‘FIFA 22’: How to win FUT Champions Playoffs and Finals
FUT Champions has traditionally been the pinnacle of competitive play, but in FIFA 22 that's no longer the case. That mantle falls to the new Elite Division of Rivals, around which EA now expects the very best to coalesce. But FUT Champions is still here, and this year it has had a makeover, with mixed results.
Qualifying is much easier and it takes less time overall to participate. The competition is now structured in two phases, Playoffs and Finals. The rewards are better, but only if you can make it past the Playoffs stage. We'll do our best to help.
How does FUT Champions work in FIFA 22?
FIFA 22 gives FUT Champions a structural overhaul. You still earn qualification through Rivals, but this only gets you to the front door. You then need to win five out of nine matches in the new FUT Champions Playoffs. These matches can be played at any time of the week.
If you make it through Playoffs, you unlock a Finals Token to enter the revised Weekend League, now called FUT Champions Finals. Here you can play up to 20 matches between Friday, 3 a.m. EST, and the same time Monday. Rewards scale based on victories, but you are guaranteed two of the famous red FUT Champions player cards even if you lose all 20.
Speaking of rewards, you can now claim FUT Champions rewards as soon as you finish. For Playoffs, that's once you complete all nine or choose to end a playoff run. For Finals, that's when you finish 20, or else they are automatically distributed based on your finishing rank when the competition closes on Monday.
The new system sounds a bit wild, but it's not that complicated underneath the jargon. Basically, you need five wins to beat Playoffs, and rewards in Finals go up with every four additional wins, maxing out at 16. (It's also worth noting that you no longer earn Rivals rewards just by playing Champs.)
How to win FUT Champions Playoffs
If a FIFA-loving friend arrived back from the moon and asked us about new FUT Champs, we'd tell them it's a good news/bad news situation. The good news is that FUT Champs Finals are a gilded city of treasures, where the rewards for participation alone are greater than most players earned in previous years. The bad news is that Playoffs can be a horrible experience if you approach it without due care.
The trouble is twofold. First, you can only enter the Playoffs seven times per in-game season. That means that if you fall short of five wins on too many occasions, you can find yourself locked out of FUT Champs Finals competitions later in the season. A weekend without Weekend League?! Sadly it will be the case for some of us.
The second issue is matchmaking. Like Finals, Playoffs uses 'form', so if you win a game, the system tries to match you with someone who has also won a game. If you have lost several, you should meet someone in the same boat. But there is no reason that each of those people with 'zero' form can't be miles better than you, and given that Playoffs is based on a smaller number of matches, any unfortunate mismatches are less likely to be balanced out than they would have been over 30 games in previous years. Added to that, you also have players skewing the form book by quitting matches because they already have their wins, and the player pool itself is tougher on the weekend or at the start of the week when only the best players are ready to requalify.
It's all a bit of a mess, and EA may end up changing it. In the meantime though, the best thing you can do is be patient! Wait until later in the week when the majority of players will have access (due to earning qualification points through their Division Rivals rewards, issued each Thursday) and the best players will have long since qualified. This will make for a bigger player pool of lower but more varied skill. You will also be handed free victories by players who already have five wins.
If you do fall short in Playoffs, don't be disheartened, as lots of good players are struggling. It doesn't take long to earn more qualification points through Rivals, and we wouldn't be surprised if the system was tweaked before too long anyway.
How to win FUT Champions Finals
If you've made it through to Finals, congratulations! You've already won! The new reward tiers for FIFA 22 mean that you are guaranteed to get two red FUT Champions players based on the current Team of the Week even if you lose all 20. For every four matches you win, you get better packs, with Premium TOTW Packs available for as little as eight wins. (Just make sure you complete all 20 matches, because you still need the point you get for each loss as well as the four points per win.)
Naturally, there are meta tactics you can employ to maximize your chances. On the attack, use low driven passes (right bumper plus ground pass) to play the ball into your attackers, and try finesse shots outside the box when you can. On defense, control your central defensive midfielders (CDMs), rather than your center-backs, who will position themselves sensibly. In Custom Tactics, tell full-backs to "Stay Back While Attacking" and CDMs to "Cover Center" to minimize space for counter-attacks.
The bigger part of success in FUT Champions Finals is your mental state. If you lose a match, especially under frustrating circumstances, take a short break, even if it's just to howl into the void! If you queue up for the next match immediately, you will still be playing the previous opponent in your head. And don't rage-quit matches. If you do, your 'form' will not be adjusted, so you will face a slightly tougher opponent than you would otherwise.
Finally, we recommend tweaking two settings. During a match, go to Settings, then Game Settings. On the Visual tab, choose "Player Name & Indicator" for HUD and "Player Name" for Player Indicator. This confusing combination will let you see the name of each real-life player just above their head. It is much easier to read the game when you instantly know the ball has arrived with your CAM rather than your CDM.
Also on the Visual tab, look for "Celebration Camera Focus" and change it from "Scoring Team" to "User Controlled Team". This will mean you no longer have to watch the celebration your opponent has chosen to wind you up. Trust us: that's probably the best tip anyone will ever give you in FIFA 22. Good luck out there!
Written by Tom Bramwell on behalf of GLHF.
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