For Erika Tymrak, the banter that comes with playing EA FC is half the fun. Maybe more than half, in fact. When she scores on her opponent who discovers he's playing against a woman, there is a high level of incredulity.
"It is usually a dude, and I'll score a banger or do something, and then I'll start talking a little smack," the Orlando Pride midfielder tells ESPN. "And the first thing they always say is, 'Oh my God. Are you a girl?' Every single time."
Recently, Tymrak took the smack-talk up a level. One recent foe went so far as to ask how Tymrak knew so much about soccer.
"I was like, 'Oh, the girl I just scored with?' And he was like, 'Yeah?' I was like, 'I'm her.' He couldn't believe it," she says. "I still don't think he believed me."
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It's a scenario that, until two years ago, wasn't possible for NWSL players. Then Electronic Arts, the maker of EA FC (the game franchise formerly known as FIFA) decided that starting with the 2023 version of the game, women players on club teams from around the world would be added. This was a huge expansion after having added women's national team players in 2016.
The numbers in terms of adding players from women's teams are impressive. According to an EA spokesperson, as of early October, 44% of the Ultimate Team squads that players used in online matches -- teams that essentially allow gamers to build their own squads -- have featured "at least one women's [soccer] player in the starting XI." That's around 357 million Ultimate Team squads.
In the first 24 days following the release of FC 24 on Sept. 29, three different women's leagues -- out of the five available -- cracked the most-used leagues ranking, with the Women's Super League in England ranking sixth, Liga F in Spain ranking eighth and the NWSL in the U.S. ranking 10th. (The Premier League ranked first overall, with LaLiga in second.)
"I really like it. It's super cool to see the women's game in [EA FC], and just how far we're progressing and getting women's teams involved and stuff like this," says Racing Louisville midfielder Jaelin Howell, who grew up playing the video game with her brother. "People around the world can play our characters, and I think it really shows the progression of how far the women's game has come."
That growth hasn't necessarily spread throughout the NWSL player pool. The players interviewed for this story feel that there aren't many throughout the league who play the game. For San Diego Wave midfielder Taylor Kornieck, even the temptation of having a PS5 at the training facility often isn't enough to get her teammates to take the EA FC plunge.
"We don't really want be seen playing games instead of watching film," quips Kornieck, who actually does play the game, along with heavy doses of Fortnite.
But there has been a slow burn in terms of getting more players into the game, or in some cases getting back into the game. Kansas City Current defender Elizabeth Ball remembers playing with her brother growing up, with humbling results.
"He'd crushed me every single time, which kind of made it hard for me to get on board to start playing again. I'm so bad," she says.
Now she's teaching teammate Kristen Hamilton on the video game's finer points. Certainly the fact that there are female players in the game is drawing more NWSL competitors in. And the reality that NWSL players can play as themselves is, for them, mind-blowing.
"I think it's so surreal," Ball says. "I think playing in a video game as myself is one of the crazier things. I know AI and all that's coming, but for now I'm like, this is one of the cooler things that I've ever seen or done. I grew up playing this game, and I was playing with Ronaldo and Messi and Ronaldinho and all these incredible players that I looked up to. So to be playing as myself in one of the biggest games ever is insane."
Granted, there are other ways for the NWSL's players to get invested in EA FC without actually playing -- namely the ratings. Each player has an overall rating, as well as six major categories: pace, shooting, passing, dribbling, defense and physicality. Underneath those are a total of 29 sub-categories. Each of the seven players interviewed for this story knew the ins and outs of their own ratings, as well as those of their teammates.
The disparity between the game and reality is a consistent topic of discussion, especially among teammates, even as new iterations have come out. OL Reign goalkeeper Laurel Ivory notes that Reign defender Lauren Barnes' pace rating of 75 was well above that of Reign defender Alana Cook's rating of 56, which left her borderline stunned.
"Bless Lu's soul, she's one of the best defenders in the league, but like, she's not fast, you know what I mean?" she says. "She has other strengths that [make up for] her speed, but it feels like whoever's rating them just like actually doesn't watch."
Tymrak noticed a similar discrepancy between herself and teammate Ally Watt.
"I think Ally Watt had the same pace as me, which was hysterical," she says. " So I would always be like, 'Well, according to [EA FC], we're the same pace.' Ally Watt is one of the fastest humans I know. I think they finally upgraded her card to now she has one of the top pace [ratings] in our league -- definitely deserved on her part."
Indeed. Watt's pace is now 84 compared to Tymrak's 73.
The ratings lead to some epic banter, as well as some self-deprecation. Ball notes that her pace rating is 41. She senses that it's the worst in the NWSL, though a quick search reveals that this isn't quite true. There are four players ranked worse than her in the pace category -- not that this makes her feel much better.
"Forty-one pace is brutal," she says on a Zoom call with Hamilton. "I'm slower than our keeper, which is devastating."
Upon hearing this, Hamilton senses an opportunity to pile on, and does so with aplomb amid some laughter.
"She's slower than all the keepers in the league, not even just on our team," she interjects about Ball. (Hamilton is right. All the players ranked lower than Ball are center backs.) "Now it's a running joke on the team that she's a 41 pace, and we're like, 'Oh, you're running your FIFA pace today.' I mean, it's so absurd."
The rankings do lead to some introspection, too. While chatting with ESPN, the topic of Kornieck's defending -- or the lack of it; her rating there is 51 -- comes up, and one can almost see the U.S. international nodding her head in agreement over the phone.
"I think it's a little wake up call for me, to be honest," Kornieck says. "Once I saw it and I was just reminiscing on my play, I am like, 'You know what? These are actually more accurate than I thought they were.' But, hey, it's something to work for, so those will get higher soon."
Not everyone was displeased with their ratings. Tymrak noted that her player is adept on the dribble, which she thinks fits with how she plays.
"I was really happy that they gave me that -- just because I would say my dribbling is my greatest strength," she says.
The beauty of the Ultimate Team portion of the game is that in terms of personnel, formations and tactics, anything goes. Tymrak admitted that in her Ultimate Team she had Messi as the No. 10 but then, she says, "I gave him the boot and put him up top because I was seeing myself as the playmaker of the team." Kylian Mbappe is on her team too.