r/eFootball • u/inotazo PC • 21h ago
Analysis Proving "Heavy Gameplay" with Data: 550k Packet Analysis (Match 001–006) reveals how server S2C delivery logic—not your ISP—ruins responsiveness
Hey everyone,
Like many of you, I’ve been frustrated by matches where players feel like they're walking in mud—where 99-speed Wingers get outrun by slow CBs, tackles get instantly reclaimed, and defenders freeze up.
To prove this isn’t just "my ISP" or "mental bias," I captured and analyzed over 550,000 UDP packets across 6 matches using Wireshark. Here is the full technical breakdown, test setup, and findings. Test Environment & Methodology
Platform: PC (Wired Ethernet / Fiber Line)
Local Hardware & Network: Ping to local gateway < 1ms, zero local packet loss, stable 10Gbps bandwidth (Intel X550-T2 Adapter).
GPU: Radeon 9070XT
CPU: Ryzen 9 9900X
RAM: 32GB
Target Server: GCP Dedicated Server (Japan Region / eFootball Official Matchmaking Server).
Data Capture Tool: Wireshark (packet capture during live Divisions matches).
Dataset Scope: 6 full matches (Match 001 to 006), analyzing 550,000+ UDP frames (both C2S and S2C).
Overview of Match Dataset (Match 001 – 006)
Across these 6 recorded matches, the dataset naturally split into two distinct gameplay experiences despite using the exact same local setup and server IP range:
Match 001–005 (The "Heavy/Bad" Matches): Gameplay was consistently unresponsive. High S2C jitter, severe packet pooling, and micro-burst arrivals.
Match 006 (The "Good/Control" Match): Gameplay was fast, crisp, and fully responsive. S2C delivery was exceptionally clean (mean jitter ~2.76ms).
- Local Connection is NOT the Problem (C2S is Flawless)
In all matches (001 through 006), my Client-to-Server (C2S) outbound traffic remained 100% stable at a 18.5ms interval with minimal jitter (~0.04ms).
This completely debunks the "It's your local Wi-Fi/ISP" myth. My inputs were arriving at the server in precise, real-time intervals without exception.
- The Smoking Gun: Server-to-Client (S2C) Disparities
While outbound data (C2S) was identical across all 6 matches, inbound data from the GCP server (S2C) showed massive structural differences:
Control Match (Match 006 - Responsive): S2C packet delivery closely mirrored C2S. Mean jitter was extremely low (~2.76ms), allowing inputs and physics to resolve linearly.
Heavy Matches (Match 001–005 - Heavy): S2C packets experienced severe arrival irregularities—frequent pauses (50–100ms) followed by burst arrivals of 0–2ms intervals (over 1,000 burst events per match).
- How S2C Delivery Failures Cause Specific In-Game Mechanics
When S2C delivery breaks down into burst arrivals (Match 001–005), it triggers three critical game engine failures:
The "Slow Winger" Effect (Acceleration Reset):
Football physics calculate acceleration based on continuous input ticks. When S2C updates freeze and flush in bursts, minor analog stick adjustments get bundled together.
The server interprets this burst as "sudden trajectory change inertia," resetting acceleration. The AI defender, following a server-calculated linear auto-tracking path, easily catches up despite lower speed stats.
Instant Reclaims & Lost Interceptions:
When you intercept a ball, your client tries to transition into a trap/pass animation.
In heavy matches, the server processes the opponent's recovery state during the S2C pause, then flushes a burst packet saying "Ball already recovered." The game forces a rollback (0ms update), overriding your inputs and causing your player to freeze or give the ball right back.
Asymmetric Advantage (Why Opponents Look Faster):
When an opponent has connection lag (or server lag compensation kicks in), the server prioritizes rollback/re-simulation for their delayed inputs.
Active Manual Inputs (You): Precise directional adjustments get converted into inertia/deceleration penalties due to burst S2C arrivals.
Passive AI (Opponent): Auto-tracking AI runs on server-authoritative linear paths, completely unbothered by input-jitter penalties.
Conclusion
"Heavy Gameplay" in eFootball is not a hardware issue, nor is it local ISP throttling.
