📝 JULY 11 — THE FUTURE OF THE TROPHY ROAD! (FIRST LOOK AT THE NEW CHAMPIONS LEAGUE)
Hey Coaches!
Welcome back to our Dev Diary series! Here, you’ll get behind-the-scenes previews of what the Pocket Champs team is working on! 😎
I’m Madbox Elie, your Community Manager, and I’m joined today by Madbox Solal, Game Manager, to discuss the massive upgrades coming soon to the entire Trophy Road, starting with a fully redesigned Champions League!
💡 Keep in mind that everything presented below is work-in-progress. Plans and concepts may change.
🎁 Also, don’t miss our new 10,000 Gem Giveaway running until July 16! Details at the end!
All right then, time for Madbox Solal to answer a few questions! 👇
🏆 FIRST THINGS FIRST, WHY CHOOSE TO UPDATE THE TROPHY ROAD?
It’s very simple — player feedback!
Well, that and our own awareness of the current Trophy Road experience — at least to me it never looked quite finished, you know?
When I think about reaching the Champions League, I’m picturing not just a wonderful celebration of your journey as a Coach, but also a new beginning! Today, however, all it offers is a repetitive grind of the same Chest with no new objectives for you or your Champ. That’s no new beginning — only an awkward ending!
Pictured above: This will soon become a distant memory!
That’s why the team and I are so motivated to extend the Trophy Road experience based on what our players loved about it, and make the rest of the climb more exciting than previous Leagues, forever!
👀 FOREVER?
Yes, “forever” is important here! Nobody wants the Trophy Road to come to a halt ever again, so from now on Champion players can expect to always find rewarding milestones no matter how high they’ve climbed!
🤔 SO, ARE YOU ONLY IMPROVING THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE?
Not at all — our ambition is to massively improve progression through the entire Trophy Road, which means earlier Leagues too!
However, I want to make it clear that it won’t happen all at once! A huge project like this unavoidably needs to be divided into several smaller updates, all of which will go through various rejected concepts, proper balancing, extensive testing and polishing to guarantee a smooth and satisfying game upgrade.
Pictured above: Example of a stylish but impractical visual concept for the Trophy Road that was rejected. Perhaps to be explored again in the future?
Specifically, when I hear about players getting stuck on the same Race after 30 attempts, with no way of getting a Gadget that they really need, only to suddenly rush through the next few Races easily before being stuck again, it really puts into perspective how disjointed the sense of progression can be. By the time we’re finished revamping it all, the challenge offered by the Trophy Road should make more sense.
But today, I can only focus on the Champions League since we decided to begin from the top and slowly work our way down the Trophy Road with further updates. Keep in mind that what I’m sharing is just a starting point — the new Champions League will still have room to expand in the future!
🏅 SPEAKING OF WHICH, WHAT’S NEW FOR CHAMPIONS?
Two words: Island Cups!
In this new Champions League, your Champ is confident enough to explore more of the world of Pocket Champs, hopping from one Island to another as they compete in more challenging Island Races.
Pictured above: It also comes with a lovely new Splash Screen artwork representing various Race environments! 🥰
This part is a bit like the Master League’s Weekly Theme, but here your Island Theme only changes after you climb high enough to claim an Island Cup — each featuring themed Rewards and preferred Gadgets!
Pictured above: We're only revealing the Spooky Cup today, but 4 themes will be available at launch! Care to guess what they are?
I know what you’re thinking: “New themes? That doesn’t change much!”... What if I told you this comes packed with more than 150 new Race tracks spread across all these Island Themes? I’m well aware that top players got used to facing the exact same challenges, so we’re definitely increasing the variety here!
In fact, keen-eyed players will also notice that Island Races will have more types of special rules to spice things up, inspired by the various perks used in Gadget Ascent that we know our community enjoys.
Pictured above: Even defining the final visual look of an Island Cup takes quite a few attempts!
All in all, the Island Cups rotation is meant to be a much more logical evolution of the Master League, and one that we don’t want to keep away from players for too long. Which is why our new Champions League will begin at 50,000 Trophies instead of 100,000, complete with a revamp of the rewards you can get!
🎉 ARE YOU SAYING IT WON’T JUST BE BLUE CHESTS ANYMORE?
Yes, I’m happy to confirm that we’re changing that at last!
As you progress through Island Races, you’ll find Themed Chests (Sports, Spooky, etc.) on the way depending on your current theme. While these Chests have existed in the game for a while, players found them rather lackluster, so we’re updating them to guarantee Gadget rewards corresponding to their theme.
In fact, when Island Cups are released, Themed Chests will be 100% exclusive to the Champions League.
Pictured above: What you can expect the new Trophy Road to look like for Champions!
Regardless of your theme, though, simply making progress in the Champions League will regularly reward you with Legendary Chests as you complete more and more Island Cups! I very much want players to feel that they can count on the Trophy Road to complete their Gadget Collection, or to upgrade what they have, so this update is a first step towards helping you achieve more of that, and a lot faster than before!
📆 WHEN CAN WE LOOK FORWARD TO THIS?
It starts this Summer!
The new Champions League is almost ready, so we’re aiming for an early August release, but I’ll let Community Management confirm release plans in a separate announcement.
Remember, this is only the first of a series of updates for the Trophy Road. Once the new Champions League is released, we will be looking at your feedback to know what to adjust, all the while preparing our other improvements.
And with that, you’ve made it to the end of today’s Dev Diary! (Thanks for all the news, Madbox Solal!)
The entire Pocket Champs team and I really hope you enjoyed this look into the future — expect more news in the coming weeks! 👀
Before you go, definitely let us know below if you’d like more behind-the-scenes previews like this one, and don’t forget to participate in our Giveaway!
- Madbox Elie
🎁 NEW GIVEAWAY: WANT TO WIN 10,000 GEMS?
We'd love to hear what you think of our current plans — you could win 10,000 Gems for sharing your thoughts!
👉 On our Facebook page, or on our Discord #updates channel, find our Dev Diary post and simply leave a comment telling us your opinion, desires or concerns about today's Trophy Road reveals!
💎 10 winners will be randomly selected to win 10,000 Gems and announced on July 17.
- Published on July 11, 2025.
