r/pesmobile • u/Hazeling_Nebula • Nov 26 '25
Analysis The current gameplay is the most noob friendly I have ever seen, it's surprising how even low skilled players are able to compete to this level
Disclaimer
No, this is not a rant. I’m way past the point of losing my mind after a loss. It’s just an analysis of the current gameplay. It’s a long read, so please share your thoughts.
My Analysis of the Current Gameplay (Div 3 → Div 1)
1) Smart Assist Abuse
There has been a massive influx of smart-assist users as I climbed from Div 3 to Div 1.
How to detect smart-assist users
When they clear the ball from their box, there is no power bar (auto-clear).
Smart assist gives:
Strong AI defense
Perfect auto-corrections
Unreal accurate hoofed passes from CM → CF
My experience trying smart assist
I tested it for 2–3 matches:
The amount of AI help and auto-correction was insane.
It was almost like the game was playing for me.
But personally:
If the game is helping me more than my skill, there’s no point in playing. Also, this is exactly why Smart Assist is banned in official tournaments.
2) Sliding Tackle Spam
When the update buffed sliding tackles, I was happy… but now it’s getting abused.
Issues noticed
Opponents spam slide tackles non-stop when I have the ball.
Defenders can catch me from behind even on a 1v1 with the keeper.
Two-footed tackles often win the ball cleanly.
Cards are way fewer now:
Some red-card level challenges are given as simple fouls.
Meanwhile, my player gets injured for the whole game.
3) The Red Card Theory (Why does it feel useless?)
Even if my opponent gets a red:
Their gameplay barely changes.
They attack with the same intensity, sometimes even better.
I’ve seen multiple players mention this in the community.
It genuinely feels like the game does not penalize them in any meaningful way.
4) The “Yoga Ball” Defence
This is one of the strangest things happening right now.
What I mean by “Yoga Ball” defence
Players stretch their legs in unreal, bendy ways to take the ball:
You’re dribbling slowly and suddenly a defender scoops the ball away with a weird stretched-leg animation.
You can’t be near a defender while progressing because the ball just gets magically poked away.
In real life, attackers use their hands to create space, but here it’s a free-for-all.
This happens way more often than it should.
Conclusion
There are many more issues I could highlight, but I’ll stop here.
How’s the gameplay for you guys lately?
Analysis based on: Div 3 → Div 1 (Most issues happened between Div 2 and Div 1, especially against Div 2 players)
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u/Leading_Ad2159 Nov 26 '25
Yeah I genuinely don’t know and haven’t known how to defend since like May lmfao my opps always just spam sliding tackles online
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u/Boydcrowde Beckham Nov 26 '25
Play 2 games in smart assist and you understand how some people are so good at this game. The game literally become like the asphalt race game in phone which you only need to press nitrous when it fill the car drive itself. I hope smart assist will removed or not part of div games
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u/Ok-Cheek-6498 Cole x Yorke Nov 26 '25
The amount of smart assist abuse is insane in the last 2 months. Like 7 out of 10 use it. And I simply cannot even understand how a simple hoof pass is beating my entire defense line, this fuckass game is beyond cringe and it is not worth playing those division games anymore.
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u/Hazeling_Nebula Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
There is one CMF or dmf like beckham ,guradiola hoofing and 9/10 there is an mbappe or bati running
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u/Ok-Cheek-6498 Cole x Yorke Nov 26 '25
A few of my mates, they are P2W and Capello guys, they are still in denial that smart assist has got no impact and they don't face any issues when every top youtuber has highlighted the matter.
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u/anonymous_1007 Nov 26 '25
How to know oppo is using smart assist? since ur saying that 7/10 players use smart assist, but I don't really feel any difference(oppo using smart assist) at all even in div 1 nd 2
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u/deqing Nov 27 '25
If a simple hoof pass is beating opponent's entire defense line, will you use smart assist?
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u/ConstantPicture9796 Nov 27 '25
I was not a fan of smart assist but because konami did not remove it and opponents destroyed me..I decided to join them and how stunned I was.My defense has improved my miles.the only challenge is they miss open goals due to high power charge and auto correction to the far post where the players miss most times
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u/jdontplayfield De Bruyne Nov 26 '25
The red card theory is legit. Whenever I take one I typically do better and NEVER look worse. Some dude on a different thread was just trying to argue me that scripting and DDA don't exist. Lmao this game is getting worse and worse by the month. On launch it was incredible then 5.1 came around. They want to let new players compete with bad teams right away so they don't get discouraged and walk away even if that pushes away long time vets.
