We Vote – But They Decide: How EA Influences TOTY XI

Team of the Year in FIFA 23 is just around the corner, and the voting for the best players of the year just finished. But something seems... fishy.

EA Toty Vote
Does EA Sports influence the TOTY? | EarlyGame | EA Sports

Bye, Centurions... the TOTY is our new best friend! We're already absolutely hyped for the craziest cards in FIFA 23! Who will be in the starting eleven? The voting finished on January 17 and Team of the Year Promo will start on January 20.

We have also already cast our vote. So it's all gucci, isn't it? Well, one aspect on the voting page has made us wonder... how much is our vote actually worth?

EA's Influence On The TOTY Voting

How do we come up with this wild assumption? Well, if you read the terms and conditions – lol, who even does that – on the voting page for the Team of the Year in FIFA 23, you will find the following paragraph:

VOTING Conditions
FIFA 23 TOTY Terms & Conditions. | EA Sports

Uhm... So there's possible input from EA on the voting results? Are our votes worth anything, then? It's bad enough that EA tries to take our money with every chance given, but now EA can (theoretically) also change the TOTY at will?

It's certainly not quite that dramatic, but... let's assume that the community pulls together and votes some players into the TOTY who perhaps don't necessarily belong there. What happens then? Polls on the internet aren't always the best idea, because they can turn out terrible.

We would really be interested in the consequences if players like Wissam Ben Yedder, Ousmane Dembélé or Fikayo Tomori were voted into the TOTY. No front against the players' performances, though, but it's not quite enough for a spot amongst the best eleven players in the world. In the end, it will be the usual suspects again anyway... You should be prepared for meta-players, like Mbappé.

Yannick Lickert

Hi, my name is Yannick. I am a 21-year-old student from Munich, who is currently working as a Content Creator at EarlyGame. I love video games, sports, and music. FIFA and NBA 2K are my favorite games. If you don’t...