Champions League & Europa League (RTTF) Systems

Champions League & Europa League Road to the Final Upgrade Systems

Seeing as the Champions League & the Europa League return this week, I thought I’d refresh everyone’s minds on how & when the Road to the Final Cards will upgrade over the coming weeks. In this article, I will mostly be covering the Champions League Round of 16 upgrade system, as well as the Europa League Round of 32 & Round of 16 upgrade system, taking into account all of the fixtures that’ll take place between February 18th & March 19th.

As the Europa League is only at the Round of 32 Stage, while the Champions League is at the Round of 16 Stage, both the Europa League Round of 32 & Round of 16 games will be played in the same time it takes all the Champions League Round of 16 games to be played, meaning that both competitions will be at the same stage (the Quarter Finals) when we move to the next round of fixtures in April.

Note: When I refer to “upgrades”, I mean the Cards will be given an upgrade equivalent to that of an inform upgrade, not just a +1 upgrade to the Card’s Overall Rating.
 

Champions League RTTF Upgrade System – Round of 16:

For the Round of 16, there’re two opportunities for Champions League Road to the Final Cards to be upgraded:

1. The player’s club wins the 1st Leg.
2. The player’s club progresses to the next round.

This means that there’re 4 possible upgrade scenarios:

Europa League RTTF Upgrade System – Round of 32 & Round of 16:

For both the Round of 32 & Round of 16, the only opportunity for upgrades comes if the player’s club progresses to the next round. There is no opportunity for upgrades for winning the 1st Leg of either round.

Key Dates & Fixtures

Champions League Round of 16:

The teams in the Champions League Round of 16 are split into 2 groups, with the 1st Group playing their games 1 week before the 2nd Group play their games.

Europa League Round of 32:

Except for the 2nd Leg between Braga & Rangers which is held a day earlier, all the Europe League Round of 32 fixtures are played on February 20th & February 27th.

Europa League Round of 16:

The Europa League Round of 16 draw will be held on February 28th, with the 1st Legs taking place on March 12th & the 2nd Legs taking place on March 19th.

When will the Road to the Final Cards be upgraded?

At this stage last year, the 1st batch of upgrades to the relevant Road to the Final Cards were applied in the early hours of the Saturday after the 1st Legs of the Champions League Round of 16 games & the 2nd Legs of the Europa League Round of 32 games, therefore we can expect the 1st batch of upgrades to the Road to the Final Cards to go live on early Saturday, February 29th.

The date for next batch of upgrades will presumably follow a similar pattern, so the 2nd batch of relevant upgrades will take place on the Saturday after all the Champions League & Europa League Round of 16 games are over, so we can expect them to go live on early Saturday, March 21st.

Future Upgrades:

Going forward into the Quarter Finals, upgrades are based solely on the player’s club progressing into the next round of the competition they’re playing in; there will be no upgrades based on a player’s club winning the 1st Leg of any future round. The final upgrade will come should the player’s club win the final of the competition they’re playing in.

For more information, here’s a link to EA Sports FIFA’s FAQ about the Road to the Final promotion:
 

https://www.ea.com/en-gb/games/fifa/fifa-20/ultimate-team/road-to-the-final