EA Sports may have released the toughest Ultimate Team objective ever in Ones to Watch Savio. As a veteran of more than two decades of EA Sports football games, I can safely issue this warning to EA FC 27 newcomers: one new Ultimate Team objective might just be the toughest I have ever tried to complete.
After a week of early access on EA FC 27, the now notorious Ones to Watch Savio remains out of my grasp. Like many, I have stumbled across an objective that might prove too difficult to complete. This 83-rated Savio looks like a solid starter team option for many, but there is just one issue: you might struggle to earn the card without some serious upgrades to your squad.
Why is OTW Savio so hard to unlock on EA FC 27?
Having enticed me in with the game's first special player item that will fit my yearly Spurs Past & Present team, EA Sports immediately floored me with the requirements to unlock it. A minimum of 17 games played is needed to get Savio, but for myself and many others, it will take a lot more. Players have to progress through the PvE Ones We Watched live event chain in order to unlock Savio. It all begins with the Ones We Watched Kick Off Challenge, which unlocks the first challenge with a mandatory AI difficulty setting.
Anyone hoping to add Savio to their squads needs to defeat four different AI teams. At least one win is required against each of them, but there are additional requirements that mean you will have to play more than one game against each difficulty level to progress. Once a player has beaten a particular difficulty level once, the next challenge opens up. And therein lies the problem.
The first 10 matches were no trouble at all, but beyond that things became increasingly difficult. After breezing through the Semi-Pro and Professional difficulties, I began to struggle on the World Class challenge, which required one win and the scoring of at least two goals with finesse shots in three separate matches. Once that was done, the real pain began. At the time of writing, after 12 attempts, I have zero wins in the Legendary challenge with an Atletico Madrid team that has undone my efforts time and time again.
But do not just take my word for it. Plenty of fellow FUT gamers have been left frustrated and deflated in their attempts to obtain this one-of-a-kind player item. One Reddit user took to the site to post a painful record of one win and a whopping 50 defeats against the Legendary AI. They captioned their post: 'At this point just give him to me for free'.
EA FC 27 Ones We Watched Legendary Challenge - tips and tricks to unlock OTW Savio
Many other fans sympathised, offering tips and solutions. As a FUT player increasingly likely to suffer this many defeats eventually, I was grateful to the community for advice. Given the Atletico team lines up with a 3-5-2 formation, many suggested overloading the three centre backs with fast wingers. Utilising lobbed through balls to create openings is also advised, while being patient with the ball to prevent conceding was another suggested tactic.
While all of these are solid ideas that have helped with my luck, I remain winless against the Legendary AI. I have swapped formations about three times and brought in new players in an attempt to overwhelm the CPU backline. But despite coming closer to winning, Savio remains out of reach for me at the moment. I would not classify myself as a particularly good EA Sports FC player, but I am not awful - I usually end up in Division 4 for Division Rivals but struggle in FUT Champs.
So this amount of difficulty so early on in the game feels like EA Sports has misread the situation. Savio looks like a fun card, and plenty have reported saying he is worth the slog, but it might be that this particular objective is simply not worth the gargantuan effort so early in EA FC 27 Ultimate Team's cycle.
