SPEEDPOOL (beta)

SPEEDPOOL is in beta. It is playable today and marked BETA in the app because it is still being developed — scoring, layouts and graphics may change between updates.

SPEEDPOOL is a race against the clock. Rack 2 to 15 object balls, break, and clear the table as fast as you can: the clock starts at your break and stops when the last ball drops. Play alone to beat your best, save a layout you liked and replay it, or race your friends at one table or online. Any object balls will do — SPEEDPOOL counts them, it doesn't care which numbers they are.

How a game works

1. Rack. Pick how many balls in the settings and rack them anywhere on the table, together and clear of the pockets. The table says RACK 6 BALLS until it sees them resting, then BREAK WHEN READY. Put the cue ball where you like.
2. Break. The clock starts the moment your cue ball sets off into the rack — not when you press anything. Straightening the rack, or placing, rolling or throwing the cue ball by hand, doesn't start it: it takes a stroke.
3. Clear the table. Pot every object ball, in any order. A scratch adds 10 seconds to your time, 5 on the break (see Scratches). The time runs on the rail, and big on the game screen, with a row of the balls still on the table: each one you pot bursts off it.
4. Done. When the last ball drops, the table shows DONE 0:42.3 — minutes, seconds and tenths.

Playing alone, AGAIN racks up the next attempt, and SAVE LAYOUT keeps the layout your break left (see Saved layouts). Beat your best for that many balls and the result says NEW BEST.

When the clock stops

The clock stops when the last object ball drops — the speed pool rule — not when the cue ball stops. The table takes about a second to be sure nothing is left; that second isn't counted. A cue ball still rolling keeps the result open until it stops, so a scratch on the last shot still counts.

• DONE can be taken back. For three seconds after it, a ball that shows up again (one hanging in the jaws, or one your arm was hiding) or a cue ball that moves turns it into NOT DONE, and the clock carries on. Picking up the cue ball, or rolling it back to you, right after the last pot doesn't cost you time: your finish keeps the moment the last ball dropped.
• A ball in the jaws isn't potted. Tap it in.
• A ball you're standing over isn't potted either. If a ball disappears while it's sitting still — rather than rolling into a pocket — the table waits for your next shot, or three seconds, before it calls the table clear.
• Wrong finish? UNDO FINISH puts the clock back to running, for 15 seconds after a finish — at one table, until the next player's clock starts. (Online, see below.)
• The table sees a ball that isn't there — a chalk cube, a coin? Press DONE, on the game screen or the phone remote: the time stops at your press. A Done press is marked on the result and never counts as a best.
• RESTART RACK throws the attempt away and sets it up again.
• Time limit. With a round time limit, an attempt still running at the limit ends with TIME! and counts as a DNF (did not finish). Scratch seconds count toward it. With no limit, the clock stops itself at 15:00.

Scratches

A cue ball that goes into a pocket adds 10 seconds to your time — 5 if it goes in on the break, before the cue ball has stopped once after it. The table and the game screen flash SCRATCH +10 (or +5), and every clock jumps by it. Fetch the cue ball and carry on: the clock never stops for it.

• It's judged the way drills judge a scratch: a cue ball that disappears while it's rolling, at a pocket or heading into one, and stays gone for a second. One that's back within a second and a half (it rattled out, or your arm hid it a moment) costs nothing.
• A cue ball left hanging in the jaws out of sight counts as a scratch: the table can't tell it from one that dropped.
• Setting a scratched cue ball back down doesn't undo the scratch, even right by the pocket it went into.
• The result shows how many scratches the time includes.
• Rolling the cue ball into a pocket after the last ball is down is no scratch.

Your best times

Every attempt is saved to your game stats. On the Games page, SPEEDPOOL's My Stats shows your attempts, clears and a Best by balls table: your best and average time for each rack size you've played. The game's card shows your best at the rack size you play most.

Only a cleared new break counts toward a best for its number of balls — alone, at one table or online, they're all timed the same way. A DONE press, a DNF or a time fixed by hand never counts. Replays of a saved layout have bests of their own (below).

Saved layouts

After a new break, SAVE LAYOUT keeps where the balls ended up — the cue ball included — so you can play that exact layout again and beat your time on it.

1. In the SPEEDPOOL settings, set Start from to Saved layout and pick one. The list shows each layout's balls, your best on it and the original time (the run you saved it from, measured from its break).
2. The table projects a cross on every spot, and CUE for the cue ball. Put an object ball on each spot — any ball on any spot — and the cue ball on its own. The table counts them in (PLACE THE BALLS 4/6) and each one lights up as it lands.
3. When everything is in place, the game screen counts down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 — a beep each second, time to get down on your shot — then GO!: the clock starts, and you clear the table as usual. Once the countdown starts, nothing stops it; hit the cue ball before GO and the clock starts at your stroke instead. An extra ball on the table holds the start for a few seconds (TAKE OFF 1 BALL).

Race your best. Replay a layout you've cleared before and the clock counts down from your best time on it — the run you saved it from counts. Past zero the clock carries on in red as time over your best. The result says NEW BEST and by how much, or how far over you were.

