The adaptive offline Copa América 2015 challenge

James Beaver · 17 May 2015

__________________________________________________

THE ADAPTIVE OFFLINE COPA AMÉRICA 2015 CHALLENGE
__________________________________________________

1 Intro
=======

Many football leagues are basically over for this season, but fortunately Copa América 2015 is soon upon us. In this challenge you have a chance to play through Copa América 2015 in PES 2015 against the CPU (offline).

The challenge is adaptive so that the difficulty level changes according to whether you are winning or losing. If you are winning, the matches get harder; if you are losing, they become easier. You should therefore expect to experience the entire range of feelings associated with competitive sports. You will also learn a lot about the teams taking part in the Copa. If you would like to, a challenge score will be calculated for you at the end of the challenge.

I ran a similar World Cup 2014 challenge last year (with Fifa 14), and enjoyed it a lot.

2 So who will I be competing against in this challenge?
=======================================================

Basically yourself. Although a challenge score will be calculated for you at the end, if you so wish, the scores are not comparable, as no particular gameplay settings are enforced.

3 How to play
=============

3.1 Gameplay settings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The challenge consists of a series of exhibition matches. The gameplay setting are up to you to decide. Personally I will be playing 20 minute matches with following settings: full manual, game speed -1, advanced through ball, all visual aids off, random condition, and player emotions off.

3.2 The difficulty level of the first match
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The difficulty level of the first match is TS: top player, stronger team. That is, you will play the first match at PES difficulty level top player, with the stronger of the two teams.

3.3 Play your first match
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Play the topmost match in the table below at the initial difficulty level TS. That is, play CHI-ECU controlling the stronger team CHI, with difficulty level top player.

The 'rank' in the table is the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) rank of each country, and is used to determine which team is stronger.

Code:

   match time in Chile     home             rank  away             rank  stronger 
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   <2015-06-11 Thu 20:30>  CHI   Chile        16  ECU   Ecuador      34  CHI      
   <2015-06-12 Fri 20:30>  MEX   Mexico       22  BOL   Bolivia      92  MEX      
   <2015-06-13 Sat 16:00>  URU   Uruguay       8  JAM   Jamaica      74  URU      
   <2015-06-13 Sat 18:30>  ARG   Argentina     2  PAR   Paraguay     81  ARG      
   <2015-06-14 Sun 16:00>  COL   Colombia      4  VEN   Venezuela    69  COL      
   <2015-06-14 Sun 18:30>  BRA   Brazil        5  PER   Peru         63  BRA      
   <2015-06-15 Mon 18:00>  ECU   Ecuador      34  BOL   Bolivia      92  ECU      
   <2015-06-15 Mon 20:30>  CHI   Chile        16  MEX   Mexico       22  CHI      
   <2015-06-16 Tue 18:00>  PAR   Paraguay     81  JAM   Jamaica      74  JAM      
   <2015-06-16 Tue 20:30>  ARG   Argentina     2  URU   Uruguay       8  ARG      
   <2015-06-17 Wed 21:00>  BRA   Brazil        5  COL   Colombia      4  COL      
   <2015-06-18 Thu 20:30>  PER   Peru         63  VEN   Venezuela    69  PER      
   <2015-06-19 Fri 20:30>  CHI   Chile        16  BOL   Bolivia      92  CHI      
   <2015-06-19 Fri 18:00>  MEX   Mexico       22  ECU   Ecuador      34  MEX      
   <2015-06-20 Sat 16:00>  URU   Uruguay       8  PAR   Paraguay     81  URU      
   <2015-06-20 Sat 18:30>  ARG   Argentina     2  JAM   Jamaica      74  ARG      
   <2015-06-21 Sun 16:00>  COL   Colombia      4  PER   Peru         63  COL      
   <2015-06-21 Sun 18:30>  BRA   Brazil        5  VEN   Venezuela    69  BRA      
   <2015-06-24 Wed 20:30>  CHI   Chile        16  URU   Uruguay       8  URU      
   <2015-06-25 Thu 20:30>  BOL   Bolivia      92  PER   Peru         63  PER      
   <2015-06-26 Fri 20:30>  ARG   Argentina     2  COL   Colombia      4  ARG      
   <2015-06-27 Sat 20:30>  BRA   Brazil        5  PAR   Paraguay     81  BRA      
   <2015-06-29 Mon 20:30>  CHI   Chile        16  PER   Peru         63  CHI      
   <2015-06-30 Tue 20:30>  ARG   Argentina     2  PAR   Paraguay     81  ARG      
   <2015-07-03 Fri 20:30>  PER   Peru         63  PAR   Paraguay     81  PER      
   <2015-07-04 Sat 17:00>  CHI   Chile        16  ARG   Argentina     2  ARG

