Match Rules

Walk into a pitch's ready zone, the ring of particles near the pitch. A hologram above it shows who's ready. Once enough players are standing inside, a countdown starts: rising chimes, a ring that shrinks to the centre, then 3, 2, 1, GO! and the match starts itself.

Step out and you drop from the count. If it falls below the minimum, the countdown is cancelled until someone comes back. While a match is on, the hologram shows the score, and after full time the zone rests for 30 seconds before it will start the next one.

When the countdown hits GO, walk to the end you want to defend and stay in that half for 5 seconds. Anyone who hasn't chosen by then is put on the shorter side.

Seven per team: GK goalkeeper, CB centre back, LD and RD left and right defence, LW and RW left and right wing, and FW forward.

/position opens a picker laid out like the pitch, or type a code, like /position fw. One player per position per team. If you don't pick, you're handed a free one at kickoff and told which. Every kickoff and every goal puts you back on your position's spot.

The ball is a spectral arrow. Hold it and you have the ball: you glow in your team's colour, visible through walls, and the action bar shows who has it.

• Shoot the bow to pass or shoot.
• Hit a teammate and it's a pass. Hit an opponent and it's an interception.
• Land it anywhere else and the ball rests on the ground with a glowing marker. Walk over it to pick it up.

Hit the player carrying the ball three times and it pops loose to you. Both of you see a live hit counter on the action bar, and the sound rises as the steal gets closer. Every click counts, and two teammates closing down the same carrier never cancel out each other's hits.

Nobody can die. A hit that would kill is simply voided.

At the start of each half everyone lines up in formation in their own half. The kicking team's forward starts on the centre spot, facing their own goal, and must pass the ball backward into their own half.

Until that pass lands, nobody may cross the halfway line. A kickoff shot forward, at goal, out of play or into an opponent is retaken. When the pass lands, everyone sees Play on! and the restriction lifts. Scrims have no kickoff rule.

Shoot the ball into the net. A goal only counts if the shot was taken:

• from beyond the halfway line, and
• from outside the box in front of that goal.

Own goals always count. A shot that breaks a rule is NO GOAL: a red sign over the net says why, and the defending team gets a goal kick. While you carry the ball, the action bar warns you whenever you're standing somewhere a shot wouldn't count.

A shot over the line only counts once it hits the net or the ground, so a keeper can still catch it on the line. It has to be travelling into the net, so a shot from behind the goal can never score. And you have to shoot: walking the ball in is refused, and it's a goal kick.

You can't instantly collect your own shot. Play the ball to yourself and the other team gets a set piece, decided by where you were standing:

• Inside your own penalty area: a penalty at your own net.
• Anywhere else: a free kick to them, from that spot.

Taken from the exact spot where it was given, and the taker may shoot straight at goal.

Win the ball inside your own box and a countdown starts on your action bar. Pass it out before it runs out, or the other team gets a corner. It's there to stop teams sitting on the ball at the back.

The ball is only out once it settles outside the lines, not the moment it flies over them. Then:

• Out in the last toucher's own half: a corner to the other team, from the nearest corner.
• Over a sideline in the other half: a pass-in to the other team, from where it crossed.
• Over the goal line you're attacking, like a shot wide or over: a goal kick to the defenders.

A ball that never settles is called after three seconds. Carry it fully off the pitch and the same calls apply: a pass-in over a sideline, a goal kick over the goal line, or a corner at your own end.

On corners, goal kicks and pass-ins nobody is moved. The ball is placed at the spot, glowing in the colour of the team that gets it, and only that team can pick it up. After about 20 seconds anyone can, so play never stalls.

The scorer's name and the score pop up over the net, with lightning and the team's sounds. Everyone goes straight back to their formation spot, and the ball is placed in front of the net that was just beaten for the conceding team to collect. Only they can pick it up for the first 20 seconds. There's no kickoff restriction after a goal.

Two timed halves, ten minutes each by default, with no score limit and a short break between them. A coin flip decides who kicks off; ends swap at half time, and whoever didn't start with the ball kicks off the second half. Every half opens with the backward-pass kickoff.

A match that can't end level, built for tournaments. A tie goes to extra time, two five-minute halves, then a penalty shootout. Each team picks three takers and a keeper, the teams alternate kicks, best of three, then sudden death.

A preliminary match, by contrast, can end in a draw.

First team to the goal limit wins, with no clock. It opens with a lob: the ball goes up from the centre spot and everyone scrambles for it. After that, goals restart as normal, and there's no kickoff rule.

No clock and no halves. The first team to the win score takes it: five goals, unless the pitch is set up otherwise.