Some notes about how Balance Sliders and Universe Mode interact in 2K26
Like every year, I noticed that the Balance Sliders didn't seem to be working Quite Right (c).
I found that "AI Damage Scaling" and "AI Pin Kickout Difficulty" can dramatically alter the length of a match. With both sliders at 5, a match could last 15+ minutes; with both at 100, a match could be over in 3-4 minutes. I ran a bunch of matches in Exhibition to test that this was consistent.
I made a Universe with these Sliders @ 5, and as expected, matches were lasting 12-15 minutes. I changed the sliders to 100, and it didn't seem that it had done anything - this is why people think sliders don't work in Universe.
I made a new Universe save and sure enough, matches were consistently 3-5 minutes with the sliders at 100 - Universe Mode "takes" sliders when you create the save, and doesn't change them... unless...
If you hit F1 / R3 on the Universe Mode main menu (Next Show) it will "Pause" your Universe - go make changes to your sliders and then come back, "Resume" your Universe (Enter / X) and the sliders will take effect when you start your next show.
This has bothered me for years, with Universe not using Sliders correctly, and I'm thankful they added the "Pause Universe" function because it fixes it!