3.4 Choose the difficulty level of the next match
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Each match is played at one of the following ten difficulty levels, which have been ordered from top to bottom from the hardest to the easiest.

Code:

    #  level  PES 2015 level  stronger team  weaker team 
  -------------------------------------------------------
   15  SW     superstar                      x           
   13  SS     superstar       x                          
   12  TW     top player                     x           
   10  TS     top player      x                          
    9  PW     professional                   x           
    7  PS     professional    x                          
    6  RW     regular                        x           
    4  RS     regular         x                          
    3  AW     amateur                        x           
    1  AS     amateur         x

The difficulty level of the next match is determined by the difficulty level of your previous match and the result of your previous match.
- If you played a draw, your difficulty level stays the same.
- If you won, your difficulty level moves up by one in the table of difficulty levels; for example, from TS (top player, stronger team) to TW (top player, weaker team).
- If you lost, your difficulty drops down by one; for example, from TS (top player, stronger team) to PW (professional, weaker team).

If you lose a match at the lowest level AS, you will remain there. If you win at the highest level SW, you will remain there, but you need to play the next match unassisted if you were playing assisted in the previous match.

The difficulty level numbers in the table are used to determine your challenge score.

3.5 Report your result
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you would like a challenge score at the end of the challenge, report the result of your match by sending a message to this thread. In the message please report, for each match
- the match played; example CHI-ECU
- your difficulty level in this match; example TS
- your team in the match; example CHI
- the result; example lost 2-3
- your difficulty level in next match; example PW.

A template is provided here for you to fill in the information:

,----
| MATCH:
| DIFFICULTY LEVEL:
| MY TEAM:
| RESULT:
| NEXT DIFFICULTY LEVEL:
`----

You can naturally combine the results of multiple matches in a single message.

3.6 Proceed to the next match
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now play the next match in the table, at the difficulty level of the next match you found above. Pay attention to which team is stronger. The result of this second match will determine the difficulty level of your third match etc.

4 Copa schedule
===============

The schedule of this challenge is not tied to the schedule of the actual Copa, but I will update this opening post when info on playoff rounds is available.

The group stage of Copa begins <2015-06-11 Thu> and ends <2015-06-21 Sun>. The schedule of each round in the second (playoff) stage of the Copa is as follows:

Code:

   round name      num matches  begins            ends             
  -----------------------------------------------------------------
   quarter-finals            4  <2015-06-24 Wed>  <2015-06-27 Sat> 
   semi-finals               2  <2015-06-29 Mon>  <2015-06-30 Tue> 
   finals                    2  <2015-07-03 Fri>  <2015-07-04 Sat>

The matches of each of these rounds will be provided for you in this opening post before each round begins. The opponents of each match in the playoff rounds will be based on results from the actual Copa.

5 The challenge score
=====================

Only if you so wish, at the end of this challenge a score will be reported for you. This score will be the mean of your next match difficulty levels.

Let me give an example with a challenge of only four matches. I start at initial difficulty level TS, with level no 10. I then play the four matches with following results:

Code:

   result  next match level  next level number 
  ---------------------------------------------
   win     TW                               12 
   draw    TW                               12 
   loss    TS                               10 
   loss    PW                                9

My tournament score would then be the average of 12, 12, 10 and 9, that is, 10.75.

