Choose public or private before inviting people
Open Room from the Play menu to reach the multiplayer lobby. You can browse public rooms, join by code, or create your own room. A public room can appear in the lobby directory, where other visitors can see its name, host nickname, capacity, and match state. Use a private room when you want to share an invitation directly with friends instead of advertising it in the directory.
Private does not mean password-protected or reserved for verified identities. Someone with the room code or invitation link can attempt to join, subject to capacity and the room's state. Share the invitation only with the people you intend to play with. Choose a nickname and room name that do not contain your email address, phone number, school, or other personal details.
Create a room and check the roster
Enter a player nickname, choose your room settings, and create the room. The interface provides a six-character room code and an invitation link. Copy one of those using the room controls. Ask your friend to use the link or open Join room and enter the code. Opening the home page alone does not establish that they joined your room: both of you should check the player roster.
A room has four seats in total. Red and blue each allow at most two players. You do not need four people to play; two people on opposite teams can start a match. If a recently disconnected player's seat is still reserved, the room may appear fuller than the count of actively connected players suggests. Wait for the reservation to expire before assuming the capacity display is wrong.
Select teams before entering the field
Each player chooses red or blue after joining. The host starts the match, but cannot use that button to skip the team requirements. All online players must have selected a team and both teams must have an online player. If Start match is unavailable, review the roster for an unselected player or an empty team before reloading the page.
For a two-player duel, choose opposite sides. With three players, the resulting teams are uneven, so agree whether you are practicing or playing competitively. With four players, use two per side. The service does not automatically rearrange everyone to balance a departure. Remaining players keep their own team choices; review those choices when returning to the room between matches.
Use free practice while waiting
One player can select a team and enter free practice without waiting for an opponent. Practice lets you drive and touch the ball, and a goal resets the play without adding a formal match score. Other players can join the same practice field. Treat it as a shared warmup space: announce a drill so another car does not unexpectedly interrupt your approach.
Free practice does not automatically become a match when someone joins. Once the roster is ready, the host uses Start match in the room controls or practice interface. The normal match lasts five minutes. The practice ball shortcuts are for warmup, not a mechanism for changing a live competitive ball. Check the active Controls panel if you have changed your bindings.
Give each teammate a different job
In a two-person team, both cars driving at the same ball can leave the goal completely unprotected. Begin with a simple agreement: the nearer player approaches the ball and the other stays behind the play with a route back toward goal. After the first player misses or finishes a touch, that player recovers and leaves room for the teammate's approach.
This is a practice convention, not an enforced role system. You can swap jobs as positions change. Before challenging, glance at your teammate and ask whether they can cover a rebound behind you. If both cars would end up in the same corner, one should hold a more central position. Start slowly enough that each player can recognize when the other is committing.
Understand a short disconnect
A disconnected player can retain a seat, team, and reconnect identity for about 30 seconds. The browser uses a tab-session token to reconnect, so returning in the same tab is different from opening a private window or another device. Do not immediately create a new room if a friend has a brief connection interruption. Watch the roster while they reconnect.
If a team has no online players, the match clock pauses. When a disconnected player times out, their place can be removed. An intentional Leave action releases the position immediately. If the host leaves, hosting passes to another online player; the match server is not running inside the host's browser. These rules help explain why the host departing does not necessarily end everyone else's session.
Separate latency from a broken invitation
A failed join and delayed car movement are different problems. For a failed join, verify the exact code, the available seats, and whether the room still exists. For delayed movement, compare whether solo play is smooth on the same computer. Solo rendering problems often point toward device load; a room-only problem may involve the network or the shared session. Neither observation alone proves the cause.
Close heavy background downloads and avoid repeatedly refreshing every player's browser at once. Have one person test a reconnect while the others stay in the room. If the room needs to be recreated, tell everyone which new code to use so you do not split the group across two sessions. Consult the troubleshooting guide for a step-by-step isolation process.
Finish and share only what you intend to publish
Completing a match makes eligible individual results available for optional leaderboard submission. A player's goals are not simply a copy of the entire team's score. Public room nicknames and room names are separate from the anonymous leaderboard identity. Check the privacy policy for how room activity, browser storage, and submitted goals are handled.
If you need support, send the approximate time, browser, error message, and whether the room was public or private. Never email your reconnect token or browser cookies. For an inappropriate public room name, include enough information to locate the room and contact site support. This site does not offer a general chat or forum, but public names still need responsible use.