FIFA 23 FUT Champions guide, including how to qualify, Weekend League start time and rewards

How to qualify for FIFA 23 FUT Champions

Qualifying for FUT Champions is a simple matter of racking up games in Division Rivals, which acts as a sort of feeder competition. Win, draw or lose; every match in Rivals gives you Qualification Points, and as you progress through the divisions, the amount you earn per match will go up. Winning matches always gives the biggest boost. You need 1250 Qualification Points to take part in FUT Champions Play-Offs.

You can enter FUT Champions Play-Offs multiple times per season, as indicated on the FUT Champions page. (Look in the bottom-left corner to see how many entries you have left.) You can take part in Play-Offs any day of the week, including the weekend. Similar to Rivals, you earn points for taking part – 4 points for a win, 1 for a defeat. You have 10 possible matches per play-off run and need 20 points to qualify for FUT Champions Finals.

This means you need to win at least four matches in FUT Champions Play-Offs to qualify for FUT Champions Finals. Four wins gives you 16 points, and then you need to either quit out of four more matches (earning the last 4 points) or keep playing to try to boost your points total. Better rewards can be unlocked if you win more of your play-off games.

Once you’ve reached the 20-point threshold, the game will tell you that you’ve qualified for FUT Champions Finals, and you can either end your run to claim your play-offs rewards, or keep playing until you use up your 10-game play-off run.

FIFA 23 FUT Champions Weekend League start time

FUT Champions Finals, aka the Weekend League, starts every Friday at 7am UTC (8am BST, 9am CEST, 3am EDT, 0am PDT) and runs until the same time on Monday morning. During that period, you can play up to 20 games, and depending on how many matches you win, you can earn all sorts of different player and pack rewards.

If you finish your 20 matches before Monday morning, you can claim your rewards immediately, including your red player pick items and tradeable packs. If you do not finish your 20 matches, rewards will automatically be claimed on Monday morning when the competition ends, and you can open at your convenience.

FIFA 23 FUT Champions Play-Offs rewards listed

Everyone’s focus is usually on the red picks in FUT Champions Finals, but FUT Champions Play-Offs has its own tradeable rewards that can be claimed as soon as you finish a qualification run. As with Finals, you can earn 4 points for a win and 1 point for a defeat (or by quitting out of a match in progress).

Here is a complete breakdown of what you can unlock, as well as the easiest possible way to earn them (e.g. for 4 points, we say 4 defeats, although you could also do it with 1 win). All packs are tradeable unless noted otherwise.

• Rank VII - 4 points (4 defeats)
• 2x Jumbo Premium Gold Pack (untradeable)
• Rank VI - 12 points (1 win, 6 defeats)
• 2x Gold Players Pack
• 1x Jumbo Premium Gold Pack
• 400 Champions FUT Qualification Points (to start your Rivals run again)
• Rank V - 20 points (4 wins, 4 defeats)
• FUT Champions Finals Qualification
• 2x Rare Gold Pack
• 1x Small Prime Gold Players Pack
• Rank IV - 26 points (6 wins, 2 defeats)
• FUT Champions Finals Qualification
• 2x Mega Packs
• 1x Rare Gold Pack
• Rank III - 32 points (8 wins)
• FUT Champions Finals Qualification
• 1x Jumbo Premium Gold Players Pack
• 2x Rare Gold Pack
• 2x Small Prime Gold Players Pack
• Rank II - 36 points (9 wins)
• FUT Champions Finals Qualification
• 1x Rare Mega Pack
• 1x Prime Gold Players Pack
• 2x Small Rare Gold Players Pack
• Rank I - 40 points (10 wins)
• FUT Champions Finals Qualification
• 1x Jumbo Rare Players Pack
• 1x Rare Players Pack
• 1x Mega Pack

Those upper ranks look great, of course, but most players will be happy to achieve the four victories needed for qualification. Save your blood, sweat and tears for Finals itself!

FIFA 23 FUT Champions Finals rewards listed

Here we go then. This is what it is all about. FUT Champions Finals rewards are the best competitive rewards available in the game, including those coveted “red picks”. Red picks are untradeable Team of the Week players with a special red card design, and for most of the FUT cycle the only way to obtain them is through FUT Champions Finals. Red picks are so called because you get a random choice of 3-5 red FUT Champions cards from the current TOTW. It is rare to get anything amazing, but that doesn’t stop people trying. Red pick players are always untradeable.

Here are the rewards for FUT Champions Finals. You get 4 points for a win and 1 point for a defeat (or by quitting out of a match). Ranking information is provided as well as the easiest way to reach that rank.