6 What next?
============

If you want to play through this challenge, just start playing, and keep an eye on this opening post for possible updates. There is even no need to respond to this thread unless you want to have a challenge score at the end. Most up-to-date info will always be available in this first post.

Let the games begin!

James Beaver · 19 May 2015

Edit. Posted my first results here, but then noticed I played the wrong first match. Restart. But I can already tell this is one great challenge, and my false start will fortunately only make it longer.

If no company has bought broadcasting licenses in your region, you can watch the actual Copa América matches live via YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/user/CopaAmerica

*aLe · 20 May 2015

Wow this could be fun. Thanks for sharing it!

Now I just need to correct fake player names and add kits to teams that don't have them (PC here) then I could try and do something

James Beaver · 20 May 2015

*aLe said:
Wow this could be fun. Thanks for sharing it!

Now I just need to correct fake player names and add kits to teams that don't have them (PC here) then I could try and do something

Welcome on board!

Just played my first match of the challenge, CHI-ECU. Goals can be seen at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvtTSjha3PU

To be honest, the match could have gone either way. From this vid it looks like I am a through ball spammer, but honestly I am not.

James Beaver · 21 May 2015

Second match was realistically tedious, because Mexico is better in every aspect. I played with a defensive 4-2-3-1 throughout the match. Had a few good chances, but they had more.

,----
| MATCH: MEX-BOL
| DIFFICULTY LEVEL: TW
| MY TEAM: BOL
| RESULT: draw 0-0
| NEXT DIFFICULTY LEVEL: TW
`----

Next up Uruguay-Jamaica playing the relaxed team.

James Beaver · 23 May 2015

I should have nailed this one, and I had some really good chances to do that. Jamaica has fast and strong players, and top player defense is not good enough to put up a fight. But part of the lure of manual play is the variety in outcomes. So no dice.
,----
| MATCH: URU-JAM
| DIFFICULTY LEVEL: TW
| MY TEAM: JAM
| RESULT: draw 0-0
| NEXT DIFFICULTY LEVEL: TW
`----

I am going to keep playing this challenge, but I am not going to bore you with more of these ramblings unless someone else also wants to share and discuss these matches. (This is an intriguing and short challenge, so I think I am going to replay it before the playoff stage of the actual Copa begins.)

Mighty glad there's good football activity in the summer as well.

*aLe · 25 May 2015

Finally finished to add kits and correct names for players (and proper Copa America adboards to all stadiums), tonight I'll kick off my own challenge

As I don't know that much about South American football though, I decided that I won't mess with the lineup/formation/tactics of the team I'll be using, I'll just leave them as they are and play straight away.
I'll be playing 15 minutes matches in random stadium/weather/condition with player emotions off as suggested, still undecided between 0-bar or 1-bar pass assistance though and between 0 or -1 game speed.

Wish me luck!

James Beaver · 25 May 2015

*aLe said:
As I don't know that much about South American football though, I decided that I won't mess with the lineup/formation/tactics of the team I'll be using, I'll just leave them as they are and play straight away.

So far I have found the default formations to be ok. I have messed with tactics a bit, since I would have found it uncomfortable to play with a relatively high defensive line against the big fish. (Although I am not sure a low defensive line is always a good idea with OP shooting, especially against superstar.)

Enjoy the ride.

*aLe · 25 May 2015

James Beaver said:
Enjoy the ride.

Thanks! I finally managed to play my first match this afternoon and I'm currently uploading the highlights.
This is going to take nearly forever though:

4 hours of uploading for a 7 minutes long video, SERIOUSLY? :FAIL:

*aLe · 25 May 2015

So here we go...

PES 2015 COPA AMERICA CHALLENGE - DAY 1
CHILE - ECUADOR 0-1
YouTube - https://youtube.com/devicesupport

Stats for the challenge:

MATCH: CHILE - ECUADOR
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: TS
PLAYING AS: CHILE (stronger)
RESULT: 0-1 LOSS
NEXT DIFFICULTY LEVEL: PW (lower)

Not the start I was expecting, that's for sure.

