Rocket League Update 2.06 Patch Notes: What is Free Play Ball Control?

If anything is more exciting than a Rocket League Update, you can eat my hat. Honestly. It's leather, it probably tastes like arse, and it would be insanely chewy, but you can eat my hat. Last week, we got Rocket League Update v2.05, and it was an absolute blast (pun intended)! Now? Well, Rocket League Update 2.06 has crashed into our games, bringing Free Play Ball Control to training mode.

I'm pretty sure that you're jumping for joy, and if you're not, then you should go and buy a trampoline. Guys, we got a Rocket League Update two weeks in a row, this is unheard of! Who would have thought? I certainly wouldn't have, that's for sure. So: what came in the new update? Here's everything that we know about Rocket League Update v2.06 and Free Play Ball Control.

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What Came in Rocket League Update v2.06?

Rocket League's Update v2.06 brought Free Play Ball Control to the game's training mode. In addition, Psyonix's new Community Post pointed out the fact that the developers have been performing small-scale ban waves on toxic players for "Unsportsmanlike Conduct". After the Season 4 update introduced matchmaking penalties to Casual Playlists, match completion rates have seen an increase, but so has toxic behavior, so Psyonix will be introducing some measures to combat this.

Here's a snippet from the Community Post:

We also want to talk about matchmaking and player behavior a bit. Since introducing matchmaking penalties to Casual Playlists at the start of Season 4, we’ve seen a significant increase in match completion rates. We’ve also seen a very small uptick in some forms of toxic behavior, and we’ve dished out several small, tactical Unsportsmanlike Conduct ban waves over the last few weeks in response. Along with these ban waves, we’re working on some new approaches to how we handle Unsportsmanlike Conduct reporting behind the scenes. We’ll talk about that more once the changes are in place.

In addition, Psyonix came out and announced that they want to continue to release a higher quantity of smaller updates like Rocket League Update v2.06 to "implement exciting new ideas and quality-of-life improvements more freely". They also teased something "batty" coming for Rocket League's Halloween Event in 2021.

When is the Rocket League Update v2.06 Release Date?

Update v2.06 released for all platforms that host Rocket League on October 12, at 4PM PDT / 11PM UTC. It brought a cool new feature to Training Mode called "Free Play Ball Control" and a number of bug fixes.

A new Community Update is live on the blog! Today we're looking at October, analyzing the changes we made to Casual Matchmaking, and revealing a new feature coming to Free Play in a game update tomorrow at 4pm PDT / 11pm UTC. Details: https://t.co/hqu3Hmg4PW pic.twitter.com/8r6BwcDjL4

— Rocket League (@RocketLeague) October 11, 2021

What is Rocket League Free Play Ball Control?

Free Play Ball Control is a new feature, coming to every platform, that will "dramatically level up your time spent in free play". Whilst waiting in the queue, waiting on friends, or just warming up in solo, Free Play Ball Control allows you to practice a number of different mechanics. It looks like a great way to practice on the fly and maximize your abilities in Rocket League.

What Can I Practice in Free Play Ball Control?

• Taking possession
• Starting a dribble
• Passing the ball
• Launching the ball upward (similar to in Hoops)
• Defend against a shot

For more details, don't forget to check out Psyonix's Rocket League Community Post. In the post, they addressed all of the information present in this article, regarding Rocket League Update v2.06, in more detail.

Rocket League Update v2.06 Patch Notes

Rocket League Update v2.06 Patch Notes: Changes and Updates

Free Play Ball Control

• New ball controls are now available in Free Play
  • We want to thank everyone who contributes to BakkesMod and their hard work for inspiring this feature addition
• You can now control the ball in five different ways with the push of a button:
  • Take Possession: Places the ball in front of your car
  • Start Dribble: Places the ball on the hood of your car
  • Pass Ball: Sends the ball towards your car
    • Sometimes the pass will be just left or right of your car, depending on the angle and position, so heads up!
  • Launch Ball: Behaves similarly to tip-off in Hoops
  • Defend Shot: Shoots the ball towards the closest goal
• These new controls can be used together
  • Example: You can use Launch Ball to send it high, then Defend Shot to mimic a shot from the ceiling or high up on the wall
• Ball Reset continues to work as before (return to the kickoff position)
• Defend Shot and Pass Ball don’t always work as intended in some arenas and modes, including:
  • Double Goals (Rocket Labs)
  • Utopia Retro (Rocket Labs)
  • Dropshot
  • Hoops
• [Nintendo Switch] When using a single Joy-Con for controls, Free Play Ball Control is disabled

Rocket league Update v2.06 Patch Notes: Bug Fixes

General

• Fixed the appearance of several Decals including Leviathan, Chameleon, and Trigon
• Fixed a bug causing Esports Shop Decals to cover trim on Painted Car Bodies
• Fixed a bug with the News Panel

Rocket league Update v2.06 Patch Notes: Known Issues

• The 'Goop XS' and 'Goop SE' Decals appear as placeholder textures

Well, there you have it: the Rocket League Update v2.06 Patch Notes and all known details about Free Play Ball Control. This is, as always, a select breakdown of the patch notes. For the full patch notes, as well as more detailed information on Free Play Ball Control, check out the official Rocket League Update v2.06 Patch Notes and Psyonix's Community Update respectively.

Read More:

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