EA FC 26 will launch its biggest and most important event, Team of the Season, this Friday. The event will last several weeks and brings the most powerful players you can use all the way until the end of FC 26.

If you prepare well in advance, the next five weeks will be packed with fun. Let's break down the event mechanics, schedule, key phases, and the best preparation strategies to help you make the smartest decisions throughout this promotional cycle.

What is Team of the Season?

Team of the Season (ToTS) honors the most outstanding performers from the current season across all major leagues worldwide (including both men's and women's football). This promotion is considered the most significant of the year - not only does it run for a long time (6 weeks), but each week up to four separate league-specific Teams of the Season will be released into packs in batches.

This year's schedule is quite tight. The developers have skipped ToTS Warm-up, and the first starting squad of the season's best team will arrive on Friday. During the final week, the developers will pick the very best players from all leagues to form a mixed ultimate squad. Keep in mind that when a new league arrives on Friday, the previous week's ToTS will be removed from packs at the same time. Use your fodder cards according to the league you are targeting.

How ToTS Works?

Once the promotion begins, besides opening packs, you can obtain ToTS cards through the following methods:

League-Specific Upgrade SBCs

The top 5 leagues (Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Premier League, LaLiga) and their corresponding women's leagues usually have standalone repeatable upgrade challenges. You can submit 11 rare gold cards to receive 3 rare players from a specific league. For secondary leagues like MLS and Eredivisie, there is typically no separate repeatable upgrade; instead, you need to craft upgrades, player picks, or specific guaranteed SBCs to acquire them.

Guaranteed SBCs

Each week, guaranteed SBCs for specific leagues will be released. Completing the challenge guarantees a ToTS player from that league. These SBCs do not set an OVR floor, so you may end up with quite a few cards you don't want.

Competitive Mode Rewards

Weekend League and Champions – depending on your win total, rewards include player picks or guaranteed packs that contain a designated league (e.g., the featured league of that week).

Squad Battles and Rivals – higher tiers are directly tied to guaranteed packs for specific leagues. For example, Elite division may reward a guaranteed Serie A player, while lower divisions might get MLS or Eredivisie rewards.

How to Prepare for ToTS?

Season Pass

You will also need 500,000 coins ready, because the premium track of TOTS-themed Season Pass contains extremely overpowered player cards.

Upgrades

TOTS is, at its core, a promotion that heavily relies on pack openings. Therefore, your main goal is to accumulate as many packs as possible and unpack TOTS cards.

After completing daily SBCs and supply packs, you can immediately start opening 5 of 10 79+ Player Pick and 1 of 4 80+ Player Pick you obtain. Use the fodder you unpack as materials to repeatedly craft other SBCs that reward packs.

You can open the 14x83+ Rare Gold Player Pack now to get some fodder cards, while it's recommended to wait until the event starts on Friday for higher-level packs like 86+.

For players willing to invest more time, Premium Mixed Leagues Upgrade is worth cycling through. This SBC costs around 10,000–15,000 coins to complete. By continuously opening the reward packs and selling tradeable items, you will hardly lose FC 26 coins. It is advisable to keep Prime Gold Players Pack from this cycle for Friday and recycle everything else.

Player SBCs

At this stage, try to avoid completing any player SBCs. In just one week, the current top player cards will rapidly depreciate in the face of TOTS cards. TOTS cards come with better playstyle combinations and stronger stats. Unless you have a very specific squad need, save your fodder resources until the promotion begins.

Evolutions System

The evolution system has become a core part of the gameplay. Just before TOTS, do not grind matches blindly; instead, set up chain evolutions with a clear purpose.

Look for players rated below 80 OVR who have excellent playstyles - even bronze or silver cards. Apply one or two evolution steps but do not fully upgrade them, keeping their rating below 85. During TOTS, many high-quality evolution opportunities will appear.

If you are already working on an evolution chain that takes a player to 89 or 90 OVR, you can continue with it. It is expected that top-tier evolution tasks adapted to a 90-rating cap will be available very soon during TOTS. An 89 OVR player who can play multiple positions - such as CAM, central midfielder (CM), or winger - will be a perfect carrier for future evolutions.

Right before and after TOTS promo goes live, the developers will release some SBCs designed to tempt you into emptying all your club stock. Stay alert and use those resources on players from the league you support.

In its comprehensive February summary update, EA FC 26 outlined its planned updates for March. Many players were unhappy with the proposed nerfs to passing PlayStyles, concerned this would negatively impact the playability for casual gamers.