They started surely better than us, but soon we came out (also helped by Ecuador having a man sent off early) and started playing better: we pretty much controlled the match and they pressed a lot and relied on through balls to try and sting at least a little bit.
A couple of wonder saves from their keeper meant that we were unable to score and, when I was pretty sure we'd have won this, they finally hit on the counter.
I probably should've taken the player down in that occasion as he was clearly through, but I let him go instead and he scored during minute 85.
I was unable to equalize then and we gave away a very balanced match (as you can see in the stats at the end of the video) that we could've won pretty easily with a little more bit of accuracy in passes/shots (but that's definitely me struggling with manual controls).

Fun fact: This is actually a rematch.
The first time I played this match we won 3-2 with an absurd blooper by their keeper, but unfortunately Raptr crashed* and I was left with no ingame footage so I decided to replay it.

The positive side of this is that I'll be playing the next match at PW level, which gives me at least a chance to face Mexico with Bolivia (playing that match at TW level would've meant one thing and one only: Bolivia getting screwed).

*in the end it was due to me having SweetFX installed. I had to remove the SweetFX files to be able to use Raptr (which is the only software that doesn't cause me lag/frame drops when recording).

James Beaver · 26 May 2015

Your extended highlights are great; they give a good overall view of what happened in the match. Watched your video twice. Your guys had the chance to finish them off, but once again the ball turned out to be round.

Had other program today, but looking forward to ARG-PAR tomorrow. To tell you the truth, my Paraguayan team knows they would need a miracle.

*aLe · 27 May 2015

Thanks man, I reckon they're not perfect (I wanted to achieve a more "TV-like" experience than this, so there's still a lot to do) but I'm really glad you liked them.
Unfortunately they'll slow down the challenge a bit (20' of playing will usually be followed by 5-6 hours of editing/uploading) but I believe they help the sense of immersion a bit.

James Beaver said:
Your guys had the chance to finish them off, but once again the ball turned out to be round.

That's exactly what I feel: their keeper played very well and managed to deflect all of the shots (but one) out of danger. The only one he deflected towards my oncoming player, well, has then been wasted due to poor aiming on my side (the ball ended up where the corner flag is).
I should've foreseen the goal though, as that was not the first counter they tried and even in the first match (the one I didn't record) I've been punished by Jaime Ayoví pretty much the same way when he got subbed on for Caicedo.

Now I'm looking forward to your Argentina - Paraguay match too, I also should be able to play my next one tonight (and upload it tomorrow)

James Beaver · 27 May 2015

The highlights certainly add depth. Editing and viewing the video also make each match a bit more special.

Here are the interesting parts of my next match.

YouTube - https://youtube.com/devicesupport

This was a miracle on grass, and I should just quit PES once and for all while I am ahead. I don't think I am ever going to be able to replicate that kind of a match. Look at the stats at the end of the video. Argentina missed a penalty and hit the post once.

,----
| MATCH: ARG-PAR
| DIFFICULTY LEVEL: TW
| MY TEAM: PAR
| RESULT: win 0-2
| NEXT DIFFICULTY LEVEL: SS
`----

klashman69 · 27 May 2015

Right ok, fuck it, If i do this challenge on my channel to try and get people to join the forum and join in.

i'll try put a prize in for the winner. We need more people here.

*aLe · 28 May 2015

Please do so. Seeing those matches played with your tactics would bring it to another level for sure!

Meanwhile, I've played (and lost) the second match of the challenge :CURSE:

PES 2015 COPA AMERICA CHALLENGE - DAY 1
MEXICO - BOLIVIA 2-1
YouTube - https://youtube.com/devicesupport

Stats for the challenge:

MATCH: MEXICO - BOLIVIA
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: PW
PLAYING AS: BOLIVIA (weaker)
RESULT: 2-1 LOSS
NEXT DIFFICULTY LEVEL: PS (lower)

It's my fault. And that's the difference between PES and FIFA: in PES you get punished for silly mistakes, in FIFA you lose because it just was your turn, sorry man.

