A clever viral TikTok has taken the addictive roulette of opening packs in FIFA 22 Ultimate and brought it into real life, and players are now calling for a real trading card game to accompany the mode.
Whatever criticisms you want to lay at FIFA’s feet, the irresistible cycle of opening shiny packs full of the world’s biggest football stars is still a strong hook. Players will grind Division Rivals or FUT Champions for hours on end just to earn more packs to rip open.
Ultimate Team has always maintained elements of an online trading card game, and FIFA 22 is no exception. The types of cards, packs, and stats are heavily inspired by the likes of Match Attax or Panini NFL collections.
One viral TikTok took the comparisons to new heights, by creating and opening a real-life Ultimate Team pack crammed with cards.
The TikTok, uploaded by futfacts778, showed the creator holding a miniature gold pack, which FIFA players are used to seeing lingering in the FUT store. After tearing the top open, they revealed the three cards hiding inside.
Much like with real trading card packs, the best pull was tucked away at the back, only adding to the suspense. After showing off a solid but unremarkable Jadon Sancho, and a slightly disappointing Lukas Hradecky, the standout was a blue Team of the Year Kylian Mbappe.
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FIFA 22 is littered with special promotional players, so it’s hard to see how turning Ultimate Team into a card collection wouldn’t work. This TikTok is just a taste of what that could look like, and it was definitely cool to see these cards in physical form.
The idea clearly struck a chord in the community, as players replied calling for EA to make an official FIFA trading card collection themselves. They even felt that the real cards could translate to rewards in-game on FIFA 22.
“Why isn’t this a thing though? There’s a lot of money to be made. Could put one pack in the disc cases for FIFA to attract people to buy more,” said one player. “Why is this not a thing!!! Redeem the pack on FIFA!!” replied another.
While it’s most likely that this will never be more than a quirky idea from a creative TikToker, it would be interesting to see how EA would go about creating a fully-fledged TCG inspired by FIFA 22 Ultimate Team.
