Electronic Arts are denying any claims of “blacklisting” a reviewer for giving a negative critique of Action RPG ‘Anthem’ ahead of its release on February 22, 2019.
A YouTuber by the name of ‘GGGmanlives’ claims to have been approached by EA to create a paid review of the title – and was subsequently “blacklisted” due to his damning thoughts on the game.
“This might be the most disappointing game I’ve played in 2019,” the YouTuber said of Anthem. “At times, it feels either rushed, poorly thought-out, or just, in some cases, unfinished.”
GGGmanlives’ video was later removed from the platform, due to what some fans speculated as EA’s dissatisfaction with the review.
However, EA claims that they did not pull the review due to his comments, as told in a statement to Variety on February 22.
EA denied that GGGmanlinves’ review had been pulled due to his negative comments on the title, but rather due to failing to meet disclosure guidelines.
According to the company, the takedown was executed for failing to meet disclosure guidelines – although a comment from GGG underneath his video also mentions that he removed EA’s watermark in post.
“In this case, the conditions for disclosure for this specific video were not met… so we asked for it to be taken down and corrected,” EA said of the matter. “We’ve not asked for the content of the video to be changed, or ‘blacklisted’ the creator.”
Anthem has been met with mixed reviews, upon its release on February 22, garnering relatively low scores on many outlets’ rating scales.
Anthem has since been met with mixed reviews across multiple outlets, with IGN giving the title a 6.5/10, while Metacritic offered up a 61% and PC World gave it a 2.5/5.
EA SPORTS is on the cusp of revealing FIFA 21 TOTY cards to celebrate its Team of the Year Ultimate Team promo, and here’s everything you need to know about the event.
With 2020 long behind us, 2021 kicked off by rounding off the Headliners. Now, though, all eyes have turned to Team of the Year in the FIFA 21 community, who had been voting until January 18 when the window of opportunity slammed shut.
TOTY is not to be confused with Team of the Season, which is released later in the game’s life cycle, around Spring. This one is all about the gamers who dedicate their time to FUT, as they’re given their chance to look back on the last 12 months and decide which players have been standout performers.
The nominees are stacked with talent this year, so let’s take a look at all of the key details.
When does Team of the Year come out FIFA 21?
Fans got to vote for a squad of 11 players from a pool of 55 nominees, with EA tallying the votes.
January 18 was the date voting closed, with developers confirming this promo team will be revealed on Friday, January 22 at 6pm (UK). That means 6pm BST, 12pm CT, 1pm EST, 3am AEST for those of you around the world.
The full list of FIFA 21 TOTY nominees have been picked out. The likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Robert Lewandowski, Virgil Van Dijk, Kevin De Bruyne, Kylian Mbappe, and Neymar are all included in the list.
EA SPORTSThe full list of nominees for FIFA 21 Team of the Year (TOTY).
FIFA 21 TOTY Goalkeepers
GK: Alisson Becker – Liverpool
GK: Thibaut Courtois – Real Madrid
GK: Moraes Ederson – Manchester City
GK: Lucas Hradecky – Bayer Leverkusen
GK: Steve Mandanda – Marseille
GK: Keylor Navas – PSG
GK: Manuel Neuer – Bayern Munich
FIFA 21 TOTY Defenders
CB: Francesco Acerbi – Lazio
RB: Trent Alexander-Arnold – Liverpool
LB: Jordan Amavi – Marseille
LB: Angelino – RB Leipzig
LB: Alphonso Davies – Bayern Munich
CB: Stefan de Vrij – Inter Milan
CB: Matthias Ginter – Borussia Mönchengladbach
LB: Theo Hernandez – AC Milan
CB: Mats Hummels – Borussia Dortmund
RB: Jesus Navas – Sevilla
LB: Jordi Alba – Barcelona
CB: Presnel Kimpembe – PSG
CB: Aymeric Laporte Manchester City
CB: Marquinhos – PSG
LB: Andy Robertson – Liverpool
CB: Sergio Ramos – Real Madrid
CB: Thiago Silva – Chelsea
CB:Virgil van Dijk – Liverpool FC
CM: Houssem Aouar – Lyon
FIFA 21 TOTY Midfielders
CAM: Bruno Fernandes – Manchester United
CAM: Kevin De Bruyne – Manchester City
CAM: Nabil Fekir – Real Betis
CAM: Alejandro Gomez – Atalanta
LM: Robin Gosens – Atalanta
LM: Raphael Guerreiro – Borussia Dortmund
CDM: Jordan Henderson -Liverpool
CDM: Joshua Kimmich – Bayern Munich
CM: Mateo Kovacic – Chelsea
CDM: Toni Kroos – Real Madrid
CAM: Luis Alberto – Lazio
CDM: Mikel Moreno – Real Sociedad
CDM: Dani Parejo – Villarreal
CDM: Renato Sanches – Lille
CAM: Marcel Sabitzer – RB Leipzig
LM: Son Heung-min – Spurs
LM: Lars Stindl – Borussia Mönchengladbach
CDM: Thiago Alcantara – Liverpool
FIFA 21 TOTY Attackers
ST: Andre Silva – Eintracht Frankfurt
ST: Wissam Ben Yedder – AS Monaco
ST: Karim Benzema – Real Madrid
ST: Cristiano Ronaldo – Juventus
RW: Angel Di Maria – PSG
CF: Paulo Dybala – Juventus,
LW: Jack Grealish – Aston Villa
ST: Erling Haaland – Borussia Dortmund
ST: Ciro Immobile – Lazio
ST: Danny Ings – Southampton
LW: Lorenzo Insigne – Napoli
CF: Joao Felix – Atletico Madrid
ST: Joselu – Alaves
ST: Harry Kane – Spurs
ST: Andrej Kramaric – Hoffenheim
ST: Robert Lewandowski – Bayern Munich
ST: Romelu Lukaku – Inter Milan
LW: Sadio Mane – Liverpool
ST: Kylian Mbappe – PSG
RW: Lionel Messi – Barcelona
LW: Neymar Junior – PSG
RW: Mohamed Salah – Liverpool
LW: Raheem Sterling – Manchester City
ST: Luis Suarez – Atletico Madrid
ST: Jamie Vardy – Leicester City
FIFA 21 TOTY predictions
As far as predictions go, we submitted ours as an official vote – seen below.
Although EA love to give lots of opportunities for players to unlock untradeable cards through SBCs and Objectives, don’t expect there to be many for TOTY, since those cards are so high-rated and powerful.
That said, there should be at least one SBC involving this promotion, maybe not for a specific card outright but a pack that guarantees one of the TOTY players. We’ll have more info for you here once the promo kicks off and EA reveals all the details.
FIFA 21 TOTY Promo Packs and Lightning Rounds
Just finally, there is speculation that promo packs and lightning rounds will be available for the event.
For those who don’t know, promo packs offer greater amounts of rare players and cost a little more – typically – than the base FUT packs. Lightning rounds start up first of all for Black Friday, which has been and gone, which opens the door for periods of reduced prices on packs in Ultimate Team to celebrate Team of the Year.
While these are unconfirmed rumors as of January 2021, we can confirm that we’ll update this section with further information as soon as it’s made available to us.
Stick with us @UltimateTeamUK for the latest updates on Team of the Year. As soon as it’s revealed, we’ll be posting it on there and our reaction.
EA denied that GGGmanlinves’ review had been pulled due to his negative comments on the title, but rather due to failing to meet disclosure guidelines.
Anthem has been met with mixed reviews, upon its release on February 22, garnering relatively low scores on many outlets’ rating scales.