What I did on their first goal was simply abysmal, something that should never be seen on a football pitch. I had a couple of metres of advantage on my opponent and I reached a ball in my box but instead of kicking it away for good I decided to try and control it so we could build from there.
Obviously by the time my player had stopped the ball, turned, and seen the power bar full my opponent already dispossessed me and shot. One nil.
We equalised straight after, but it wasn't enough. I don't really know why but my defense sometimes is easier to cut in half than butter: during the second half they went up again and that's pretty much all.
Both keepers had a decent game, probably Arias being a little more busy than Ochoa.

Now let's move on to Uruguay vs. Jamaica (sorry Klash, playing as Uruguay here).

James Beaver · 29 May 2015

*aLe,

Thanks for another great video. It looked like a match of two halves, you dominating the first and Mexico the second. Are you playing on full manual? If so, do you know about the L1&O&O low hard manual shot? Might have made a difference in one of those breakthroughs.

As for that 1-0 goal, have I felt that sting so many times. One learns to clear when in doubt the hard way. Speaking of defensive blunders, I am currently down 0-1 at half time after dominating completely in my COL-VEN match.

*aLe · 29 May 2015

Actually shooting is manual and passing has no assistance, but I still cannot get my head around advanced through balls no matter what.
By the way, I've just finished editing my Uruguay-Jamaica video. Currently about to start Argentina-Paraguay while the video gets uploaded...Wait, what do you mean with "270 minutes left"? :CURSE:

*aLe · 30 May 2015

Here we are with another match from Day 1: let's move to Group B

PES 2015 COPA AMERICA CHALLENGE - DAY 1
URUGUAY - JAMAICA 2-1
YouTube - https://youtube.com/devicesupport

Stats for the challenge:

MATCH: URUGUAY - JAMAICA
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: PS
PLAYING AS: URUGUAY (stronger)
RESULT: 2-1 WIN
NEXT DIFFICULTY LEVEL: PW (higher)

Refereeing at its very best. I got Cavani sent off early for absolutely nothing, yet both teams made some very harsh tackles that went either unpunished (as in "no f*ck/foul given bu the referee") or punished with a yellow (seriously, if Cavani deserved a red Arévalo Rios deserved a lifetime ban). I've left some of them in the video for comparison sake.

Other than that, I just have to say it was predictable. Uruguay were simply too strong, a no-match for Jamaica, no matter what the Caribbeans tried to do. Well, indeed Jamaica didn't try much: they sticked to the 'hoofball 101' manual for the majority of the match.
As the hoofball rule #1 states that you should have pacey strikers and/or wingers, it shoudn't really have been a problem for the nation that gave birth to Asafa Powell and to Usain Bolt. Not exactly slow people.

Unlucky them this didn't work today, as on the other side Lodeiro decided it was his time to carry the team on his shoulders: his brace, especially the notable volley from outside the box after a poor clearance by Ricketts to make it 2-0, meant he got the MOTM award hands down.
Suarez, on the other hand, did everything in his power not to score. And I mean EVERYTHING: in Italy we'd say "he just ate all of his chances".
Still better than trying to eat randomly chosen opponents I guess (Chiellini anyone?).

In the final minutes of the match, as per usual, my "conceding at least one" habit lead to Jamaica scoring a goal to make it 2-1 and I must admit I shoud've foreseen that run and that pass.
Still we managed to grab a deserved win against a team that got dangerous only at the end when they decided to do away with hoofball and to play some nice passes on the ground instead.

On to the next match, Argentina vs. Paraguay, playing as Paraguay. Please, El Pocho, be kind.

James Beaver · 30 May 2015

*aLe said:
Actually shooting is manual and passing has no assistance, but I still cannot get my head around advanced through balls no matter what.

