Virtual Bundesliga Moves Its Open Championship Into FC 27’s PEGI 16 Ultimate

The Bundesliga is moving the open qualifier for its German eFootball singles championship into the Ultimate Team mode of EA Sports FC 27, according to an Oct. 5 release from the Bundesliga Group, placing the league’s open entry route inside the card-pack system that earned the game a PEGI 16 rating.

The competition, renamed the VBL Player Championship by WOW, starts on Oct. 28 and replaces VBL Open. The league’s own website described VBL Open in 2025-26 as “a free in-game mode in EA SPORTS FC 26” in which “all players and teams have the same overall rating (95-rated mode).” In the new mode, players compete with their own Ultimate Team built from Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga players while representing one of the 36 clubs.

The qualifying format changes too. Instead of what the league calls “the previous model with up to 60 games per month,” the Player Championship page lists four ladders of about a week each, running from Oct. 28 to Nov. 3, Nov. 25 to Dec. 1 and Jan. 27 to Feb. 2, with the last ending on March 2. The top 15 players in each ladder advance to playoffs on April 3-4, according to the league’s season graphic.

The final on April 16-17, 2027, at XPERION Hamburg has 16 places, according to the league. Eight go to players from the VBL Club Championship and eight are decided in the Player Championship playoffs. The prize pool is €100,000 EUR ($112,250 USD), the same as last season, when the champion received €40,000 ($44,900) from that fund. Both finalists qualify for the FC Pro World Championship.

The switch puts the league’s open competition into the part of the game that rating bodies and regulators have focused on.

PEGI rates EA Sports FC 27 at 16 with the descriptor “Paid random items,” stating on its rating page that the game “received a PEGI 16 because it features the ability to purchase loot boxes.” Its predecessor, EA Sports FC 26, is rated PEGI 3, although its PEGI entry carries the same “Paid random items” descriptor. PEGI began rating newly submitted games under criteria covering paid random items in June, and said on Oct. 6 that it is now moving a selection of digital-only games with paid random items that are rated PEGI 3, 7 or 12 up to PEGI 16.

The binding rating in Germany is different. The USK rates EA Sports FC 27 suitable from 12, with notices for increased purchase incentives and pressure to keep playing, and lists in-game purchases with random items.

German law does not treat the packs as gambling, and EA sells FC Points everywhere except Belgium and South Korea, according to its own disclaimers. In December 2025, Austria’s Supreme Court rejected a player’s claim that Ultimate Team packs were illegal gambling, ruling that the mode must be judged as a whole. Pressure is building in Germany, though: in November 2025, the Bundesrat asked the federal government to examine rules for loot boxes, including mandatory age verification from 18.

Valve has gone further in Germany with Counter-Strike 2. Since March, players there and in the Netherlands can open its cases only after seeing what is inside, according to the game’s patch notes. EA has made no comparable change to Ultimate Team.

In written answers to The Esports Advocate, Felix Rentschler, Head of Virtual Bundesliga at the Bundesliga, said: “The minimum age for taking part in the VBL Player Championship is 16.” He added: “We have therefore set a clear age limit, which also takes into account the international PEGI rating for EA SPORTS FC 27.” Players under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian at offline events, he said.

The age limit is not new. VBL Open already required players to be at least 16 and resident in Germany, PC Games reported. Rentschler said the new competition is open to players aged 16 and over who are ordinarily resident in Germany, as well as international players contracted to a Bundesliga or 2. Bundesliga club who play their matches from Germany.

Rentschler said the mode “will generally use Bundesliga player items from EA SPORTS FC 27 Ultimate Team” and that “there will be squad restrictions defined by the Bundesliga, which are based on the squad regulations of the VBL Club Championship.” The restrictions are meant to ensure “that comparable sporting conditions are created for all participants” and will be built into the game, he said. He did not say whether players may use cards drawn from packs or bought with FC Points, or what the restrictions limit. In the Club Championship, each club may nominate two players from its real squad as “VBL Power Items” rated 99, according to the Bundesliga’s season preview for 2025-26. The Player Championship page says details of the format “will be published here in due time before the start.”

Rentschler said the move to Ultimate Team follows “the actual playing behaviour of the EA SPORTS FC community.” “Instead of having to use a separate competition mode, players will in future be able to take part in the VBL directly within their familiar gaming environment,” he said. Monica Dinsmore, Head of Esports at EA, said in the release that the redesign is meant to ensure “that competitors at every level have a clear and fair path to prove themselves.”

Not everyone sees it that way. Tobias Meyer, head of editorial at PC Games, wrote in an Oct. 5 column that Ultimate Team is “the absolute opposite of a fair competition” and that players with little time or money will not be able to build top teams, in TEA’s translation.

The league did not disclose how many players took part in VBL Open. Rentschler said it has set participation targets for the new mode based on previous years, “however, we do not disclose the specific target figures publicly.”

Loot boxes have drawn legal action elsewhere, including a Brazilian court order against Riot Games and a lawsuit by New York’s attorney general against Valve, as previously reported by The Esports Advocate.

Still unknown are whether cards from paid packs will be allowed, what the squad restrictions will limit, whether entry is free, which platforms are eligible, and how many players entered VBL Open in recent seasons.

The Bundesliga has made its championship easier to enter for players already in Ultimate Team. The open question is whether a national title decided in a mode built around paid card packs will still be seen as the fairest route to the Bundesliga’s eFootball stage.