The changes coming to Ultimate Team in EA FC 26 are looking like concrete improvements over the current structure to give us a better experience throughout the year. You can check them out in depth in the FUT Deep Dive on EA's website here.
Let's take a look at the Top 5 new features coming to Ultimate Team in FC 26:
5. Challengers Game Mode (Baby FUT Champs)
To make FUT Champs more competitive, only players who are in or above the required Rivals Division will be allowed to compete in FUT Champions each week after earning the Qualification Points.
There will be No Champions Play-Offs. For players in divisions below the cut-off for FUT Champions there will be a NEW Game Mode called "Challengers" that will have it's own format and set of rewards for more casual players.
4. Get a Win when opponent quits/disconnects at Draw
We saw some implementation of the "Win for opponent's Draw Quit" in FC 25 but it would only trigger at certain stages of the game and if they quit using the in-game menu.
In FC 26 you will get the win if your opponent quits at a draw state even if they quit using the "Dashboard" method or if they end up "Disconnecting" from the game.
There will still be specific game states that will need to be met to get the win but we will get the specifics of that at a later date.
3. Rivals Bounties and Limited Checkpoints
To make the Rivals experience more rewarding each game will have a randomly triggered challenges before the start that do not depend on the outcome of the game.
This will mean that you can earn rewards like Rivals Points, Champs Qualification Points, Coins, Packs, Season XP and even Rivals Stage Skips.
Sometimes you might go on a win streak and get stuck in a division above your skill level. To prevent that from happening there will be Limited Checkpoints in FC 26.
These checkpoints prevent you from relegating unless you accumulate a number of losses in a row. You will be able to see how many losses remain before you fall down.
2. Tournaments and Gauntlet Game Modes
Live Events will be replacing Online Friendlies in FC 26 with new game modes and requirements with specific rewards enriching the FUT experience.
We will have 2 new Game Modes as a part of these Live Events:
Tournaments in FUT 26
These will be your classic Knockout Style Tournaments that you will be able to enter by meeting certain criteria.
There will be limited number of entries for each tournament that will refresh periodically as well to make the reward worth competing for.
Gauntlet Mode in FUT 26
The Gauntlet mode will test your squad planning and squad depth as you go through the rounds in this mode.
Each Gauntlet event will have up to 5 rounds, you can only use the players in your Starting XI and Bench ONCE per round. Unlike you the KO Tournaments you can try this again but the more rounds you can go, the better rewards you'll get.
The first announced Gauntlet for FC 26 will be The Ultimate Gauntlet featuring 3 rounds to get familiarized with the mode and the squad planning needed.
1. GK Evos, Repeatable Evos and Cosmetic Stacking
There are some good changes coming to evos in FUT 26. First of all, we will FINALLY be able evolve Goalkeepers in Ultimate Team with both attribute and cosmetic upgrades.
Just like SBCs, some evolutions will now be Repeatable for a limited number of times. This will let you upgrade multiple players with the same evo OR evolve a single player multiple times if they are still eligible.
Another big issue we faced with Cosmetic Evos in FC 25 was losing the current cosmetic once we applied a new one. In FC 26 Cosmetic upgrades will be separated by types.
Unless an evo changes the specific type of cosmetic, different types of cosmetic effects can be STACKED to create the look you want for your player item in game.
This is all the information we have so far about Ultimate Team in FC 26! What are you most excited about for FUT in the upcoming game?
Keep an eye out on the FUT GG News page for more upcoming information about EA FC 26.