EA SPORTS
FIFA 18 Ratings Refresh COUNTDOWN: Upgrades, Predictions, Leaks and PS4, Xbox, PC FUT news
EA has at long last announced the FIFA 18 Ratings Refresh and FIFA 18 Ultimate Team fans shouldn't have too long to wait before the big ratings shake-up occurs.
The news was confirmed on the FIFA 18 Twitter account late last night with a sly message that simply read: "Tomorrow" although if you want more exact details on the release dates, keep reading because we've a whole section on that.
For those who don't know, or have simply forgotten, the FIFA 18 Winter Upgrades – also known as a 'Ratings Refresh' – introduces some huge stat boosts (and downgrades) for players across the European leagues, including the Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga, Seria A and more.
The point of this is to ensure that Ultimate Team stats reflect the realistic performances of players throughout the season so far. For Instance Arsenal's Alexandre Lacazette, who hasn't been in red hot form, might have himself downgrades.
Spurs Harry Kane, who has been banging them in left, right and centre, could find his basic FUT card stat boosted from 86 to something higher.
For now, there are no leaks which might indicate which players are going to be on the receiving end of an upgrade or downgrade, unlike last year, which saw a huge number of stats leaked in late January.
For the time being though, you can see a prediction of some of the players who could be due an upgrade, courtesy of popular FIFA YouTuber, ZAN 0MG in the gallery below:
FIFA 18 Winter Upgrade Predictions
These FIFA 18 Ultimate Team players might be about to get a BIG stats boost
FIFA 18 WINTER UPGRADES RELEASE DATE
First off, it's worth mentioning that EA Sports don't release the FIFA 18 Ratings Refresh in one big update.
In the past the team at EA has instead chosen to release these updated stats slowly over the course of a few days and weeks, running through one league at a time.
So, don't expect the whole lot to be dropping right away.
Secondly, whilst we expect that EA Sports will unleash the first Ratings Refresh at 6PM GMT tonight, as they do with most updates, the tweet they sent, is a little unclear.
For one thing, the tweet read "tomorrow" and technically that would mean Saturday for us UK players.
However, it's probably an oversight on EA's part so expect to see the first Ratings Refresh upgrades arrive later today.
WHICH CARDS ARE UPGRADED?
We've covered this previously, but it's rather important so we should really make sure to cover it again just to make things clear.
Do note though, that this is based on EA sticking to the same system they used last year and that could be subject to change
The Winter Upgrades will impact on all forms of cards in the game. That includes Non-Inform Cards, Inform Cards and Other Special Cards which have been previously released, like Team of the Group Stage cards and more.
To help make this as easy to follow as possible, we'll defer to the greater knowledge of FIFA Ultimate Team experts at Futbin.com who've pulled together an easy to follow example using Raheem Sterling's upgrades so far this year.
"Player A has had a fantastic season so far. Their NIF card is 82-rated, their first inform is 84-rated and their second inform is 86-rated. EA announce that Player A will be receiving a +2 increase to his NIF card, moving it up to 84-rated overall.
"From this point we calculate the ratings on these special cards, using the NIF rating of 84 as our starting point. The 84 rated inform moves up to an 86-rated card, while the 86-rated card increases to an 87-rated one. This ensures that nobody loses any value based on these refreshes.
"Here is an example using Sterling’s potential +2 Upgrade. EA would issue a new 84-rated NIF card and upgrade both of his informs like this"
FUTBIN
HOW DO DOWNGRADES IMPACT CARDS?
Again, this is important to know and while we've covered it before, it's worth a reminder. As before, let's defer to the experts at FUTBIN:
"Player B has had a really poor season so far, despite an inform from his very first game, they have really disappointed during all other matches.
"Due to this, EA decides to provide a –1 rating during the refresh, changing their 82-rated NIF into an 81-rated NIF card.
"As we mentioned before, Player B currently has an inform which is 84-rated, but luckily for us the refresh on their NIF card has absolutely no effect on any cards currently in the game.
"Nothing here changes except for the rating of the players NIF cards available in packs."
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