relevance of OTW players even now.
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