Published: 08.06.2020, 13:44
6 min read
Earlier in the year, UEFA announced that the quadrennial European Football Championship had been postponed until the summer of 2021 because of the current global pandemic. The competition, which attracts over 3 million fans, was due to be played between June and July, following a riveting tournament back in 2016 where the Portuguese squad was the team to beat.
With a big competition like this around the corner, slot providers around the globe will always create a slot aimed at leveraging the fever that comes with the season. One such slot is the brand new 11 Champions from Microgaming & Gameburger Studios, which we will be reviewing today.
Play 11 Champions for free- PC & Mobile
Time to lift the coveted Henri Delaunay trophy! Play 11 Champions for real money here or enjoy a free demo below:
Slot Features
- RTP: 95.93%
- High Volatility
- 20 Paylines
- Bet Range: €2-50
- Max Win on the Base Game: 2200X
- Max Possible Win: 5000X
- Action Reel™
- Re-spin Featuring the Blazing Wild Streak
- Bonus Symbols
- Jackpot Bonus Game- At least one jackpot prize is guaranteed!
- Devices: Desktop, Tablet, Smartphone
Rules
If you are one of those people who enjoy playing video games that take after real-life football, the 11 Champions’ experience will remind you of FIFA or the lesser popular PES. The slot loads up to a preview as is tradition, and once you click the continue button, a match commentator welcomes you to the game as a collection of player kits pop up so that you can select the one you prefer.
Seeing the selection of kits, we thought to ourselves- “does this mean that different teams will go against each other or is this just a pointless addition that will only give us the option of selecting what color this player will be wearing when he shows up on the grid?” Well, sadly it was the latter; after selecting the red kit that reminded us of the unrelenting Portuguese side, we were taken back to the typical 5X3 grid and there he was at the bottom of the 3rd reel with a ball underneath his right foot. With the fairly translucent grid allowing a good view of the backdrop that placed us right in front of goal, it appeared as if he was devising a plan to get on the score sheet. And as eager as we were to see whether that would happen, we had to take care of the pre-spinning essentials first.
Bets are selected by clicking the + and – bet selectors on the controls tab until you get the ideal bet. As usual, it is important to make sure that you place something substantial, more so because of the jackpot (discussed later), which just like the base game wins, is a multiple of what of you put on the line. Believe us, the last thing you want is to trigger the jackpot game with less than a dollar in play. Anyway, betting options go as low as €0.20 or as high as €50.
After getting the bet selections out of our way, we decided it was time to get the reels spinning so that we could see what this promising-looking slot had in store for us. For that, we chose the auto-spins setting over the huge spin button because we just wanted to sit back and watch the action unfold- just like spectating a live football match!
Positioning the Player in Front of Goal using the Action Reel™
50 spins into the game, and we had already dubbed the 11 Champions Slot the most realistic soccer experience in the slotsverse to date. Why? Well, whenever we took a spin, a horizontal tracker positioned at the top of the grid would spin in sync with the reels and stop on markers that would determine the movements of the player who if you recall, was initially positioned at the bottom of the grid.
With the Dribble Marker causing him to move to a random adjacent position, the Pass Marker causing him to move to a non-adjacent position, and the Blank Marker not affecting his movement at all, it looked like he was looking for the ideal position to take the shot, which he actually did when we finally landed the final marker, Shoot. Just point out a slot in the same genre that can match this level of innovation!
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When it comes to the symbols, you would expect most of them to be related to soccer as is typical of slots tackling this genre, but that’s not the case here. The collection of symbols start with 5 blackjack icons whose colors blend in well with the rest of the game. Premiums, on the other hand, are 4 football-related items, including a pair of boots, gloves, a no.7 jersey, and a bronze medal. You will trigger a payout whenever 3 or more of-a-kind line up adjacently from the leftmost reel onwards.
Rounding off the paytable is the wild symbol, which takes the shape of a soccer ball. It can substitute for any regular symbol to complete a winning combination.
Keep your eye on the Ball!
As for the rewards, the premiums range in value from about 1-8X your bet, but it’s the wild ball you want. On top of its substituting powers, a pentad of balls is worth 10 times your bet.
Score the Goal and Take the Lead!
The player leaves a trail on every grid space he has been on. As already hinted, he will take the shot when the Shoot Marker lands and score right before you are awarded a re-spin on the house. NB: A symbol that lands on a marked space will trigger the same payout it would trigger when on an unmarked space- as clearly illustrated on the paytable.
During the re-spin, every grid space the player has been on turns wild to complete every possible winning combination, leading to a flurry of payouts, all of which are subjected to an X2 booster multiplier. If the player had navigated all the 15 grid spaces, a sporty reward of 2200 times your bet will be triggered!
All the marked spots disappear after the re-spin has played out, meaning that the player has to start roaming the grid from scratch or at the bottom of the third reel, to be more precise.
The Cup Comes with Huge Cash Outs, As Usual!
Just like in the Euros, the quest for the Henri Delaunay Trophy surpasses everything else here. Its symbol can appear on reels 2, 3, & 4, and whenever you manage to land 3 at the same time, you gain entry into the Jackpot Bonus Feature, where at least one jackpot prize is guaranteed. The highest jackpot prize is a whopping 5000 times your bet, and all you can do is hope that the cards you hit on the pick-and-click game will feed the correlating meter instead of the others that pay 200, 40, and 15 times your stake respectively.
Final Word
In conclusion, 11 Champions is all about chasing the premier jackpot prize, little else. Still, you could land an epic 2200 times your bet if you manage to land a full grid of wilds in the base game. Take this and combine it with the slot’s innovativeness, 11 Champions easily earns the trophy for being the best slot in its genre!
