FIFA 23 Black Friday: Road to the World Cup Latest News, Predictions, Release Date & More

Matt

23-Nov-22 14:30

The Black Friday event is coming to FUT 23 this year with a World Cup twist, with Road to the World Cup announced via a loading screen drop on Tuesday, November 22nd.

Black Friday is historically a period of the FUT cycle with an overload of content, from exciting promo teams such as Signature Signings in FIFA 22 to the first lightning round pack offers of the year, with Flash SBCs, engagement rewards and more expected to come.

Road to the World Cup, interestingly named considering the World Cup has been underway for a few days now, suggests that we’ll have items themed around standout performers that took their respective nations to Qatar, however, we’re still awaiting confirmation on exactly what this event entails.

Road to the World Cup cards will be available in FUT for the rest of the FUT cycle, unlike the limited time cards released from the start of the World Cup event.

Here’s all the information, latest news and predictions you need to know to get started with the upcoming Black Friday Road to the World Cup event in FUT 23!

Black Friday - Road to the World Cup Loading Screen Reveal - November 22nd

The Black Friday Road to the World Cup Event has been revealed with a Loading Screen, confirming the release date for this Friday, November 25th, along with 2 card designs, the World Cup Icon design, as we’ve seen with 90 Vieira and 92 Cafu, and a purple & yellow Road to the World Cup design.

Black Friday Road to the World Cup Release Date

As confirmed in the loading screen released on November 22nd, the Black Friday Road to the World Cup event will be released on Friday November 25th.

In previous years, Black Friday events are typically a very short promotion, spanning a week at most, with most of the content coming across Black Friday weekend & Cyber Monday, so expect no more than a week of Black Friday Road to the World Cup in FUT 23.

What is the Black Friday Road to the World Cup Promo?

Let’s take this in 2 parts, and discuss Black Friday, and then the Road to the World Cup portion of the event.

Black Friday has been a staple promo of the FUT cycle for the best part of a decade, stemming all the way back to FIFA 14, before being made a standalone event from FIFA 16 onwards.

Around Black Friday, expect EA content overload (i.e. a stark contrast to previous weeks according to the FUT community), with:

Best of TOTW
Hourly Pack Offers & Lightning Rounds
As many as 20+ Flash SBCs for Packs, Player Picks & even limited-time Player SBCs
Upgrade SBCs - Regular & Premium League Upgrade Packs
Icon SBCs
Flashback & Road to the World Cup SBCs
Player & Pack Objectives
Daily Login Rewards

Black Friday is a huge time of the year commercially, so expect EA to capitalise on this in every way they can think of!

That outlines the content that we usually expect from a Black Friday Promotion, so how does Road to the World Cup tie in?

Similar to Signature Signings last year in FUT 22, Road to the World Cup will be the Promotion running alongside Black Friday that will release some high-quality cards into packs.

While it’s not yet been confirmed exactly what sort of cards will be released, given the name of the event, we’re expecting to see some players that were pivotal in getting teams to the World Cup in Qatar getting included!

Could we see some inclusions like Karim Benzema that have been ruled out of the World Cup through injury, but were key figures in the qualification process in the run-up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup?

Black Friday Content Predictions

So we’ve briefly covered which content we’re expecting to see from Black Friday based on previous years, let’s dive a little deeper into all the offers we’re expecting to see!

Best of TOTW

Best of the TOTW has been rumoured to be returning in FIFA 23’s Black Friday event as it has in previous years, meaning there’s potential for 92 Mbappe, 90 Neymar, 92 De Bruyne and plenty more to be re-released into packs.

Hourly Pack Offers & Lightning Rounds

The Black Friday event is notoriously heavy for pack-related content, with hourly pack offers available, and the first lightning rounds of the year being available around content time.

On Black Friday, the event starts earlier than usual, with offers starting from 2pm UK, with hourly promo pack offerings, leading up to 6pm, 7pm & 8pm lightning rounds, typically for 50K, 100K & 125K packs.

Expect hourly pack offers to run across Black Friday weekends, with all the expected Promo Pack offerings, as well as some new packs, including rumoured 86+ Star Packs, 81+x15 Packs & more!

Flash SBCs

Flash SBCs have always been a staple of Black Friday content, with short, snappy SBC releases that are available for either an hour or 3 hours at a time, some containing valuable rewards.

In FUT 22’s Black Friday event, we saw over 20 Flash SBCs released, ranging from 45K Prime Gold Players Packs to an 84+ Player Pick.

Upgrade Packs

Upgrade Packs are a feature of all promotions in FUT, however Black Friday goes even further with this concept.

Last year, we had the following content, with:

Repeatable 75+ Player Picks
Repeatable 81-87 Upgrade Packs
Repeatable Base Icon Upgrade
Repeatable FUT Hero Upgrade Repeatable League Upgrades (Premier League, Ligue 1, La Liga, Bundesliga & Serie A)
Repeatable Premium League Upgrades (Premier League, Ligue 1, La Liga, Bundesliga & Serie A)

Expect to see more of the same in FUT 23, with the addition of potentially World Cup Hero or even a World Cup Icon SBC at some stage.

Icon SBCs

Icon SBCs featured during FIFA 22s Black Friday event, Middle Icon versions of Roberto Carlos and Luis Hernandez being released.

Expect to see Icon SBCs feature during the Black Friday event, potentially even World Cup Icons.

Flashback & Road to the World Cup SBCs

It’s been rumoured on FUT social media that we’re expecting to see a Flashback Lionel Messi SBC released in the coming week during the Black Friday Road to the World Cup event, which would make sense considering we had Flashback Benzema & Flashback Chiellini released during FIFA 22s Black Friday event.

Also expect to see Road to the World Cup Player SBCs.

Player & Pack Objectives

Player Objectives will naturally feature during Black Friday Road to the World Cup, as they do in most promotions but also expect wider pack objectives.

Last year, we had an Objective whereby for 5, 10, 15 and 25 Wins, you could obtain a Draft Token Pack, Premium Gold Players Pack, Mega Pack and another Mega pack respectively, as well as a Premium Gold Players Pack for the group reward.

We expect to see something similar this year!

Daily Login Rewards

As we’ve seen with recent promos, engagement rewards will likely feature during Black Friday, where you’ll be asked to complete a Daily Login SBC, to contribute towards an engagement themed objective, with an overall group reward.

Keep an eye out for these in the Objectives section.

Road to the World Cup Predictions & Latest Rumours?

We haven’t had anything confirmed as to how the Road to the World Cup items will be unique to other promo items, but we can certainly predict.

Based off the Road to the World Cup event name, we’re expecting to see some players that were pivotal in getting teams to the World Cup in Qatar getting included!

It’s also worth mentioning, that these cards will be available in FUT for the rest of the FUT cycle, unlike the limited time cards released from the start of the World Cup event.

World Cup Icons are also announced to be getting released, with new versions of the likes of Pele, Zidane and Ronaldo all rumoured to be getting released in the future!