FIFA 21 Ultimate Team Freeze promo LIVE: Full team & ICON Swaps

EA SPORTS kick off their FIFA 21 Freeze Ultimate Team promo on December 11, meaning a number of new cards will soon be added to the game. Some players even think it will replace FUTMAS.

The last few FIFA releases have seen the FUTMAS promo rule the month of December. The Christmas-themed FUT event has been chock-full of special packs, boosted FUTMAS cards, and a host of player SBCs that let fans unlock their favorite stars.

The name-change may not worry too many FUT fans, but there’ll be one question on every player’s lips; will the daily FUTMAS SBCs carry over to the new Christmas event, and will we see new puzzles and stars released in the building up to Dec. 25?

Without further ado, here’s what we know about the new Christmas promo so far.

FIFA’s festive Ultimate Team promo ⁠— or at least, what Dexerto assumes is replacing the FUTMAS event this time around ⁠— is still based around Christmas. That means the promo will start this week, on Friday, December 11. The event should run for just over a fortnight, past Christmas Day itself.

In fact, in years past, FUTMAS has sometimes gone all the way up to the end of December, meaning we could see the ‘Freeze’ promo stick around for three weeks. This means all the packs, puzzles, and challenges may last until December 31.

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According to the countdown on Ultimate Team’s loading screen, we’ll get our first look at FIFA’s new promo at 6pm on Friday (GMT). Keep your eyes peeled on our Twitter accounts, @UltimateTeamUK and @FutWatch, to see the news.

Freeze predictions: will it be the same as FUTMAS?

Here’s where it gets a little tricky ⁠— EA SPORTS hasn’t really given us any clues about the potential upgrade team beyond the name… they’ve not even confirmed if this newly-revealed promo is actually the new FUTMAS replacement yet!

That said, similar to how “Rulebreakers” replaced Ultimate Scream earlier this year, Freeze does seem to be the FUTMAS heir. The start date seems too perfect not to be.

If that’s the case, then “Freeze” cards should hopefully work in a similar fashion. Players are picked for the promo based on their national team rankings, where their clubs finished in the 2019/20 season, and what shirt numbers they wear in-game.

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The numbers correspond to each countdown day in FUT. That means we’ll start at 12 on Dec. 13, and count down to one smack bang on Christmas Day.

Considering the event kicks off two days earlier, we could see a “14” to start the countdown this year. That could include Jordan Henderson (wears no.14), a Dutch star (the Netherlands rank 14th), and Wilfried Zaha (Palace finished 14th).

Icon Swaps 1 arrive during FUT Freeze

EA has now confirmed that alongside a “FUT Freeze Team,” and multiple player SBCs and puzzles, the new promo will also bring a fan-favorite moment in any FIFA release: Icon Swaps.

This the chance for FUT players to collect some of the highest-rated players in the game, Icons, through objectives and SBCs. Last year superstars like Ronaldinho, Steven Gerrard, and Didier Drogba were all collectible through these “Icon Swap” series.

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FIFA 21 may deviate from the normal a little here — they’ve done it for every other promo so far — but for the most part, there should be top-class players and rare packs to collect throughout the Freeze promo alongside the usual FUTMAS cheer.

FIFA 21 Freeze leaks: ICON Swaps

There’s been little in the way of FUT Freeze leaks so far, except for a huge raft of pack codes, uncovered by FIFA 21 dataminer FutWatch.

These packs include “Base or Mid Icon Pack,” “Mid or Prime Icon Pack,” “Prime Icon Pack,” “Guaranteed Mid Icon 89 Rated or Higher,” “Mid Icon Pack,” and more.

It seems these packs will be linked with Icon Swaps, but it’s not clear if they are bonuses for challenges, if they’ll be separate SBC prizes, or if the rare packs will simply be available in the store (this one is pretty unlikely, all things considered).

FutWatch has also been able to confirm that Davor Šuker, one of the game’s Croatian Icons, has had his in-game code description updated. That suggests “he’s probably in swaps,” the FIFA 21 dataminer explained alongside the updated code.

So there you have it ⁠— everything we know about the FIFA 21 Freeze Christmas promo so far. Make sure if you’ve got a few FUT coins saved up, you keep them in your back pocket; there could be some cracking SBC cards on the way!

We’ll update this article when the promo begins. As always, stick with us on Twitter @UltimateTeamUK for all the latest FIFA news, updates, and content.