FC 26 Players

Generally speaking, FC 26 only includes Ultimate Team and Career Mode, but each contains more specific events and gameplay, especially Ultimate Team, which covers a wider range.

It's worth noting that some specific events are periodic, held periodically in FUT 26, such as Team of the Week (TOTW) you're probably familiar with, or Ultimate Gauntlet we'll be discussing today.

Ultimate Gauntlet is a limited-time game mode that has been held approximately every two weeks since the launch of EA FC 26, with the latest being Ultimate Gauntlet 5. We'll introduce the gameplay and rewards for this round below.

Ultimate Gauntlet 5 Schedule

This event started at 6 PM on November 24th and will last for 7 days, ending on December 1st. If you want to predict the next round's date to prepare in advance, here are the dates and durations of the first four rounds of Ultimate Gauntlet:

• Ultimate Gauntlet 1: 29/09/2025 - 3 Days
• Ultimate Gauntlet 2: 13/10/2025 - 4 Days
• Ultimate Gauntlet 3: 27/10/2025 - 4 Days
• Ultimate Gauntlet 4: 10/11/2025 - 7 Days

As you can see, the duration of each round is not fixed, but considering that Ultimate Gauntlet 5 also lasted 7 days, the sixth round will probably follow this pattern.

Ultimate Gauntlet 5 Mechanics And Rewards

Ultimate Gauntlet 5 uses the same basic mechanics as the previous rounds. You need to use a completely different lineup in each round to participate or win the competition as required.

The difficulty of this event lies in the fact that once a player has been used in a match, including as a substitute, they cannot be used again. Therefore, even having several exceptionally excellent players is useless - the key is the richness of your club's roster.

Furthermore, the number of times you can participate in each round of Ultimate Gauntlet is limited. Once you've consumed all your attempts, even if the event hasn't ended, you can no longer participate.

The only positive aspect of this type of event is that even if you lose a match, you won't be eliminated and can continue completing the remaining challenges. However, the more matches you win, the richer the rewards.

If you are fortunate enough to achieve the "perfect round" achievement by winning all matches in a single challenge without a loss, you will unlock even greater rewards.

The challenge requirements and rewards for this round of Ultimate Gauntlet 5 are as follows:

• Play one game: You can earn 2x 81+ Players Pack
• Play two games: You can earn 3x 81+ Players Pack
• Play three games: You can earn 7x 80+ Players Pack
• Play 12 games: You can earn 1x 85-89 Rated Player Pack
• Score in three games: You can unlock DLP+ EVO
• Score in five games: You can earn 5,000 Coins
• Score in six games: You can earn 1x 85-87 Rated Player Pack
• Score in seven games: You can unlock the coveted Bruiser+ EVO
• Score in nine games: You can earn 10x 83+ Players Pack

If you complete all the above tasks, you can also unlock 86 Moments Lukas Podolski player card as the ultimate prize!

Best Strategy For Completing This Event

First and foremost, ensure you have enough players. To participate in all three rounds of matches and have a full bench, your club needs at least approximately 54 players.

If this isn't possible, it's best to buy FC 26 coins to exchange more players within the specified time through the trading market or in-game shop to avoid being unable to continue halfway through the game.

If you don't have enough coins, you can also try renting players. They don't require a permanent coin investment but are reliable and very suitable for Ultimate Gauntlet limited-time event.

It's important to maintain a high level of game engagement; completing daily SBCs and objectives will also earn you new player cards. While most of these cards cannot be traded, they are very beneficial for completing Ultimate Gauntlet.

Next, use tools or notes to divide these players into three teams to ensure you don't accidentally reuse players, preventing them from playing in later rounds.

Generally, when assembling teams, it's best not to field all your main players. Instead, distribute them evenly across each lineup to maintain team balance and ensure you're competitive with each round.

In addition, ensure your club has players capable of playing multiple positions to provide more options when filling roster gaps, allowing for more flexible and unrestricted team compositions.

If you want to achieve more than just basic objectives and reach for more challenging results, pay attention to player chemistry when building your team - higher chemistry values provide greater attribute bonuses.

Why Should You Play Ultimate Gauntlet 5?

As we've listed, even if you only participate in matches without scoring, you still have a chance to earn new card packs by completing two or three objectives.

Furthermore, the ultimate reward player, Lukas Podolski's 86 OVR Moments version card, boasts very high stats across the board and is well-suited for use in FC 26, where attacking players currently dominate.

Therefore, participating in Ultimate Gauntlet 5 can enrich your club's composition and potentially improve your team's strength, helping you better navigate later events and matches - don't miss out!

That concludes our introduction. If this has piqued your interest in Ultimate Gauntlet 5, start playing now following our guide!

Black Friday is FC 26's most important promotion of 2025, bringing some very powerful cards and SBCs. Since FC 26 controls the player strength growth curve, but more powerful player cards appear during very important promotions, Black Friday will be such a turning point.

While any FIFA event is prone to leaks, the leaks for such a large promotion seem particularly early. Although the full roster hasn't been leaked yet, some Icons and SBCs have already been revealed.