Your best on a layout is your fastest replay from GO!. Rename or delete a layout from its row in the list. Saved layouts stay on this table's PC and are shared by everyone who plays on it; each player sees their own best.

Playing with friends

Pick LOCAL MULTI beside PLAY on the SPEEDPOOL start page: 2 to 6 players at one table, picked on the player cards. The playing order is drawn, then you take turns: after each finish the table shows the time and who's up next (DONE 0:42.3 · UP: SHOREY).

• Layout — Same layout: one player breaks (no clock), and everyone plays the layout that break left, from GO! — the breaker first, then each player puts the balls back on the spots for their own run. A new player breaks every round. Own break: everyone racks, the host starts a 10-second countdown, and everyone breaks on BREAK! — each clock starts at that player's own break. Who goes first moves on every round.
• Rounds — 1 to 20, one run each per round.
• Round time limit — Off, 2 min, 3 min, 5 min or 10 min.

Each round shows everyone's time and place, and the lowest total time wins. A DNF counts as the time limit; with the limit Off, as the round's slowest finish plus 30 seconds (15:00 if nobody finished). Equal totals share the place. Every player's attempts go into their own stats.

Online

Pick INTERNET to race 2 to 6 tables at once. Every table plays the host's settings: the balls, the rounds, the time limit and the layout choice.

• Same layout — the round's breaker breaks on their table, and the layout their break left appears on every table. Everyone places the balls on their own spots; when every table is READY, every table counts down to GO!. Still placing when it comes? The table says GO! — PLACE THE BALLS, and your countdown starts when the last ball is on its spot. The layout goes out once every ball has stopped; if the breaker's table spots a ball it missed before anyone's GO!, the layout updates on every table (The break left another ball) and everyone places that one too. A ball potted on the break leaves fewer to place, and the game screen says so (THE BREAK LEFT 5 OF 6 BALLS).
• Break again — not happy with your break? Once your layout is out, the breaker's RESTART RACK reads BREAK AGAIN: the round starts over with you breaking, and every table places the new layout. It never passes the break or counts against you. Racking again does the same: if your table sees a rack while everyone is placing your layout, it asks to break again by itself. A rack is never sent out as a layout.
• Own break — rack up and your table says READY — WAIT FOR BREAK!. When every table is ready, the host presses START COUNTDOWN: every table counts down from 10 (on the table, on screen, with beeps), then says BREAK! — everyone breaks together. Breaking before BREAK! doesn't count: rack again. If the host never starts it, the countdown starts by itself after 2 minutes.
• Everyone's table, live — the game screen is the other players' tables, each under their name and where their rack stands: PLACING, READY, their running clock and the balls they have left, then their time and place. Your own clock, your buttons and the standings are on the right.
• Your time is measured at your table, from your own GO or your own break, so a slow connection can never cost you time.
• Whose move? The headline on the game screen lights up when it's your move, and goes grey while you wait — naming who you're waiting for (READY — WAITING FOR SHOREY).
• Host controls — START NOW when someone is taking too long (a round also starts by itself two minutes after the first table is ready), PASS THE BREAK when the breaker is away, and REPLAY ROUND. While everyone places someone else's break, the host's RESTART RACK reads RESTART ROUND: every table drops the layout and the breaker breaks again.
• DONE only works online with 2 balls or fewer left and the cue ball still. Until then the button is greyed out.
• UNDO FINISH isn't available online, and neither is RESTART RACK once your clock is running. Use NOT DONE in the three seconds after DONE; after that the host can fix a time.
• With Off as the time limit, an online DNF counts as 15:00.
• After the match — REMATCH shows who asked for one (SHOREY WANTS ONE) or who it's waiting for. NEXT ACTIVITY is the host's.
• Everyone needs an up-to-date FusionCue: until an older app updates, the match room says who must update and the match doesn't start.

Fixing a result

• DONE — stops the clock now: on the game screen or the phone remote. It's marked on the result.
• Fix time and Mark DNF — click a player's card (online, their table, your own row or any row in the standings). At one table, anyone can fix any time; online, the host can fix anyone's and you can fix your own once it's in. A fixed time is marked edited. Online, the host's card menu also has Pass the break on the breaker's card.
• Replay round — clears the round's times and plays it again (online, the host's). You can also say "Hey Cue, replay round" — in SPEEDPOOL only; online it works at the host's table, and anyone else is told it's the host's call.
• Give … the turn — at one table, the player you clicked plays now, instead of whoever is up — before that player's clock has started.

Things to know

• SPEEDPOOL plays on the v8s v5 ball model. It switches to it when the game starts (the table says LOADING DETECTION for a moment) and back to yours when it ends.
• Keep the timer clear. The time and the table's words are projected on the rail, or on a clear patch of cloth if the rail is out of the projector's reach. Don't park balls under them.
• The phone remote shows the clock, with Done, Not done (or Undo finish right after a finish), Restart rack (or Again after a solo result) and End SPEEDPOOL.
• Tables of different sizes — a layout is kept relative to the table, so on a bigger or smaller table it scales with it.
• If the game's card or start page says Coming soon, Paused or Unavailable, it isn't open for your account right now.