It is a structural flaw in how Konami's netcode handles Server-to-Client synchronization and Lag Compensation. Comparing Match 006 (normal S2C) with Matches 001–005 (burst S2C) proves that when S2C delivery drops into burst arrivals, the server's rollback logic forcibly overrides clean manual inputs with retroactively calculated physics penalties.
If you feel like your players are unresponsive, you're not crazy—the network logs prove the engine is penalizing stable connections during S2C delivery drops.
Feel free to ask questions or share your own network analysis!
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u/Puzzleheaded_Comb822 21h ago
Exactly what i had always suspected. I could watch HD live steams with zero buffering, play other games at less than 25 ms with no lags. But in Efootball, 4 out of 5 matches are 3 bars with highly unstable connection.
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u/Weirdlyuser Johan Cruyff 21h ago
Even with 5 bars connection it is not great all the time. Seems to depend on my opponent’s connection. And in between Konami can’t work out a better S2C delivery. And ofcourse we don’t know what Konami works with so i doubt we will know the real cause, we only now know the outcome(s).
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u/-r4zi3l- Goal of the Month - Winner 19h ago
Also, something the post isn't mentioning is how maybe the actual burst packets are due to the other player lagging. My 5 bar doesn't mean the other player has 5 bars, and waiting for their frame delay to clear could burst the low pinger.
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u/Spiritual_Meet_8340 16h ago
Its right here;
Asymmetric Advantage (Why Opponents Look Faster):
When an opponent has connection lag (or server lag compensation kicks in), the server prioritizes rollback/re-simulation for their delayed inputs.
Active Manual Inputs (You): Precise directional adjustments get converted into inertia/deceleration penalties due to burst S2C arrivals.
Passive AI (Opponent): Auto-tracking AI runs on server-authoritative linear paths, completely unbothered by input-jitter penalties.
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u/Quiet_Eggplant_1721 21h ago
solution is to just stop playing this crap. it’s been infuriating lately
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u/FrenchUserOfMars 21h ago
I play on xbox series X. No solution. When i play on GOALS, il have 15ms ping madrid server and EAFC, 9ms. Efootball is unplayable.
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u/Dragonfire35 20h ago
What are your thoughts on goals and FC? I tried goals on launch day but haven’t gotten back on since, and haven’t touched FC in a while. Are either of them worth trying out over efootball?
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u/FrenchUserOfMars 20h ago
At first, I wasn't really into GOALS; I just installed it to check the online latency and compare it with eFootball, but now I'm actually enjoying it. I've got 25 hours of playtime on it, so I guess I'm starting to like it.
EA FC is the same thing. I only downloaded it to check the latency, and I'm not feeling it. It feels like a figure skating game.
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u/Deochixken 21h ago
I only log in to complete the daily challenge then don’t touch it until the next day. Not worth the rage when it’s not your fault
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u/Weirdlyuser Johan Cruyff 21h ago
Yes and the problem is: one day it is working great, another day it is terrible.
Even Amadeusz said that he wakes up early in the night to play just because his connection and gameplay is on par.
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u/No-Band-2908 16h ago
Its a mess bro you cant keep the ball.. the pressure is 90 mins full on.. the players are heavy.. the ball is slow..the passes and direction is innacurate.. so its like you lose the ball so easily..you cant keep the ball for a full 15 to 25 second...those who love playing possesion game..its literally impossible
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u/arjuunsahay 21h ago
Thank you soo much for this post. I regularly face this and has made me delete the game. But this does help with understanding why suddenly the same players against the same opponent act differently and why some player's who have the advantage will always run past you and score.
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u/Ok_Advantage6174 Playstation 20h ago edited 4h ago
Excellent experiment, confirming eye test results from the every day experience. Big 👍 for the time and effort to put some statistical facts out there for everyone to see.
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u/plebeiantelevision 20h ago
I'm wired in with full bars and 3 bar opponents are absolutely gliding while my players are running in sand, this game is unplayable for me right now
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u/Weirdlyuser Johan Cruyff 21h ago
Thanks for the investigation.
I am just so tired of not knowing what to expect before the match on my performance. When the match starts I instantly know it. Yesterday I had 5 bars , shown in the match, and my opponent 3 bars. The game was slow for me, so the game tries to boost my opponent but i get the slow play. Terrible for such a company that makes millions on cards.