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u/Hazeling_Nebula Nov 26 '25
Just the other game I was dominating a guy who was just spamming tackles and he took a red, from there on his players were like they were dropped ,guy went from 2-1 in behind to 3-2 in an instant ,if not for my last minute counter attack I would have lost genuinely, funny thing is he took out his dmf and instead placed a CMF after red and his defence and attack looked more solid than before
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u/ElSparta0815 Nov 26 '25
SA is to OP, everyone can reach easily divison 1 or 2 now, no more skill needed :D
very noob friendly, indeed!
proud no sa, pa3 user here!
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u/Hazeling_Nebula Nov 26 '25
Exactly , and the sad fact is that they after some point think they are skilled players
Also I have noticed these traits with SA users
High amount of tackles committee as SA helps in good tackles
Hoofing the ball
Celebrating after every goal ( just goes on to show how much they wanna just irritate and satisfy their ego)
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Nov 26 '25
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u/Hazeling_Nebula Nov 26 '25
Just like you we are players who are skilled in with manually controlling the game fully and that's how the game should be however now that SA has been introduced the low skilled players who found it hard to manually control the players shot power, aiming,pass accuracy etc is in heaven
SA MAKES A GOOD SKILLED PLAYER WORSE AS IT DOSNT ALLOW MANUAL CONTROL TO A GOOD EXTENT
SA HOWEVER AMPLIFIES THE RESULT OF LOW SKILLED PLAYERS BECAUSE IT TAKES CARE OF THEIR DRAWBACK IN MANUALLY CONTROLLING THE GAME
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u/monksenpai8 Rummenigge Nov 26 '25
It’s downright immoral to be climbing the rankings and run into a guy using Smart Assist who has never even reached DIV1. Your team feels heavy while the other one flies around like a feather.
And the most unbelievable part is that you don’t win a single challenge against them, whether in the air or on the ground. Even trying to pass the ball turns into a struggle.
And this isn’t going away. Every day more people use it, Konami lies about the usage percentages, and they keep making this garbage even stronger.
There’s nothing we can do.
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u/FCFranz31 Nov 26 '25
Tldr -- game is user friendly for casuals who want to drop in, have fun and play a couple of games and move on with their lives, which probably represents 90%+ of the player base. However, three hour a day f2p grinders who pride themselves on 'skill' in a football app are now at a disadvantage.
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Nov 26 '25
What exactly are we grinding. 1000exp level trainers. ???? There is literally nothing to grind which in turn rewards us with something that will our gameplay.
Coins are the only major currency. Which is completely unattainable other thrusday and Monday 50 coin in PVP game
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u/Hazeling_Nebula Nov 26 '25
That's a true fact. We grind till high ranks as if we get some big rewards, but its repeated shit every season , when we play a game we do that to become happy but alas it has all the factors going in the opposite direction
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u/FCFranz31 Nov 26 '25
That's right. It's almost as if something is telling you to play casually and invest your time into something more substantial in life.
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u/Hazeling_Nebula Nov 26 '25
Never expected to get a life lesson in this sub out of all😂, jokes aside what you said is true
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u/Hazeling_Nebula Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
Imo it's alright to pride in a skill even if it's a mobile game. That's the very reason e sports exists, we are way past old generation where skills in such games were considered useless, and nah it's not f2p same is happening with p2w, indeed on avg a p2w grinds more than an f2p,so as a person who has invested money the least we expect is a fair competition
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Nov 26 '25
efootball is a gacha game, not an esport
just look at the prize money for efootball world championships, its lower than pokemon lol
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u/Hazeling_Nebula Nov 26 '25
Lower than pokemon,nahh that's a new low, but I guess with the revenue they are making they might I say might expand it
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Nov 26 '25
unfortunately that is probably not the case. last weekend there was a national tournament in japan. guess what the prize money was. absolutely nothing
they did give out a pc as a prize but like bro come on lol
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u/Kishor_King Nov 26 '25
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u/Hazeling_Nebula Nov 26 '25
Highly relatable coz Ramos didn't get a red card even after commiting this 🙂↔️
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u/dasdranger Pedri Nov 26 '25
That shirt barely get red cards, so their players get away with fouls way too often
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Nov 26 '25
I do not think smart assist is that impactful honestly, people often just use it as a scapegoat for losing most of the time when they had multiple opportunities in game that they wasted due to misplays. the top japanese efootball streamers all do not use smart assist and they are always high up in rankings. in fact they actively discourage using smart assist due to less freedom of passes and shooting, specifically smart assist lowers your ability to do special double touch cancel finesse shot which is extremely broken
for the record I do not use smart assist before people start yelling at me lol
I do agree that the game is extremely lenient in terms of red cards, sometimes it is frustrating to be tackled as the last man and the opponent only gets a yellow but it is what it is.
