Are RTTK Players Too Good Already in EA Sports FC 25?

The Ultimate Team power curve is always a hot topic in FIFA and FC games. EA FC 24 had the most 99-rated players the series has ever seen, and a lot of players had issues with the pace and consistency of how EA Sports maintained the power curve. With Road to the Knockouts starting the promo schedule this year, I’m worried that they’re too powerful too early.

FC 24 started similarly strong, with RTTK following Mad Ready. Players being strong early on is okay, provided the curve doesn’t stagnate as the weeks pass. Last year, the likes of Centurions, Dynasties, and Radioactive were lackluster because they didn’t include players who could upgrade our teams in an affordable way.

Promo teams often included a few discard value cards, a couple of mid-range cards, and then a bunch only the biggest spenders or most lucky players would be able to add to their teams. It left teams stagnating between the more high-profile events. The likes of Triple Threat or TOTY, or really any that also featured Icon/Heroes items, really boosted players’ teams.

It seems like that was because EA Sports didn’t want to increase the power level too quickly, adding options for players to use instead of significant upgrades. I understand the intent, but I found it boring. I’m worried the level of RTTK players is the start of the same trend, with my expectation being the next few promos seeing the release of players of a similar level in an attempt to limit the power of players’ teams.

There are a few players released in batch one of RTTK that stand out to me as overpowered. First of all, Federico Dimarco is ‘Gullit Gang’ already, with every face-card stat being above 80. I’d have never believed you a few years ago if you’d told me a card like that was going to be released on the full release date of a FIFA game.

Stephen Eustáquio’s 78 shooting is his worst stat too, and he only costs 15,000 coins on the Ultimate Team market. Jude Bellingham, Julian Alvarez, Jeremie Frimpong, and Jeremy Doku are all in Team 1 and all cost more than half a million coins.

With players that good, I expect teams to stagnate in the coming weeks as we move away from gold players.

However, with the addition of player roles and +/++ variations, on top of playstyles, there are more ways than ever for EA Sports to extend the power curve. Instead of rating and stat upgrades, they can add new playstyles or roles++ to players, improving them in new ways. On paper, that’s great, but EA FC 24‘s lack of balance caused some issues when this became reality.

The likes of finesse shot+ and aerial+, among other playstyles, became ludicrously overpowered as players were given third and fourth playstyles. The game became more arcade-like than it’s ever been, which wasn’t fun at all.

I really hope the quality of the newly released RTTK players in FC 25 isn’t a sign of EA Sports falling into the same traps. They need to avoid team stagnation in the coming months while also avoiding replicating the end of last year’s cycle. Hopefully, they’ve learned their lesson.