Rematch players are flopping about like schools of flying fish because—and I tested this—it's actually faster

Rematch football game — (Image credit: Sloclap)

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Update, June 27: Sloclap has released a hotfix patching up this exploit, which means the days of dolphin-diving are sadly over. Original story follows.

Rematch is doing great for Sloclap, and with good reason. It's a gorgeous-looking footie game that blends the studio's penchant for fighting game glory with some proper tekkers. Minor issues with lag and netcode aside, I've been having a good time.

Jumping being faster than running just doesn’t feel right from r/Rematch

While this might look like a meme at first, it turns out that it's actually significantly more efficient. No, really, I tested it. Booting up Rematch and heading into freeplay, I went ahead and did some runs—horizontally, across the field, using the halfway line as a guide. I recorded five times with a stopwatch, then snagged the average. Here are my findings.

Sprinting: 8.07 seconds.
Sprinting (Extra Effort): 7.58 seconds, rounded up.
Flopping like an idiot: 7.13 seconds, rounded down.

That's almost an entire second of difference! I should also note that, generally, repeatedly diving is harder to control—I did not exactly keep my character on the straight and narrow during those tests, and it still beat out normal running by a significant margin. Still, even my highest dolphin-diving time (7.42) was significantly faster than my lowest extra effort sprinting time (7.55).

Here's my full list of times, if you're curious.

A set of Rematch movement speeds, recorded in Google Docs. — (Image credit: PC Gamer (Google docs))

The only downside is that flopping is slightly more inefficient, though not by a huge margin. Running horizontally across the field brings you to about 1/4th of your stamina bar, whereas flopping (depending on how straight you manage to keep your character) typically depletes all of it.

Still, I can conclusively say that if you need to get somewhere quickly, holding down sprint and diving repeatedly is 100% faster than doing something normal like, uh, jogging. I foresee a hotfix in Sloclap's future.

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

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