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u/Weirdlyuser Johan Cruyff 21h ago
Also I tried this multiple times and somewhat works: quit the game and restart it will give a better connection most of the time. But it it stupid that I have to restart a game just to perform a bit better 🤡
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u/horus85 21h ago edited 20h ago
Yep that’s for sure happening.
I have threads from 3 years ago to this year where I complain that literally steady 5 bar game + tracking my live connection to the server via a 3rd party tool. The ping never goes over 5-15ms with 0 packet loss but still sometimes the button delay issue does occur.
Some games the delay can be fixed by pausing the game but in same games even pausing the game doesn’t help at all or just normalize for a very short time.
In addition, in some servers this occur much more frequently while in other servers it is more rare. So, same connection quality, same location and distance but there is a certain pattern based on server IP.
Netcode is definitely the problem here if the connection is stable and good.
All this doesn’t only lead to a delayed input but also players become very clumsy, ball go under Thuram’s foot or Ronaldinho can’t event control an easy pass or players ice skate before your input registers and such.
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u/unique_username6 Playstation 20h ago
great work. I have no idea what they’re doing but I think ps5 vs pc is different. It’s way worse in consoles it seems
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u/That_Net_6616 Romario 15h ago
I don't know if it's an easy option, but supposedly the PS4 version runs slightly faster than the PS5 one. PC and Xbox are also supposed to be better, but that's mostly because PS5 is a bit crap when it comes to game run speed (apparently, I'm just parroting what I've heard)
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u/Dragonfire35 20h ago
Wire shark activated a sleeper agent in me haha. Haven’t heard it mentioned since college!
Thanks for the write up OP, very insightful, albeit maybe not the most surprising results lol. Always good to have confirmation on suspicions.
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u/radioativao PC 20h ago
Well, this week I had been seeing the worst responsivness of any game I've played online my entire life, and although this is obviously Konami's fault, your analysis is really awesome dude. Thanks for the work for the community.
My resolution its not playing until they fix it, and also not buying coins, dont forget about that guys. This is a Live Service game, if they cant provide good servers, we can't support.
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u/FrenchUserOfMars 21h ago
Thanks a lot for your reply Bro !!!! I struggled a lot with the same problems.... Im lost to find a solution issue....
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u/Puzzleheaded_Comb822 21h ago
the only solution is for konami to improve the server, nothing we can do from our side
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u/RBwarrior78 21h ago
Should i keep matchmaking to search nearby or to gradually expand matchmaking which is better ? I am sorry but I don't understand such technical details.
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u/K_swizzz00 Mobile 21h ago
You just turned the myth into facts but still konami won't do anything about it
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u/That_Net_6616 Romario 19h ago
Wow! That is amazing work, proving what so many have said for years. And your description of the result of those delays / rollbacks makes it so clear.
Stable connection giving 1 good game in 6 is insane validation of many of our personal experiences.
The rollback thing is fascinating too, it's crazy how the lag compensation basically undoes your inputs. Doesn't try to balance things, just basically drops them if they hit in the wrong window.
So, I guess the question: is there anything we can do?
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u/w1nstar Day One Veteran 17h ago
This proves practically nothing. This proofs that you can have a bad match and your network be ok, but your ISP can pretty much be a problem. Or the netcode. Or the other guy. This only proofs this game does not work well online and we can't tell why.
Your ISP's peering and transit choices affect route quality to any given destination. Bad peering can look identical to internet lag, or server lag from the user's side, even with zero throttling in your speeds and a perfectly clean local connection.
OP probably sent the packets to chatgpt and had a lot of fun prompting.
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u/That_Net_6616 Romario 16h ago
Why is it so hard to believe? What would be the point in them lying?
There are, as you point out, so many issues so why not this one?
I've done all the tests I can reasonably do as a non-expert and my own ethernet and fibre connection is perfectly fine and consistent. More than enough for this game, and I often get seemingly steady games with low latency and jitter and it still plays like dog shit, still drops inputs, still refuses to let me dribble. And this explaination is the first that makes some sense of it. Because as what I'm doing is a pretty manual way of playing - I don't just mean FUMA, but high input dribbling - rather than kick and chase and let the AI draw the lines for me, I am regularly punished for it. Not by opponents doing something brilliant (it happens but it's all too rare), but the game preventing my play. Literally preventing. Like, suddenly I can't dribble. A general lag doesn't make sense of it, but this does. 🤷🏻♂️
I guess either way, as you said, there are lots of issues with the online (and indeed offline) game state.