Title Update v1.5.0 Pitch Notes have now been released, and based on the content, the developers are indeed following through with their stated plans. So, what is the actual impact of this update? Will it disrupt the current meta? Let's analyze it in detail.

Passing Mechanics

While players were extremely worried about the nerfs to key PlayStyles, the developers have clearly taken this into account. As a balancing measure, they have also buffed other areas.

Ground Passing Buffed

The patch primarily increases the speed and accuracy of ground passes. This is undoubtedly good news for players who rely on short passing and intricate build-up play. Notably, this improvement is most pronounced for players with high passing stats.

Although official hasn't explicitly stated the threshold for what constitutes a ‘high' Passing stat, this means that players exceptionally skilled at passing, like Toni Kroos (91 Passing), will become even more threatening.

Lofted Passes Nerfed

As a balance, Update v1.5.0 reduces the accuracy of Lofted Passes. Without extensive testing yet, it's difficult to determine just how significant this impact will be. However, it's safe to assume you won't be able to abuse Lofted Passes in the same way.

Incisive Pass Update

The update to Incisive Pass is one of the most noteworthy changes in this patch. Now, even players without Incisive Pass PlayStyle can deliver curved through balls in specific situations, provided they have excellent Short Passing, Long Passing, and Curve stats.

Previously, through balls from players without Incisive Pass tended to be straight and lacked precision. This adjustment undoubtedly diminishes the dominance of Incisive Pass PlayStyle. It's foreseeable that the market value of players with only a basic Incisive Pass but unremarkable passing stats could decrease.

However, this doesn't necessarily mean Incisive Pass will become unpopular. To compensate for Lofted Pass nerf, the developers have slightly buffed Incisive Pass PlayStyle itself.

Now, players with this PlayStyle will see a minor increase in the accuracy of their lofted through balls, ground passes, and through balls. Nevertheless, even for players with Incisive Pass+ PlayStyle, the accuracy of lofted through balls is still reduced compared to pre-update levels.

Tiki Taka Nerfed

To prevent passing from being too consistently perfect and to narrow the gap between players with and without PlayStyle, Tiki Taka PlayStyle has been nerfed. Players with this style will experience decreased accuracy when making ground passes and first-time passes, with noticeable changes to the trajectory and speed of these passes.

This is undoubtedly a setback for players who have built their squads around Tiki Taka holders. However, the patch notes mention that ground passes from players with this PlayStyle will still benefit from the overall passing improvements implemented in this update.

Shooting

Shooting was another area previously highlighted for significant adjustments, with two PlayStyles receiving specific buffs.

Power Shot Buffed

The trajectory of Power Shots has been optimized, making it possible for players to score from greater distances. Additionally, the accuracy of Power Shots for players with Power Shot or Power Shot+ PlayStyles has been increased, making their long-range efforts even more threatening.

Chip Shot Buffed

The overall accuracy of Chip Shots has been improved, allowing the ball to follow its intended trajectory more reliably, especially when the goalkeeper is rushing out. Chip Shots should now be more dependable, and for players with Chip Shot PlayStyle, their lobbed shots will be even more precise.

Power Shot was significantly nerfed around the launch of EA FC 26, rendering it almost unusable. This buff could potentially change that. If players find success building teams around Power Shot and Chip Shot, then investing FC 26 coins in players with these PlayStyles might become more worthwhile in the near future.

Other Optimizations

Beyond the complex passing changes, the patch includes several operational adjustments that directly impact gameplay feel.

Fake Shot Speed Increased

The overall speed of Fake Shots has been increased by 5%. While 5% might not sound like a large number and may be difficult to spot in animation comparisons, this applies not only to the start of the move but also to its recovery speed. This is a beneficial change for using fake shots to create shooting or passing angles.

AI Behavior Fix

Fixed an issue where attacking players could sometimes stand idle after making a run. This will improve the fluidity of attacks and reduce missed opportunities due to inconsistent AI.

Clubs Update

Clubs mode has also received a significant update. Archetype level cap for players has been raised from 8 to 99. Furthermore, the maximum ranges for template-specific stats have been expanded, and the number of slots for customizing your player has increased from 7 to 8 (including Curve stat). This allows for the development of even more specialized and ideal players.

