EA Sports FC 26 Details Major Changes To FUT, Offers Live Events, Competitive Gameplay & More
Electronic Arts has offered a deep five to the Football Ultimate Team (FUT) in EA Sports FC 26, which has seen major changes and new additions for this year’s latest entry in the footie franchise.
Live Events build on Friendlies as new pillar of the competitive structure for FUT, and are designed to offer more variety in what you play. Live Events are accessed buy a new Event Hub, and your squad must need some custom criteria.
● Completing a specific Objective or Objective Group
● Reaching a Rivals Division
● Rarity, Club, League, or Nation count
● Player Quality
● Chemistry or Position rules
Live Events features Custom Rules and Match Settings that include House Rules (Classic Match, Max Chemistry, First to X Goals, Mystery Ball, No Rules, Long Range, Swaps, and Survival) Match Limits, Solo only, Co-Op Only or open matchmaking.
Rewards and your progression towards them are well known to Friendlies fans, but often require you to jump across multiple menus to track your progress. Events are streamlining this for you, giving you direct access to claim what you’ve earned without digging through the Objective menus. In FC 26 you’ll be able to spend more time on the pitch and less time navigating menus. Each event will highlight its own set of Objectives that you are able to complete in that event.
Tournaments also make a comeback with a classic knockout format including structures and a flexible schedule, which are designed to appear at key moments rather than running every week or stay evergreen like Rivals or Champs. Meanwhile, EA Sports FC 26 and FC Pro are directly integrated for the first time, allowing for top-tier Division Rivals players, allowing PS5 and Xbox Series X/S to do the following:
● Register for FC Pro competitions directly from within Football Ultimate Team
● Compete, win and climb regional leaderboards based on your peak ELO
● Qualify for onward FC Pro competitions such as the FC Pro Open (PS5 only)
Rivals has also been revamped following fan feedback, and while full details will be revealed at a later date, EA has identified a number of key points:
- In Football Ultimate Team, it feels like there are too many matches to play, especially if you’re aiming for top ranked rewards.
2. Once you’ve climbed the Divisions and are consistently matched up against similarly skilled players, the motivation to keep playing can taper off.
3. Hitting a good run of form can leave you stranded in a higher division that you might not belong to, creating huge losing streaks as you wait for the season to refresh.
Champions & Challengers has also seen changes based on user feedback, with the EA noting that qualifying for Champions through Playoffs was a tougher than Champions itself, even for skilled players. As such, Playoffs are now being removed in FC 26 so they are no longer part of Champions. In its place, players will qualify for Champions by reaching a specific Rivals Division and earning Champions Qualification Points.
Finally, Competitive Gameplay is a new tuning set implemented for FUT, which is built around three core pillars: responsiveness, more consistency, and higher player control. Thanks to user feedback, the following has been
● Fewer keeper rebound goals and tackles bouncing back to opponents, cutting down on randomness across the pitch
● Adjusted player stamina, so controlled players stay agile longer, encouraging active defending and smart switching
● More responsive one-touch passing and shooting, now triggerable as little as one frame before receiving the ball
For more details, check out the video below.
