The Champions Slots
The Champions is a 5-reel games based on the World Cup. This is far from the first online slot based on soccer (football). But you'll find that The Champions slots does have a few unique differences from similar games. That said, let's look at what this slot offers in terms of atmosphere, graphics, special features, and return to player (RTP).
Graphics and Atmosphere
The Champions opens with a screen that allows you to choose your World Cup team. 32 countries are listed, which gives you quite a variety. The team that you pick determines the colors of each symbols. If you pick Sweden, for example, the symbols will feature a lot of light blue and yellow. The background consists of a soccer field and roaring crowd. The lights are also dimmed, which enhances the game-time feel. All of the symbols perfectly reflect the game. Icons include a soccer ball, goalkeeper, goalie gloves, referee's whistle, soccer cleats, A, K, Q, bonus, and a gold trophy. The trophy is wild and substitutes for everything except the bonus symbol.
Format and Betting
The Champions is a 5-reel, 25-payline slot. Betting options include the ability to change the coin size from $0.01 to $0.50, and coins per line from 1-10. Other options include turbo spin (faster spins), the ability to turn sound on/off, and autoplay. The latter lets you keep the reels spinning with your selected betting options for 10-100 rounds. You can also set specific points when autoplay will stop, including stopping after a certain number of spins or wins.
The Champions Slots Special Features - Score in the Penalty Round
This game has plenty of good aspects. But we're most excited about the special features, including a penalty shootout and scoring goals on the reels. The penalty round is triggered whenever you land three or more bonus icons on the reels. This takes you to a screen where a goalie is guarding the net, just like in a regular penalty shootout. The net features targets in each corner of the goal. Your job is to pick targets and kick the ball past the goalie. You earn a bonus prize every time you net a goal. Five shots are awarded in the penalty round. You win 5x your total bet for one goal, 10x for two scores, 15x for three, 25x for four, and 100x for five. Moving to the goal scoring feature, this begins with you targeting one of the reel spaces in the 5x3 grid. The hope is that a soccer ball lands on the target, which essentially counts as a goal. Every goal you net offers a multiplier, which lasts for 10 spins. Multipliers range from 2x to 20x and increase on every subsequent goal. The amount of spins that you have the multiplier for are also reset to 10 following each goal. So if you reach the 20x multiplier, for example, you'd have an additional 10 spins with this multiplier in place.
The Champions Slots RTP & Volatility
This slot features 96.5% RTP, which is above average for the industry. We're not surprised by the high payback when considering that Pragmatic Play produces a lot of slots with good RTP. The help screen shows that this game offers a 2.5 out of 5 volatility rating, which is right in the middle.
The Champions Slots Takes the Trophy
The Champions has just about everything you could ever ask for from a sports-themed slot. It allows you to choose different World Cup teams, play a penalty shootout bonus, and score goals (multipliers) on the reels. We've reviewed plenty of soccer-themed games over the years. But none are as in-depth as The Champions slots in terms of the atmosphere and special features. This being said, we highly recommend that you check out this game. Also note that you can play The Champions on a smartphone, tablet, PC, or Mac.