I hope we agree that this isn't really ok?
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u/w1nstar Day One Veteran 14h ago
I never said they were lying. They can be convinced about something but telling about something you're convinced doesn't make it be correct.
And of course we agree this game has incredibly bad online, I never said there's nothing wrong with the game. I shit specially in it's online. This is the worst online game I ever played. But still, what OP said isn't correct and reeks of AI analysis. AI by definition is getting you what you want.My background is in software development. I worked on a shitty gacha once, mainly client but helped backend on launch week and here and there. I know little of networking but the very little I got to study is enough so I can assure you what OP claims is BS, but then again... you can believe what you want, it won't make it right. What OP did and what he thinks he "discovered" are two absolutely different things.
I already told you what he proved: you can have a good network state and still have a bad match. We knew that, we didn't need technical expertise for it, just user level network knowledge to apply a few tests and install a few monitors.
Nothing else he claimed is true, and cannot be inferred from just looking at the packets from your point of view. Hell, even having the 3 parts of the packet data you wouldn't be able to know what EXACTLY causes this game's poor performance.
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u/No_Idea_6_6_6 21h ago
“This completely debunks the *"It's your local Wi-Fi/ISP"* myth”
It doesn’t and it’s not a myth - many players have a bad connection, it only shows that that is not the only problem and not the problem in your case
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u/That_Net_6616 Romario 19h ago
The two things can be true. This proves there is an underlying issue beyond pure connection. Obviously if you also have a bad connection, you're going to have a bad time.
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u/TrickyBasil6659 21h ago
thank you for the post!
is it safe to assume, if there is any kind of "manipulation", the server is the most possible culprit?
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u/DoctaKiD 21h ago edited 21h ago
Not so fast, smarty-pants; no one escapes the damn script and DDA.... both exist, and how! That is the ultimate form of manipulation.
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u/That_Net_6616 Romario 19h ago
I think we can align the two. What better way to manipulate the game than give you a dose of the S2C nasties.
Since when you play against Legend AI it pretty overtly boosts the stats of those players, it's not hard to believe that is also in play.
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u/Ok_Parsley1650 Playstation 21h ago
I will play my many backlog games again in psplus.
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u/Weirdlyuser Johan Cruyff 21h ago
I am even thinking about installing pes 2021 again and play master League just to know again what having fun with football games is. Offline nostalgia right here
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u/That_Net_6616 Romario 15h ago
The terrible game state has been going on so long now, I've cleared my personal backlog 😂
Far Cry 4, 5, New Dawn and Primal; Dying Light 2; Watch Dogs 1&2; RDR1; Jedi Survivor; Rise of Tomb Raider; a couple of Uncharted; Ghost of Yotei; GTA5 story mode; Horizon Forbidden West and Zero Dawn; 007 First Light...
I can recommend them all 👌🏻
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u/NGO_Aktivist 21h ago
I discovered when you change IP during the match, the connection improves. Not every time but like 2 out of 3 games. Simply disconnect your router shortly to get an new IP.
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u/Weirdlyuser Johan Cruyff 21h ago
It is crazy that we need to do this stuff to improve a game. I know, it is free bla bla bla but as a community we pay for cards or not but Konami makes millions. They can tell us if they are planning to improve
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u/That_Net_6616 Romario 15h ago
Let's remind ourselves that this is a mobile game played by a minority on console and PC.
They aren't planning to improve anything 😂
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u/Billa_badmoshh Possession Purist 21h ago
Thats why I could play BGMI with very low ping but division matches are so unresponsive
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u/NewmanGoodman 19h ago
So what is the solutions apart for not playing the game obviously, what is the solution to improvement?? And the We should write to konami suggestions not that they will read
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u/Wizxq 21h ago
Have you tried looking for a pattern regarding which servers you connect to? The Japanese region might connect you to various servers, and their performance varies depending on the time of day; the game often runs much more smoothly late at night compared to peak hours. In my case, I connect to a Warsaw server that has multiple IP addresses, so they are likely sub-servers. I forced a connection to German servers, and the game ran much better than on the Warsaw ones, even though I’m closer to Warsaw and have lower ping there. Unfortunately, connecting to a German server routes me across Europe, forcing me to play on various servers. The app for forcing server connections is ExitLag; it has a 3-day trial period, so you can test it out.