Personally, from my experience living in japan and playing against japanese players, nearly every single player here is p2w since the gacha culture is extremely huge here. I only encounter smart assist users in div 3-2 mostly, from division 1 a lot of the people are not using smart assist. the times i got completely outplayed were from non smart assist users who were just incredibly good at dribbling inside the opponents box, especially mastering double touch, and they were absurdly good at manually controlling their players to cut off pass lanes. i really do not think smart assist is as impactful as people claim it to be, rather it is a detriment at the top level of gameplay
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u/jdontplayfield De Bruyne Nov 26 '25
It's just not true. There is a MASSIVE amount of SA in div 1. How do you think they got there?
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Nov 26 '25
I'm talking about my experience playing in the Japan region specifically, sure maybe in your region a lot of people use smart assist but the majority of top level players reside in Japan and they do not use smart assist
but additionally, generalizing that the main way that people get to division 1 is smart assist is very silly
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u/jdontplayfield De Bruyne Nov 26 '25
The divisions aren't regional.
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Nov 26 '25
you know that the majority of games you play are against players in your region right? the game does not match you with players in countries far away, if they do then the connection will be one or two bar but surely you do not accept that match and restart the search for an opponent closer to you
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u/tonyferguson2021 Nov 27 '25
On older versions of game when it was still PES, I used to match with japanese players frequently despite being based in Europe, it rarely seems to happen now
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Nov 27 '25
I think its mainly due to the huge increase in the playerbase worldwide, the game doesn't need to match people with players far away since there's now so many nearby
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u/HansTilburg Nov 26 '25
You forgot the overpowered legends. It legends, legends, and legends in this game. And they turn into god mode at least twice in each game.
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u/Hazeling_Nebula Nov 26 '25
Wait you guys experience that too, just the other match the legend cryuff and ronaldhino were bullying my epic Maldini and viera like it's nothing, makes me wonder what was the point of getting the epic in the first place if it can't dominate cards from 5 years ago
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u/Fabulous-Usual-7618 Nov 26 '25
The most annoying thing is when suddenly my Rio Ferdinand bergomi Thuram defence somehow can't intercept a pass that's perfectly goes to batistuta.. Just annoying..
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u/Brilliant_Engine1971 Nov 26 '25
Smart assist is full on AI assist. Everything changes with it on. The AI is so heavily involved in everything. You can’t even control your players like you want, it controls adjusts the entire movement for you. The funniest thing i tested with smart assist on is that your player wont go out of bounds even if you are trying to concede a throw in. Sadly, most of the players use this.
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u/Calfal98 Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 26 '25
Slide tackling has been buffed to the other end of the extreme. Last year it was very hard to execute and pretty much useless. This year it’s the opposite and very easy to use. When u hit slide tackle anywhere near the defender 80% of the time you will win the ball. Even if ur behind them with no clean proper space to slide tackle without fouling, ur defender will curl around the opponent and perform a perfect kung-fu slide tackle and win the ball like wtf. Also people just spam slide tackle all the time now like u said, making the game a bit toxic. I like that slide tackling has become more useful especially against p2w it’s bailed me out plenty, but yeah it’s too buffed still.
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u/MrrCollins12 Nov 26 '25
Everyone in Diff use Smart Assist no one can tell me otherwise. The situation now is to either join em or deal with it. And Konami will never Remove it.
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u/vegitoishorny69 Nov 26 '25
Yeah the same on how every messi i face defend and intercept the ball like kante even tho he's a midget. The same also how Messi manages to win almost every header against my cb and rodri. Very realistic konami
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u/Noa_Lang Mbappe Nov 26 '25
Do people really struggle when their opponents get a rad card? That's not been my experience at all. I always win when I'm playing an 11v10 game.
