Opening up The Champions for the first time, you’ll be offered the pick of all 32 countries playing in the 2018 World Cup in Russia. This changes the colour of the symbols. Pick Spain for example and you’ll see red and blue symbols, opt for Germany and white and black dominate the reels.
Those reels are set against a background made up of a pitch and terraces. Joining the lower value A, K and Q are whistles, goalkeeper’s gloves, boots and a shirt. The top standard symbol is the ball which awards 20 times your stake if you land 5 on a line.
They’re joined by the trophy which is the game’s wild. It substitutes for everything apart from the bonus. Land 5 wilds on a line and you’ll receive 40 times your total stake. There are 2 features on offer on The Champions.
Momentum Progressive Game feature - there’s a target symbol that appears overlaid over 1 symbol. You can move this and position it wherever you choose. If a football symbol hits in the target, you’ll open up the feature. A multiplier increases a level and will be applied to all wins on the 10 free spins that follow.
Land another football in the target within those 10 free spins and the multiplier increases another level which will be active for another 10 free spins. You’ll keep receiving multipliers until there’s a run of 10 free spins where no football hits the target. The payouts then revert to their standard 1x:
- Level 2 = 2x
- Level 3 = 4x
- Level 4 = 6x
- Level 5 = 8x
- Level 6 = 10x
- Level 7 = 12x
- Level 8 = 14x
- Level 9 = 16x
- Level 10 = 18x
- Level 11 = 20x
Penalty Shots Bonus Game feature - land the bonus symbol on the middle 3 reels on the same spin and you’ll be awarded 5 penalty kicks. Choose 1 of the 4 corners to place your shot - if you score you win a prize. If the keeper saves it, you don’t. Prizes of 5, 10, 15, 25 or 100 times your total stake are on offer if you convert 1, 2, 3, 4 or all 5 kicks.
There’s nothing overly flashy about The Champions. The design is rather simple and the base game action can be as ordinary as a cagey group game. The game comes to life when the multipliers are in play though and can deliver some decent rewards. We landed the penalty shot bonus regularly but were more Chris Waddle then Andreas Brehme. The overall variance is in the medium range.
We’re still waiting for the ultimate football slot game - The Champions isn’t it but Pragmatic Play have made a pretty good attempt here. If you love your footie, Yggdrasil Gaming have had a pretty good go with the volatile Bicicleta (bicycle kick in Spanish).