Hi,
I am experiencing the same issues, and it’s important to highlight that this is not limited to multiplayer — it also affects single-player modes such as Squad Battles.
What stands out is a form of inconsistent responsiveness that feels like artificial input delay. At times, despite having a stable and strong connection, gameplay becomes noticeably delayed or unresponsive. This creates the impression that input timing is not being translated consistently in-game.
This is not just a minor issue — when it occurs, it makes gameplay extremely difficult to control and, in some cases, unplayable.
I have also experienced matches with unusually large score differences (10+ goals), sometimes in my favour and sometimes against me, all within the same division, and way too often. This level of inconsistency is not typical and does not reflect a balanced or football-like experience.
In previous titles, such scorelines were usually associated with large skill gaps or lower difficulty levels. In the current state, however, this behavior appears far more common, even in competitive settings.
It would be helpful to understand whether server performance, input responsiveness, or gameplay tuning could be contributing factors. At the moment, the overall experience feels inconsistent and does not resemble realistic football gameplay.
I would also like to add a point regarding connection quality and input responsiveness, as this may be contributing to the issue.
From my experience, it sometimes feels as though having a very strong and stable connection can actually highlight inconsistencies when matched against players with higher latency.
As an engineer, I would appreciate clarification on whether the following logic makes sense to you stillfreddie1987 :
If one player is on very low latency (e.g. ~4 ms) like yourself and the other is on a higher latency (e.g. 30 ms or more), there is naturally a gap in how quickly inputs are received and processed. For example, if I press tackle and my input reaches the server within ~4 ms, while my opponent’s environment operates closer to ~30 ms, there is effectively a ~26 ms discrepancy.
In a shared, real-time match, both players need to see the same action at the same moment. However, with this difference in latency, synchronising actions becomes challenging. It can create situations where:
From a player perspective, this can feel like artificial input delay, even when the connection itself is stable.
This raises an important question: how does the system reconcile these timing differences so that both players experience the same sequence of events simultaneously?
Additionally, if this synchronization is constantly required, how are AI-controlled players affected by it? Since they operate within the same match environment, are they also subject to these timing adjustments, or do they behave independently of latency constraints? Or does the AI operate only locally? (I would expect the latter, I real hope is local, however based on gameplay experience — where AI can occasionally feel “switched off” — it sometimes appears as though AI performance may also be affected or slowed by similar factors.)
In theory, one player could be seeing actions slightly earlier and another slightly later, yet both must perceive the game in sync. If not managed correctly, this could contribute to the inconsistencies many players are experiencing.
I have taken steps to optimise my connection (including stability improvements and port forwarding), yet I still encounter moments where gameplay responsiveness feels inconsistent contrary to what my ping status on the screen in showing. This suggests the issue may not be connection quality alone, but how latency differences are handled within the game.
Again, this is not about difficulty, but about ensuring consistent and accurate input responsiveness across all matches, particularly where synchronisation between players is required. Consistency in how inputs are processed and aligned is essential for maintaining a fair and reliable gameplay experience.
Kind regards,
Thanks for chiming in and sharing your experience it’s reassuring (in a frustrating way) to see others dealing with the exact same inconsistent responsiveness, heavy feel, delayed inputs, and wild scorelines (I’ve had 13-4, 15-2 losses that feel impossible based on skill alone). Your point about it affecting Squad Battles too is huge sincerely for me, offline modes (Squad Battles, training) feel mostly normal/responsive, which means strongly to online-specific desync or server-side processing rather than a universal bug.
On your latency question (as a fellow engineer, I appreciate the detailed logic):
Yes, your reasoning makes complete sense. In a peer-to-peer influenced or hybrid server setup (common in sports sims), latency compensation/rollback netcode is supposed to reconcile timing differences so both players see a consistent game state. But if it’s poorly implemented (e.g., over-compensating for the higher-ping player or bad prediction/extrapolation), the low-ping player can feel penalized seriously, inputs arrive early but get delayed to match the slower side, creating artificial lag, mistimed tackles/passes, or out of sync interactions. That 26ms gap you mentioned could explain why low-ping Lagos players like my 4ms via local DC + WireGuard tunnel situation sometimes feel worse against 30-50ms opponents.
From community reports (similar threads since Jan/Feb 2026), this mismatch often leads to “heavy” gameplay where players feel sluggish or unresponsive, even with green connection bars and low in-game ping. Extreme score blowouts 10+ goals very annoying, could stem from one side adapting better to the desync or the game favoring the higher-latency player via compensation.
On AI: In online modes (Rivals/Champs), AI-controlled players (your team or CPU subs) seem affected by the same sync issues sometimes they occasionally feel switched off, slow to react, or heavy, which suggests they’re tied to the server authoritative simulation rather than purely local. In pure offline (Squad Battles), AI is local/client-side, so it’s usually snappier unless there’s a broader engine bug, some report slowdown there too post-patches.
sincerely i wont lie i am tired because i have optimized everything on my end, wired LAN, MTU 1473, Google/Cloudflare DNS, QoS/UPnP, port forwards, WireGuard for NAT 2/stable routing to Lagos DC because i was frustrated as a point had to ditch my old router, went ahead and bought a new ASUS gaming router that cost me close to $350 yet the heaviness persists online, passes fail 3/5 times, Evo’d pacy strikers feel slow, CBs like VVD/Konaté get rinsed, inputs delayed. Offline is fine, so it’s not hardware/network alone.
As at yesterday night, i played RIVALS, 3 different games with opponents i see as mid players, scores ended in 13-5, 9-3, 15-4 against me, i got so upset i almost broke my controller, i had decided from yesyerday i will not continue playing to avoid continous relegation.
To my understanding i feel its more like a netcode/server sync regression, possibly from recent title updates, where latency compensation or matchmaking isn’t handling low/high ping mixes well. EA needs to investigate how the system reconciles these timing gaps to avoid punishing stable connections or creating unfair inconsistencies.
Have you noticed patterns (eg, worse at peak hours, after certain patches, or vs specific regions)? Adding more details like this might help EA prioritize a fix. thanks again for the thoughtful post
Best.