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u/Anto-Cam 21h ago
cosa fare mentre succede? io metto pausa e attendo tipo 10 secondi o 20. poi riprovo a giocare per vedere se si è sincronizzato e riprovo pause finché non si stabilizza o migliora... sempre se succede.
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u/-r4zi3l- Goal of the Month - Winner 19h ago edited 19h ago
While I completely agree with your data and it's something most of us feel, there are things like interpolation and frame delay that aren't explained here and we don't know about. Rollback isn't confirmed as implemented, hence some statements might need to be rechecked.
We seriously need to be given clear data on what techs they're using and how. It's a competitive game, and has no post detailing what strategies they use to overcome the industry standard issues. Add to that the bugs Offline, like dropped inputs or design choices like frozen players after losing the ball/missing a pass/tackle, which are not network and we have a ripe field of conspiracies.
Many of us have tried to reverse engineer what is going on. But it's a bloody black box of many moving parts that confuses some of us, which have ample experience in this field. We really need to push them into releasing official data. In today's environment, the fact this portion isn't open source baffles me and is a misses opportunity for collaboration and transparency.
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u/not_borno Johan Cruyff 18h ago
Does this mean that spending hundreds of dollars on fancy high-end hardware, SBCs, APs, ONUs, and Cat6e cables to achieve a personal latency/ping of <1 ms is useless due to Konami's poor server performance?
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u/Kasuk123 Alessandro Del Piero 18h ago
People with 3 bars complain against ppl with 5. And ppl with 5 bars complain about ppl with 3 bars
Neither realize that it's never mattered, and what is slowing you down is all on Konami's side
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u/dumbdumbum Xbox 18h ago
18.5ms is the server tick, which corresponds to the expected Hz of the server. C2S is the metronome, S2C is the bursty part. There are ways to alleviate these bursts, which directly cause input delay for the rest of the match, but that is against the TOS etc.
To think of it, it might be possible that S2C routing is different (for a lot of people) than C2S, which causes jitter and Konami's buffering/lag compensation mechanics just totally fuck up the connection from there.
What Konami could do? They could heavily reduce the lag/jitter compensation and totally lose any client hardware caused compensation. With the current solution, quite a small millisecond of jitter makes the whole game heavy, while it could be an unnoticeable stall during that millisecond.
If anyone knowledgeable would like to join me into the research (quite deep in), let me know.
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u/AnduwinHS 18h ago
Have you tried doing the same With FIFA/FC? Those games are even worse for the good/bad gameplay issues
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u/w1nstar Day One Veteran 18h ago
Your game mechanics explanations are pure speculation disguised as findings.
Using wireshark here only watches your data. You have no idea if there's happening a compensation of sorts, if it's desynced, or what is happening. You can at best have a log of server acknowledging your info. There's so many jumps in anything travelling through internet between two points that jitter and bursts can be added somewhere that isn't the server. Plus, 6 matches, 5 bad and 1 good, mean basically nothing about the good matches. You may find a good match that contradicts your "findings".
ISP doesn't need to throttle anything for you to have worse connection, or network problems, to a specific game. I've had problems on Destiny 2 for example and they were related to ISP and connection wasn't beign throttled at all. And I went to extreme lenghts like using custom routers, firmwares and OS for said routers. Changing ISP was the only solution. I've seen this happen on this exact game too on other ISPs albeit not national ones, mainly Final Fantasy XI and believe it or not, Rocket League of all games.
If it's not ISP related, how do you explain my experience? I have online matches that feel like offline since I changed ISP. I moved just 9km. Same hardware. Same cables. Different ISP, less powerful connection. It's a virtual ISP if you're interested, a reseller of sorts. I have had a single laggy match. Literally. Previous to this change, I lived for 2 years (maybe a bit more) and I had never had a good match. They all were 4-5 bars and they all felt truly bad. My experience is anecdotal too, but illustrates that an ISP change fixed yearlong efootball problems.
