EA cancels premiere of TOTY Cup and gives away prize money

The newly scheduled Team of the Year Cup for the FIFA 22 Global Series (FGS) has been canceled, the tournament falling victim to the still ongoing Corona pandemic.

EA SPORTS and FIFA did not present any groundbreaking changes at the start of the new FGS season. The biggest innovations were the Team of the Year (TOTY) and Team of the Season (TOTS) Cup – two new 2vs2 competitions based on the major events in FUT mode.

However, barely two and a half months after the announcement of the Cups, the first tournament has to be cancelled again.

The TOTY Cup, which was scheduled to be an offline event from January 21-23, 2022, falls victim to the Corona pandemic. „Our top priority is to protect competitors, employees, tournament staff and community,“ EA said in explaining the cancellation.

The decision was made based on the increasing prevalence of Delta and Omicron variants, as well as international travel restrictions and recommendations from official bodies, he said.

Prize money share also for invited teams

Meanwhile, organizers hope to hold the TOTS Cup in the summer as planned – including compensation for TOTY Cup qualifiers, who will automatically be allowed to participate.

In addition, the intended prize money of 500,000 US dollars of the TOTY Cup will be distributed equally among all teams, which has already caused amusement and criticism in the social networks.

This is because, in addition to the 16 duos that qualified athletically via the FGS Open, 16 invited teams also filled the field of participants. These teams will now each receive 15,625 US dollars without having done anything in return – unfair, as some players and influencers think. The TOTY Cup is one of the many FIFA events that had to be cancelled in the recent past.

The FIFAe World Cup 2021 and the FIFAe Nations Cup 2021, which were cancelled at short notice, were the most important ones. EA SPORTS and FIFA don't seem to have a very good hand for their offline events, but the fact that the winter would bring a worsening of the global pandemic situation had been foreseeable.