Overall, Title Update v1.5.0 appears to be a substantial update. It attempts to rebalance the relationship between PlayStyles and core stats, nerfing some dominant PlayStyles while enabling players with high base stats to perform key actions even without specific styles. Whether these changes truly maintain balance, however, remains to be seen. Only after the patch is fully implemented and subjected to extensive gameplay, testing can we fully assess the real impact of these changes on the game's meta.

FIFA 26 released their February feedback update, announcing fixes for several issues. A significant update, v1.5.0, is coming in March, but players are not excited, and instead, they are angry.

Leaked information suggests the development team will be making changes to Career Mode and nerfing several key playstyles, contradicting what players expected.

February Feedback Update

Finesse Shot

The official announcement first addressed Finesse Shot issue, stating that they fixed it by rolling back to version 1.4.2, and that Finesse Shot should now function correctly.

This itself isn't the problem, but the official explanation is completely lacking: why did the issue occur, how did it occur, and what happened when it occurred? This leaves players completely confused about what changes have been made to the game.

Playstyles

The official statement claims they received player feedback, and they hope player attributes should have a greater impact, and Playstyles are more of an enhancement than a standard for determining a player's value. Therefore, the official team plans to adjust Playstyles in the upcoming update. Although not explicitly stated, we know they will be nerfing which overly powerful playstyles.

When FC 26 was first released, the official team claimed they wanted to reduce the influence of playstyles, and their reiteration of this indicates they haven't achieved that.

The so-called player feedback may not be official, as players' teams are currently largely built around playstyles. Nerfing the mainstream playstyles would significantly reduce the value of many mainstream players. This is definitely not good for players, and the biggest beneficiary is the official team, allowing them to sell more cards.

Version 1.5.0

The upcoming adjustments are the most crucial. The official announcement states that the following playstyles will be adjusted:

• Tiki Taka
• Incisive Pass
• Inventive
• Power Shots (possibly buffed)
• Chip Shots

These playstyles are overpowered in most situations. They only become very strong in specific contexts, such as high-level matches, and they are highly situation-dependent.

Furthermore, in the current game, players rely on these playstyles for quick and simple passing. Without Incisive Pass, players might even miss the most basic short passes. Without Inventive, players can't even execute the simplest through balls.

If the developers simply weaken these three styles without significantly improving players' basic passing attributes, the result will be that all players will be unable to pass smoothly.

On the other hand, the developers have stated they will strengthen Power Shots, a very strong playstyle in the previous game, but which has been significantly weakened in FC 26, leading to its neglect. If Power Shots becomes strong again in Version 1.5.0, players will have to consider investing their FC 26 coins in new players, which almost means every player will have to rebuild their team from scratch.

Defensive AI

Although the developers say they are willing to listen to player feedback, they have no plans to modify the defensive AI, which has been a long-standing complaint in the player community.

Players do want certain overpowered playstyles to be nerfed, but they want the AI's defensive strength and the game's defensive logic to change accordingly. Currently, the most effective offensive playstyles have been weakened, while the powerful AI defense remains unchanged. Against players focused on defense, it will be very difficult to break through their defenses.

A major reason many players find the nerf to passing playstyles unacceptable is that defense hasn't been weakened in tandem with offense. This will inevitably lead to many players focusing solely on defense, even on both sides, with the game revolving around who makes the first mistake. Such matches will be incredibly boring.

EVO

Another frustrating thing for players is that despite the developers' intention to nerf these playstyles, they've been distributing many players with these playstyles+ in recent EVO missions.

In EA FC 25, the developers did something similar. After releasing several evolutions with Power Shot, they nerfed Power Shot, instantly rendering players' hard-earned evolution cards useless. The value of all Power Shot+ icons and promotional cards plummeted, effectively destroying the market.

Now, the same thing is happening again in FC 26. For players who have spent a lot of time crafting evolved players, hoping they would shine in the endgame, the next patch will turn them into clowns.

How to Truly Solve This Problem?

It's already late February. By the time the patch is implemented, players discover the problem, the developers collect feedback, and submit a new patch, it will likely be March or April. With less than four months left in the game's lifecycle, it will be too late to fix it then.

What the developers should do now is maintain the existing framework and only make minor adjustments to truly unbalanced, overpowered content. They could learn from the experience of FC 26 for next FUT game, rather than making such a drastic overhaul halfway through the game's lifespan, rendering all the players' efforts futile.

Version 1.5.0 hasn't been officially released yet. Hopefully, the developers can successfully balance Playstyles and make basic attributes important again, thus preventing another player exodus. However, judging from the developers' recent actions, this seems unlikely.