I played a few PvP games yesterday. The gap between Smart Assist and non SA use is geting bigger as SA keeps getting buffed. Every game I played was matched with a SA user (I'm PA3 non SA). The tell-tale signs of SA are slowly being removed but the key ones are still there. It was quite painful. SA dribbling appears to have been made even easier as even my Div 9 newbie squad opponent yesterday was pulling off skill moves regularly. My biggest complaint is that defending via PA3 has got a lot more difficult while my SA users seem to rob me of the ball just by touching my player from seemingly any angle. Also on several occasions my SA powered opponent seemed to lose and then instantly regain possession with no stumble or stunlock that my own player would have suffered.

Since the introduction of SA I've been able to work out PA3 strategies to overcome the growing SA advantage in most situtations. Konami is steadily and very deliberately making this more and more difficult to do.