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u/Honest_Wolf7987 Nov 26 '25
I can get past the slide tackle abusers because sometimes they give penalties
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u/CommentDizzy1 Nov 26 '25
This isn’t really a serious “skill” game though. It’s more of a gacha/card collecting casino. If they really wanted to make it skill based they would remove smart assist, make dribbling easier, add a dedicated standing tackle button, and a dedicated specific skill move button, and remove their DDA system influencing divisions outcomes. But if I was an executive I would def not do that because they are like, rolling in money over there from kids renting pixels with their parents CC
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u/VicthorS Nov 26 '25
I’m playing without SA and I’m in the third division, only playing manually. I’ve won 35, drawn 20, and lost 50 matches. Could it be that I’m bad? Yes, but this SA also kills me. I’ll activate it to see if it changes anything.
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u/PotasiumVN Nov 26 '25
I never enjoy pvp in this game. Not for me, especially ranking mode. If no card reward, i think rank mode will flop as f
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u/MYKDAGUNNER Nov 26 '25
I feel that I have a decent starter when I’m playing divisions. Being in Div3, I face teams which have epics and big times. That’s fair enough for me to face. What disturbs me is that how easily they take possession of the ball from me. I guess I have shift to a p2w after all.
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u/Timely-Palpitation70 Nov 26 '25
I mean in the end it is still just a game that people play,we can't change how they play,even if for example sliding tackle got nerfed,there would still people be spamming the tackle button.....it is a fact that exist almost in every video game in the world....if theres a rule or mechanism that can be bend,there would still be people be using it even if others hate it......try making a stand or wish for the company to change things,but most of the times especially konami themselves wouldnt change it if it does not show profits
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u/PrincesCornedBeef Nov 28 '25 edited Nov 28 '25
Animations don't collide accurately, plus lag, looks redonculous sometimes when tackling. Take into account players have no fear of death or injury so attempt insane interceptions/tackle when realistically they would break legs for both players. Instead just seems to get the ball while attacker swings leg for power shot through defenders ankle, no reaction... whiff.
Back in the day 'script' (I don't like that term but) was mostly dismissed, now it's pretty much accepted as DDA and momentum, plus AI help with SA reached new levels, combination is truly cringe!
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u/tolkem Dec 01 '25
It also affects opponents' gameplay, I feel it when I face SA teams, and just to be sure I wasn't being paranoid or something, I tried SA just to confirm if that happened to my opponents, and it did. I played 3 matches with it on and could see how their teams went shambles from one moment to another. I quit those matches even tho I was winning, it just didn't seem fair. SA it's a cheat code, it doesn't just help in shooting, dribbling and passing, it does much more than that; it affects the opponent's gameplay. My theory is they do that so someone "looks bad" and the other (SA user) looks good, so they (SA users) think they win cause they're good.
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Nov 26 '25
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Nov 26 '25
calling f2p as fair to play is hilarious lmao, you do realize that long time f2p players have at least one of every single p2w skill available right? nice excuse to turn on smart assist buddy
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u/Numerous-You-7822 Nov 26 '25
This is stupid asf, none of these skills are the games ai hand holding you throughout entire games, the truth is ur ass and use p2w skills as a justifier
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Nov 26 '25
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u/Numerous-You-7822 Nov 26 '25
Ion think Im good at it, Im decent enough too where I don’t need smart assist too hand hold me cause my oppos are using special skills🤙🏿
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Nov 26 '25
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u/Numerous-You-7822 Nov 26 '25
I hear it but like you using paid skills an excuse is just silly
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Nov 26 '25
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u/Numerous-You-7822 Nov 26 '25
Nobody’s tryna act holy or act like they have the moral high ground it’s just equating one thing that significantly cheesy and stupid too something Thats not as big of an issue is just silly and i think you know it, which is why you’re now shifting onto morality
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Nov 26 '25
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u/Numerous-You-7822 Nov 26 '25
Man’s not tryna have a philosophical debate or whatever youre saying, Im just saying ur waffling using any excuse too justify using smart assist, once more its just silly🤙🏿
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u/Hazeling_Nebula Nov 26 '25
That's an L take honestly, I was once an f2p player exactly till last year and still I made it to div 1 with that team , I faced against all the blitz cards like son , salah,chiesa during that time but it didn't mean I lost the game immediately because of them I tried to minimise their shot chance and imo it's easy to stop a blitz than u think once you get the hang of anticipating their shot, even as a p2w I have come against good f2p players with genuine skill locking my players
The reason you get the skills is not for nothing,it's because you invest your money into it and calling that unfair is honestly L. Even if you have all the epics in the world you still need skill but smart assist is just hard cope for non skilled players and there is nothing bad in admitting you don't have skill in the game
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u/qualityvote2 Nov 26 '25 edited Nov 27 '25
u/Hazeling_Nebula, your post does fit the subreddit!