Two things about the advanced through ball.

1. It works so that after pointing to the passing direction and pressing and releasing the triangle button, the length of the time before you release the stick determines the length of the pass. Notice that the duration of the triangle press has nothing to do with the length of the pass.

2. The way I learned to use it was to set visual aids temporarily on, go to training, and use the advanced through ball to pass from one player to another. Then I took visual aids off again, and did some more passing in training.

I will return to your latest match later. Had an "incident" at home last night, and I even have my COL-VEN match still on hold at half time in my PS4, which is in rest mode.

*aLe · 30 May 2015

Thanks for the tips! I'm not planning to try the advanced through ball during this challenge but surely I'll have a look at it after I'm done losing matches.

By the way, I just finished my Argentina - Paraguay match as I didn't get to play it yesterday night (it was too late and I just managed to start the upload of the previous one before going out), I'll have it uploaded during the evening while I'm out for dinner, hopefully I'll be able to share it tonight.

*aLe · 30 May 2015

Here we are with another match from Day 1: let's continue with Group B

PES 2015 COPA AMERICA CHALLENGE - DAY 1
ARGENTINA - PARAGUAY 2-1
YouTube - https://youtube.com/devicesupport

Stats for the challenge:

MATCH: ARGENTINA - PARAGUAY
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: PW
PLAYING AS: PARAGUAY (weaker)
RESULT: 2-1 LOSS
NEXT DIFFICULTY LEVEL: PS (lower)

Yeah! We lost again! :FAIL:

Well, I guess these are the joys of manual shooting, especially when you try it against one of the best keepers in the world.

Romero was just brilliant, MOTM without any doubt. There's been a moment in the match when he performed a double save that was simply outstanding, on a league of its own.
Add this to my renowned shooting skills and you have the recipe of the match: despite having all in all more chances and playing pretty much undisturbed (let's say it, 'professional' is hardly a challenge) I lost.
Props to Argentina though, as they managed to use their chances well. Now we're moving into Group C, the next match will be Colombia - Venezuela, I'll be playing as Colombia.

James Beaver · 31 May 2015

And here are the bare highlights of my next match. I finally got to play it after it was on hold in rest mode in my PS4 for two nights (which, by the way, was no problem for the console). All further analysis included inside the spoiler below.

YouTube - https://youtube.com/devicesupport

With random player condition, over half of my starting eleven were in worse than regular condition, including the goalie. So I subbed in other players; fortunately Colombia has a wide material base to choose from.

Up to 41' I thought this was going to be a walk in the park. I was dominating the match completely. Venezuela had not had a single shot. But I had trouble in the final third. I am not used to playing with a wide midfield 4-2-2-2. There was always something missing from the middle of the attack.

At 43' I gave them the match, as you can see from that video. I classically pressed the wrong controller button. I was planning to call in multiple other defenders to control the winger - you can often do this, because the winger seldom crosses - but I double-pressed X instead of double-pressing square. So my defender does a tackle, and the winger walks past him, and we're done.

Although it was really easy to control the match, this shows why superstar is dangerous: you give them one chance, and that is it.

In the second half my domination continues. Venezuela manage a total of two shots in the entire match. But I still can not get a handle of the 4-2-2-2. I changed tactics to "attack centre" for a while, but it didn't make a difference. The Venezuelan defense worked very well against this formation. I thought about changing to my favourite 4-2-3-1, but that would have been pretty lame. I didn't lose this match because of full manual play; I lost because I could not utilize the offensive formation in the final third. My team had a total of 8 shots - with this quality difference in players, I should have had at least 20 shots.

So I push until the final minute, but the Venezuelans defend gallantly and are victorious.

,----
| MATCH: COL-VEN
| DIFFICULTY LEVEL: SS
| MY TEAM: COL
| RESULT: loss 0-1
| NEXT DIFFICULTY LEVEL: TW
`----

*aLe · 31 May 2015

James Beaver said:
At 43' I gave them the match, as you can see from that video. I classically pressed the wrong controller button.