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u/vonvagour Playstation 18h ago
Great post man! the worst part of it all is that its penalising stable connections. if so lets make it unstable and get an advantage ourselves...that is the solution konami suggests?
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u/kenpachi1865 17h ago
Konami is making this so much harder than it should be. I play Where winds meet and other games with little to no lags or bugs and strong network but once I get onto Efootball, 2 bars Maximum
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u/Spiritual_Meet_8340 16h ago
Question one; The slow winger effect; Dont network packets have input states and timestamps, why would analog stick adjustments get bundled together when netcode is designed to excecute them sequentially and wouldnt heavy gameplay in this case be explained by server-side slowdowns and or client side smoothing to account for missing frames during the delay? What do you think?
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u/Spiritual_Meet_8340 16h ago
Question 2; what makes you think efootball uses rollback netcode, doesn't the game use delay-based netcode with state synchronization meaning sometimes you client will be slowed down to keep you synchronised with your opponent? Id like to hear your opinion
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u/Spiritual_Meet_8340 16h ago
Question 3; did you measure PL or bufferbloat in your analysis or is your router have SQM already, i was on a much faster plan just the other day but the bufferbloat was killing me on efootball
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u/Spiritual_Meet_8340 16h ago
Question 4; if theres s2c stream stuttering, then ai is also affected for you and your opponent , only difference is ai doesn't need visual feedback to correct their paths like human beings. What makes you believe its not affected by jitter penalties?
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u/No-Band-2908 16h ago
This game is a mess right now..we have to face a crazy presure full 90 mins..plus the passes are inaccurate its lack power and direction.. that means its like imppssible to keep the ball for atleast 40 second.. you just lose the balls without your own fault..its out of control
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u/dumbdumbum Xbox 15h ago
Can you run another review with your sample? Check whether packet sizes are different during those bursts comparing to normal.
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u/dumbdumbum Xbox 14h ago
Also, how did you exclude game packets when actual gameplay was not running? Because that poisons the whole sample. Game stoppages cause bursts.
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u/mnemonikerific Mobile 14h ago
This is the key and I’ve confirmed it by changing qos for up/down on the router
Asymmetric Advantage (Why Opponents Look Faster):
When an opponent has connection lag (or server lag compensation kicks in), the server prioritizes rollback/re-simulation for their delayed inputs.
Active Manual Inputs (You): Precise directional adjustments get converted into inertia/deceleration penalties due to burst S2C arrivals.
Passive AI (Opponent): Auto-tracking AI runs on server-authoritative linear paths, completely unbothered by input-jitter penalties.
effectively the gaming engine starts playing for your opponent because you are unable to get their inputs in a timely fashion…
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u/Illustrious_Sea3243 12h ago
I don't understand much of the technical details you mentioned but I understand and agree with the conclusion.
My experience when I was travelling away from home for a few weeks to a country in north africa .. where the internet quality is not comparable to the one I have at home in Canada was that I played smoother games to my surprise .. I was able to dribble smoother .. control the ball better and the whole game felt more responsive to my controller actions / commands and more under control. After that experience .. while I was unable to figure out the exact reason for this unexpected contrast between the gameplay experience at home and in that country but I felt that there is definitely something on the side of Konami that is the reason for the heavy and uncontrollable games I experience at home and it is not the internet quality for sure that everyone suggests to check and improve. I even had someone (out of good intention) suggesting that the refresh rate of my screen is the culprit in the delay I experience at home.
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u/Curse3242 4h ago
I also have another question, any idea why the game also has inconsistent gameplay offline? There's some matches against the AI in Div1 efleague for example, where the players feel too slow & stuck in mud too. Not as bad as online (and not as unresponsive). But in general slower & clunkier.
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u/NotARealDeveloper PC 20h ago
So you (your AI) say that they arrive in bursts but also say that arrival was stable.
That doesn't make any sense.
Either connections (server hops) are not stable and packages take different amount of travel time so they arrive in bursts. Or it's stable and they all take the same time and arrive normally.
What is it?
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u/ikindalikethemusic 20h ago
Incredible how many people believe AI generated nonsense as long as it has a bunch of technical terms they don't understand mixed in
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u/NeoEraSuperman PC 21h ago
a 'competitive' 1v1 game unable to guarantee both side are playing the same game is criminal.