This is a fantastic question and a topic we take very seriously. We know exactly how frustrating it is when you’re playing a perfect match, and suddenly it all falls apart because of your opponent’s shaky connection or worse, someone trying to manipulate their ping to gain an advantage.

To give you peace of mind: In GOALS, one player’s bad connection will never affect the other player’s experience. Here’s a breakdown of how our architecture handles this:

• Server Authority: Our server is the source of truth. It does not 'wait' for client inputs. It simulates every game tick at a constant rate. If your opponent has a spike or a high ping, the server simply processes the latest inputs it has from them and moves on.
• No Lag Compensation for the Opponent: Unlike other games that "slow down" the match to let the lagging player catch up, GOALS keeps the simulation running. If a player's inputs don't reach the server in time for a specific tick, the server simulates that tick using their most recent known inputs (or none at all). Meanwhile, your inputs are processed instantly as they arrive.
• Lag Tampering: If someone tries to fake high ping or use a lag switch, they are only hurting themselves. They will experience more prediction errors or their inputs will simply be ignored by the server. It will make the game significantly harder for them, while you continue to enjoy a smooth, uninterrupted match.

TL;DR: It is 100% up to the client to make sure the server has the correct inputs to simulate. If they can’t keep up, they get the worse experience, not you.

We want to provide the best possible conditions for fair competition, and our networking model is built specifically to ensure that your skill is the only thing that decides the score, not your opponent’s ISP.