I know how it feels, I experienced it several times myself (especially because being kinda used to FIFA I had the opposite trouble as yours: at the beginning when I pressed the "X" button on the 360 pad I expected my player to tackle, but in PES it just calls a second man). :CRY:

Unfortunately being unlucky is part of the game, so is giving away the match for silly mistakes/poor concentration (I, being a Milan fan, still remember that night in Istanbul for example) and so is the occasional fumble. Don't give up! :EASY:

*aLe · 31 May 2015

Moving into Group C, this is the time to try Colombia. James, Ibarbo, Cuadrado, Armero, Guarin, Ospina... Hopefully Venezuela shouldn't be much of a challenge

PES 2015 COPA AMERICA CHALLENGE - DAY 1
COLOMBIA - VENEZUELA 2-0
YouTube - https://youtube.com/devicesupport

Stats for the challenge:

MATCH: COLOMBIA - VENEZUELA
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: PS
PLAYING AS: COLOMBIA (stronger)
RESULT: 2-0 WIN
NEXT DIFFICULTY LEVEL: PW (higher)

As expected, Colombia proved superior in every aspect. And again, the difficulty level played a big big role in this.
Venezuela managed to get two attempts at goal from the left flank in the first minutes, and that's pretty much all. From there on, there's been only Colombia.
I actually struggled a lot to find the back of the net, to the extent that I had to wait until the second half to break the balance, but I really had the sensation that the goal was in the air.
After scoring the first with James Rodriguez (I must admit their defender played a key role in that), a great run by Cuadrado inspired the goal that secured the win.
The positive side of this is that I didn't concede and Ospina ended the match with a clean sheet. By the way, I got Ibarbo sent off for two useless fouls in five minutes. :FAIL:

Now, please don't remind me that I'm about to face Brazil with Peru. :CONF:

*aLe · 1 June 2015

And this is the last match from Group C, Day 1. Had to play as Peru against Brazil. :DOH:

PES 2015 COPA AMERICA CHALLENGE - DAY 1
BRAZIL - PERU 1-1
YouTube - https://youtube.com/devicesupport

Stats for the challenge:

MATCH: BRAZIL - PERU
DIFFICULTY LEVEL: PW
PLAYING AS: PERU (weaker)
RESULT: 1-1 DRAW
NEXT DIFFICULTY LEVEL: PW (same)

What a Neymar, guys. WHAT. A. NEYMAR.
At one time I just resorted to fouling him each time he had the ball as he looked unstoppable. Skills, tricks and pure class. Just to highlight the display from Neymar, I'll just say that the only time I missed a tackle and let him complete a trick, he scored. :FAIL:

Then we scored right after with a good pass to Vargas that put a low ball to Pizarro which moved it to Guerrero for the equalizer.
Other than that, I must tell that Brazil hit the post two times and that we didn't really put up much of a challenge.
Anyway, we managed to snitch a point so all in all I must consider myself satisfied with this.

Soon I'll post some stats about Day 1 (I thought that, as I'll surely end this challenge before the real knockout stage begins, I'll keep on playing basing on the results of the challenge itself instead).

*aLe · 1 June 2015

OVERVIEW - DAY 1

Pretty much the expected results with the better teams usually coming up victorious. Probably the only upset has been the Brazil vs. Peru match where Brazil were expected to simply walk over their opponents, but couldn't get further than a draw (especially becuse of some awful luck) while the match between Chile and Ecuador, which was open to both outcomes, resulted in the victory of the men in yellow.
Now it's their turn to face Bolivia for the first match of Day 2.

About my personal progress, here are the stats if anyone's interested (yes, I started the challenge with a fresh SYSTEM file and I'm not playing other matches during the challenge):

What I should really work on is probably the completed passes ratio which now lingers below the 70% mark, as poor passing (not in terms of accuracy usually, but often I can't hit the proper power) and somehow poor shooting held me back in several ocacsions.
I'd like to have the completed passes ratio exceed at least 75% before the end of the challenge.

