The elite division in FIFA Ultimate team is the highest division rank one can achieve and after which the ranking system switches to an elo-based system. After a grind, I managed to reach it every year despite getting older and so did a close friend of mine.
Over 10 million copies of FIFA 23 were sold in the first week. At a conservative estimate, reaching the elite division would put one into top 50,000-100,000 players or the top 0.5-1%. It might not feel like it while playing but it really surprised me and my friend that among a lot of things we were the top percentile in a widely popular skill. This led to emergence of a few themes of the habits we observed in the players at the top of the craft.
Awareness of the meta
Every player clearly knows the 'meta' of the game. The best formations and players to use. Strengths and weaknesses and how to counter situations. There is a lot of tacit knowledge involved but understanding matchups is something you see in every player. There are no pure mechanically skilled players with no understanding of the meta. At this level, understanding the meta is a competitive advantage and without it you get crushed.
Road to Glory
However, despite the meta, there are some true fans in the game too. Only forming teams with players they like exclusively even if they are not meta. Going with a trusted bunch of players on this road to glory as is the popular term in the community. This is playing the game on hard mode in my opinion, however the payoff of beating a 'meta' team with non-meta systems is a flex which those at the elite division enjoy.
Multiple Accounts
Some of the best players also use multiple accounts (one a road to glory and one for trading), reaching the elite division with all of them. This is extremely time consuming—just more irrational behavior you see once you get a closer look.
Trading
Another part of the game is trading up your coin balance in order to buy better players. Although not a core skill, a lot of the best players have developed an acute understanding of when to buy and sell, demonstrating skill outside of the competitive game and also inside the metagame.
Bad Losers
It is also wild some of the unhinged messages you get from people after you beat them. A lot of players (mostly kids or the emotional capacity of a kid) don't take losing well and end up saying all kinds of vile things in the heat of the moment to you after the game.