Thunderstruck Leak Cards

Thunderstruck Icons

First up are the leaked Icons and Hero cards, with stars like Diego Maradona, who once stood at the pinnacle of world football, appearing for the first time in EA FC 26. Below are some of the leaked cards, but note that this is not the complete Thunderstruck promotion roster.

96 OVR Diego Maradona CAM

• PAC: 91
• SHO: 92
• PAS: 92
• DRI: 97
• DEF: 55
• PHY: 70

93 OVR Paolo Maldini CB

• PAC: 86
• SHO: 56
• PAS: 79
• DRI: 72
• DEF: 96
• PHY: 86

93 OVR Franz Beckenbauer CDM

• PAC: 83
• SHO: 75
• PAS: 90
• DRI: 86
• DEF: 94
• PHY: 83

92 OVR Eusébio ST

• PAC: 92
• SHO: 93
• PAS: 85
• DRI: 93
• DEF: 49
• PHY: 77

90 OVR Gareth Bale RW

• PAC: 96
• SHO: 90
• PAS: 86
• DRI: 90
• DEF: 66
• PHY: 80

89 OVR Franck Ribéry LW

• PAC: 90
• SHO: 86
• PAS: 86
• DRI: 92
• DEF: 38
• PHY: 89

The new Icons cards are incredibly powerful; some will easily reach over 1 million coins after release. Cards like Gareth Bale will be even more powerful and useful than Mbappé, which is why the value of powerful cards is already starting to decline.

Standard Thunderstruck Players

Besides Hero and Icons cards, some regular Thunderstruck cards have been leaked; this is not a complete list of players.

93 OVR Alexia Putellas CM

• PAC: 84
• SHO: 91
• PAS: 92
• DRI: 93
• DEF: 87
• PHY: 84

92 OVR Jude Bellingham CAM

• PAC: 82
• SHO: 88
• PAS: 86
• DRI: 93
• DEF: 63
• PHY: 87

91 OVR Rodri CDM

• PAC: 75
• SHO: 82
• PAS: 87
• DRI: 85
• DEF: 87
• PHY: 86

89 OVR Jamal Musiala CAM

• PAC: 84
• SHO: 85
• PAS: 85
• DRI: 92
• DEF: 69
• PHY: 72

88 OVR Aubameyang ST

• PAC: 89
• SHO: 89
• PAS: 80
• DRI: 86
• DEF: 44
• PHY: 74

87 OVR Sarriegi ST

• PAC: 94
• SHO: 84
• PAS: 81
• DRI: 90
• DEF: 53
• PHY: 87

85 OVR Pedro Neto RM

• PAC: 94
• SHO: 82
• PAS: 82
• DRI: 86
• DEF: 45
• PHY: 75

Most of the leaked cards are quite impressive. Rodri's speed is relatively low, but if the developers could provide an evolution that reverses this speed, it could become an excellent card. Alexia Putellas is like an upgraded version of Pina, and its performance in the game could be incredibly powerful.

SBCs

The developers often use SBCs and evolutions to drain your coins before Black Friday. Let's see if these SBCs are worth completing. 1 of 2 Base Hero Player Pick can be repeated three times. Completing it at this stage with valuable fodder cards is not cost-effective, and it's recommended to wait until Black Friday.

Base Icon Matchday Player Pick allows you to choose one of three icons: Cannavaro, Drogba, or Raúl. It requires a significant number of coins. It lasts for a week, but if you particularly need a specific player, you can choose to buy FC 26 coins or earn some coins by flipping cards in Black Friday and complete SBC afterward.

Max. 89 Base Icon Upgrade is a gamble with the icon pack SBC, although the count has been refreshed. It's still recommended to skip it, as better icon SBCs may be available during Black Friday.

Leaked SBCs

According to leaks, Hero Player Pick SBC will include Di Natale and Eden Hazard, two Hero cards that were once worth close to a million coins. Eden Hazard is very strong as a left midfielder or left winger; if an SBC can reliably give you this card, it's quite worth the investment.

Daily Upgrades and x10 Upgrades are expected to return to high-value upgrade SBCs similar to last year's 82x10 or 83x10, allowing players to acquire a large number of Sacrifice cards.

Evolutions

How Many Tricks Left Evolution is a free silver player evolution that provides huge attribute, trick, weak foot, and PlayStyles bonuses.

The value of some popular 84-85 OVR players is rising as players anticipate higher-level evolutions during Black Friday, allowing these high-rated cards to participate.

Although Black Friday hasn't officially arrived yet, the market crash has already begun. Thunderstruck Icons will be among the first promotional Icons of the year, and Debut Icons given with pre-orders of FC 26 Ultimate Edition will be upgraded to Champion Icons on November 27th and officially added to card packs for all players to draw on Black Friday. This means that there will be two icon teams in card packs this Friday.

We recommend that you save your card packs and fodder cards, exercise caution when participating in current gambling SBCs, and closely monitor market dynamics and subsequent leaks to prepare for the massive content impact of Black Friday.