James Beaver · 1 June 2015

*aLe,

exactly, many real matches are decided by mistakes, so if mistakes weren't costly in this game, what would be the point.

I watched your most recent two shooting galleries. Lots of action with good, varying styles of play. One of the beauties of manual play is that just like in real football, domination is not enough: you need that extra edge to score. This adds another layer of suspense - or frustration. Sometimes things click, sometimes they don't.

(I think the same effect could be achieved in assisted play if the CPU defense were more compact and reactive, and shooting and passing were less OP and more context sensitive, but that's just not the case in PES 2015.)

I too have BRA-PER coming up next, so we are synchronised at the moment. Based on my previous similarly unbalanced match (ARG-PAR), I am expecting a bumpy ride.

Edit. Just noticed you already played that match; hoping to follow suit soon. Great result! I also just faced Neymar in my Sevilla league, where I played one of my best matches against superstar ever. I was able to cause Barcelona their first loss of the season with a 1-0 end result. (Although this was a home match, and you can't turn off player emotions in leagues.)

James Beaver · 1 June 2015

*aLe said:
What a Neymar, guys. WHAT. A. NEYMAR.
At one time I just resorted to fouling him each time he had the ball as he looked unstoppable. Skills, tricks and pure class. Just to highlight the display from Neymar, I'll just say that the only time I missed a tackle and let him complete a trick, he scored.
Then we scored right after with a good pass to Vargas that put a low ball to Pizarro which moved it to Guerrero for the equalizer.
Other than that, I must tell that Brazil hit the post two times and that we didn't really put up much of a challenge.

I don't think that is a fair description of your play: I just watched the video, and your team had a good number of chances to actually win the match.

But yes, Neymar looked like a beast. I wonder what form he was in.

Just installed PES on a new PC, and will be playing some of the challenge matches on that device instead of my PS4. Which means no highlight videos for those matches.

I think gameplay is slower on my PC than on my PS4. On PS4 I play at -1, but had to switch to speed 0 on the PC.

Anyway, since you *aLe seem to be a PC player, I also wanted to ask you if there are any must add-ons in addition to SweetFX, which I already installed.

*aLe · 1 June 2015

I've played only a match on PS4 at a friend of mine and I found speed 0 a little faster than on PC too. That's why I was undecided between 0 and -1 when starting the challenge and went for 0.

In terms of add-ons, well, SweetFX radically changes the look of the game for me. Too bad I had to turn it off in order to record matches. With the proper SweetFX settings also the default turfs looked good to me, with SweetFX disabled I had to install a pitchmod to make them look acceptable.

So, basically, I installed these things:
- A pitchmod (there are two to choose from, one is by PesMonkey and one is by Fruits, and both of them are extremely good so it's basically a matter of choice)
- Modified crowd by RiverJin (I couldn't really stand how poor the crowd was during winter/rainy matches)
- Some additional stadiums (NikoLiberty's pack basically, with turfs by Fruits)
- An adboard pack (which allows me to use the Copa América adboars you see in my videos). I went for Hicksville and Majuh's pack but there are also others around.

Then I manually corrected names for fake/duplicate players playing in national teams (calling up real players instead of fake ones where applicable, see guardado and Ochoa in Mexico) and I'm importing kits/proper logos for the teams that don't have them (fixing team names where needed).
I started in january and I'm pretty much halfway through the process (because it is very difficult to find proper kits in good quality for certain teams, and the ones adapted from PES 2014 don't look that good to me).

Still, if you don't feel like fiddling with system files here and there, you could resort to a patch (the most famous around here are PESGalaxy and PTE) that will do pretty much everything for you.

By the way, the next match has nearly finished uploading. I hope to write two words and show the video directly tonight.

*aLe · 1 June 2015

By the way, sorry but something went balls-up and the upload won't move from the 80ish percent it's been stuck at for over two hours.
I'm going to retry it tomorrow

The adaptive offline Copa América 2015 challenge

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