• Rank X - 4 points (4 defeats)
• 1 of 3 FUT Champions Players red pick
• 1x Rare Mixed Players Pack
• 500 Champions Qualification Points (to start your Rivals run again)
• Rank IX - 12 points (12 defeats)
• 1 of 3 FUT Champions Players red pick
• 2x Jumbo Premium Gold Pack
• 1x Prime Gold Players Pack
• 500 Champions Qualification Points
• 5,000 coins
• Rank VIII - 24 points (2 wins, 16 defeats)
• 2x 1 of 3 FUT Champions Players red picks
• 1x Mega Pack
• 1x Prime Gold Players Pack
• 2x Jumbo Premium Gold Pack
• 750 Champions Qualification Points
• 10,000 coins
• Rank VII - 36 points (6 wins, 12 defeats)
• 2x 1 of 4 FUT Champions Players red picks
• 1x Rare Players Pack
• 1x Jumbo Rare Players Pack
• 750 Champions Qualification Points
• 15,000 coins
• Rank VI - 45 points (9 wins, 9 defeats)
• 2x 1 of 4 FUT Champions Players red picks
• 1x Rare Players Pack
• 1x Jumbo Rare Players Pack
• 1x Premium TOTW Pack (contains 3x random tradeable TOTW players, can be opened with future TOTWs)
• 1,000 FUT Champions Qualification Points
• 25,000 coins
• Rank V - 51 points (11 wins, 7 defeats)
• 3x 1 of 5 FUT Champions Players red picks
• 1x Rare Players Pack
• 1x Ultimate Pack
• 1x Premium TOTW Pack
• 1,250 Champions Qualification Points
• 30,000 coins
• Rank IV - 60 points (14 wins, 4 defeats)
• 3x 1 of 5 FUT Champions Players red picks
• 1x Jumbo Rare Players Pack
• 1x Ultimate Pack
• 1x Premium TOTW Pack
• 1,250 Champions Qualification Points
• 50,000 coins
• Rank III - 67 points (16 wins, 3 defeats)
• 3x 1 of 5 FUT Champions Players red picks
• 2x Rare Players Pack
• 1x Ultimate Pack
• 2x Premium TOTW Pack
• 1,250 Champions Qualification Points
• 75,000 coins
• Rank II - 72 points (18 wins)
• 3x 1 of 5 FUT Champions Players red picks
• 2x Ultimate Pack
• 2x Premium TOTW Pack
• 1,250 Champions Qualification Points
• 100,000 coins
• Rank I - 76 points (19 wins)
• 3x 1 of 5 FUT Champions Players red picks
• 2x Ultimate Pack
• 1x Rare Players Pack
• 3x Premium TOTW Pack
• 1,250 Champions Qualification Points
• 100,000 coins

Based on our experience, nine wins (for Rank VI) is a pretty solid result for most players, equivalent to the old 'Gold 2' finish in earlier games in the series. Rank V is a nice spot to aim for to get that extra red pick, but given the quality of most people’s red rewards, it is not worth losing your mind over. Good luck!

If you’re just getting started in FIFA 23, check out our Ultimate Team best starter teams page. You can improve your team by trading and spending FUT Coins - some of which can be earned by completing Milestone Objectives. It’s also a good idea to learn how Squad Battles and Champions work in FIFA 23. We also have an OTW tracker and RTTK tracker. Chemistry has been completely changed in FIFA 23 too and don’t forget about the wide variety of Skill Moves, and make sure to claim your Ted Lasso and AFC Richmond rewards in FUT while you can! Finally, if you need help building the perfect team, we have pages on the best players overall, best Premier League players and fastest players. Along with FIFA 23’s best lengthy players, wonderkids, best strikers, best wingers, best midfielders and best defenders.

FIFA 23 FUT Champions tips

The FUT Champions Weekend League is notorious for driving FIFA players to distraction. Whenever you see a TikTok of someone throwing a controller at the wall or breaking their headset in fury, you can probably see a FUT Champions scoreboard somewhere onscreen.

It doesn’t have to be that way, though. Here are a mixture of gameplay and mentality tips to help get you to your best FUT Champions finish:

• Pay attention to your 'form' - FUT Champions is based on a 'form' system. It is invisible to the player in-game, but it determines how likely you are to play against a tough opponent. Winning games increases your form, and losing them reduces it. Form can swing quite a distance above or below zero depending on your fortunes. With that in mind, you shouldn’t panic if you lose a few games at the start, because the form system should then match you with weaker players to balance things out. Similarly, if you go on a winning run, be aware that your final games may be tough.
• Don’t quit out of matches - EA has never confirmed publicly whether 'rage quitting' (choosing 'Forfeit Match') affects form, but the common consensus is that it does not. That means that quitting out of a game against a tough opponent will not reduce your form, so the next opponent may be just as tough. You will also lose one of your 20 possible matches due to quitting. So if you’re getting pasted 5-0 by half time, it’s worth sticking around until the end to make sure your form is reduced. Besides, playing against tough opponents can be a good way to learn.

• Turn off opponent celebrations - With valuable rewards on the line, your mental state can become your own worst enemy in FUT Champions, and opponents will probably have more luck winding you up. One thing you can do to stop them getting in your head is to switch off opponent celebrations, meaning you won’t see whichever irritating routine they go into when they score. Instead the game will focus on your own players. Go to Settings in-game, then the Visual tab, and set 'Celebration Camera Focus' to 'User Controlled Team' if it isn’t already.
• Take breaks between matches - Pro players always say you should take a break after every few matches, and especially after a loss. It’s tough to keep up your concentration levels for longer than an hour or so, meaning you may be more prone to mistakes if you spam matches, and if you keep playing after losing to a perceived injustice, you will be in the wrong state of mind for the next match.
• Save Play-Offs until Thursday or Friday - It’s tempting to dive into FUT Champions Play-Offs as soon as you have the Qualification Points, but if you go in straight after Finals or early in the week then you will be matched against a smaller pool of players. Many players rely on the extra burst of Qualification Points from Division Rivals rewards on Thursday morning, so playing after that should ensure a wider range of skill levels in the player pool, helping you to avoid tough matchmaking.
• Don’t rush your FUT Champions Finals games - If you rush through your matches on Friday during the day, you will be playing a smaller pool of players (as it is a work/school day) who are the most hardcore about the game mode. If you start on Saturday or Sunday, however, you will be matchmade with a bigger audience with a wider skill range, meaning you will probably find it easier overall.

Hopefully that will help you get ahead in FUT Champions. GL HF!