Tournaments

Tournaments are knockout brackets played live, one on one, over internet multiplayer. The organizer picks the game and the format; win and you move on.

Formats

• Single elimination. Lose once and you're out.
• Double elimination. Your first loss drops you to the losers bracket; one more loss and you're out. The winners-bracket champion meets the losers-bracket champion in the grand final. If the losers-bracket player wins it, both have lost once, so one more match, the deciding final, crowns the champion.

Games

Every game with a two-player mode can be a tournament game:

• Poolseye — turn by turn; set rounds, target size and scoring.
• SPEEDPOOL — both tables race every rack; set racks, balls, same rack or own racks, and a time limit. Lowest total time wins.
• LAGZONE — both tables lag at once; most lags won.
• Maze, STOPSHOP and GROUND ZERO — both tables at once, or turn by turn on the same or different layouts, with the game's own settings.

Instant Recall has no two-player mode yet, so it can't be a tournament game.

Entering

Open Tournaments in the sidebar. The page lists tournaments that are open for entry, live now, and finished.

A tournament page shows the game, the format, the prize, how long each match stays open, and which tables can enter; Format & rules has the rest. Press Enter the tournament, pick the name shown on the bracket, and confirm three things:

• you'll play your matches live against your opponent, inside each match window;
• assists are off during tournament matches;
• leaving a match, or dropping out for more than 5 minutes, forfeits it.

When the tournament allows live viewing, there's a fourth: your matches can be watched live in the arena, your voice included (see The arena).

Who can enter is set per tournament: all FusionCue owners (a license or a subscription) or subscribers only. Trial accounts can't enter tournaments. Some tournaments are invite only; you'll get an invite in the app and by email. You can only enter a tournament in a game you can play.

A tournament can be limited to certain table sizes (7 ft, 8 ft, 9 ft or snooker). FusionCue reads your table size from your calibration. If it's wrong, fix it in Settings → Calibration before you enter.

You can withdraw any time before the draw.

The draw

When entry closes (or the organizer starts the tournament), the bracket is drawn at random. If the number of players isn't a power of two, some players get a bye straight into the next round. You're told who you play the moment the bracket is out.

Playing a match

A match opens as soon as both players are known — nothing waits for a round to finish. It then stays open for the tournament's match window (anything from one hour for a one-night event to several days).

• Play now. When you're at your table, press Play now. Your opponent gets a popup; when they press it too, the match starts right away. A Play now press lasts 10 minutes.
• Or agree a time. Offer up to three start times inside the window; your opponent picks one. You both get a reminder ten minutes before.

Once you've both pressed Play now, FusionCue opens the match room with you both already in it. Press I'm Ready when your table is up; the match starts as soon as you're both ready.

The opening lag

Turn-by-turn games (Poolseye, and Maze, STOPSHOP or GROUND ZERO played turn by turn) open with one LAGZONE lag, both players at once. The lag winner has two minutes to choose who shoots first. Shooting second means you always know the number to beat. If the winner doesn't choose in time, their opponent shoots first.

Race games (SPEEDPOOL, LAGZONE, and the lights-out games played at once) skip it: both tables start together.

The tournament sets every lag: traditional (to the head rail) or variable (to a line that moves), and lights on (the table light stays on, simple white lines — works on every table) or lights out (the table light goes off and the projector lights the lag). A tied lag is lagged again.

The game

The tournament's settings apply to both players. In Poolseye the player shooting first places the balls; both shoot the same layout and the same bullseye each round.

During the match the shot planner, cue-path preview, table markers and the voice coach are switched off. They come back when the match ends.

A tie

A match level after its last round plays sudden-death rounds, as any online match does (up to five; LAGZONE has none). Still level, one tiebreak lag settles it: the lag winner wins the match.

Rules that decide matches

• Dropping out. If your connection drops, you have 5 minutes to come back. After that the match is decided without you.
• Leaving. Leaving a live match forfeits it.
• Leaving the lobby. Backing out before the match starts doesn't forfeit: the match waits until you've both pressed Play now again. Anything already decided (the lag, who shoots first) stands.
• Score fixes. In a tournament match the host can't change their own round scores. The host can still fix their opponent's rounds, and the other player can fix their own.
• Missing an agreed time. 15 minutes after an agreed start, the player who showed up (pressed Play now) wins.
• The deadline. When the match window closes without a match, a player who tried to play wins; if neither tried, it counts as a loss for both. If both tried and couldn't find a time, the organizer decides.

Watch a match

Both tables record every tournament match, every lag and the game, and each recording uploads by itself when the match ends. On the tournament page, click a match in the bracket, or a player's name to start on their recording. The Champion card opens the final.

While a match is live the top bar shows REC · AUTO. The recording can't be stopped; it's the same match picture Record saves, and a copy stays in Videos → Match replays. Uploads wait until you've finished playing (a lag's recording goes up after the game) and pick up where they stopped if the app closes.

• Follow shooter, where a turn-by-turn match opens, plays each turn from the recording of whoever is at the table. Both plays the two recordings side by side, in step; a player's name shows just theirs. Lags and race games are played at once, so they play both.
• Click a round, or a player's score, in the scorecard to jump to it. SPEEDPOOL shows each rack's time (or DNF) and the total.
• Every lag has its own tab — a tied lag and its re-lag, and a tiebreak lag.

Uploading means a recording is on its way. Waiting for a player's app means their app closed before the upload finished; it carries on the next time they open FusionCue. Matches played on an older app have no recording.

Replays are unlisted: anyone who can see the tournament can watch them, but they never appear in the community feed.

The arena (beta)

The arena is in beta and may change between updates.

Switch a tournament page from Bracket to Arena to walk around a 3D venue where every match is a pair of tables, one for each player. Live tables are lit, the next ones are racked, and the final plays on the TV tables under the big screen. The bracket hangs on the wall.

On a live match each table shows that player's real balls, moving as they move on their own table at home (a moment behind, so it stays smooth). In a game played turn by turn only the shooter's table is lit, with them standing at it; in a race (SPEEDPOOL, LAGZONE, the lag) both tables play at once.

• You see the arena through your own eyes. W A S D walks (hold Shift to run), drag to look around (up at the screens, down at the cloth), and click the floor to walk there. Scroll out to step back and see yourself; scroll in again to return.
• Click a table to see its match. E gives you a close-up of the table you're standing at: drag to circle it and scroll to zoom right down to the balls (E again, or a WASD key, takes you back). O shows the whole hall.
• Everyone else in the arena walks around with you. Press T to chat (your message shows over your head), 1 – 6 to react, and open the people list to see who's here. The list on the right shows the tables in play and how many people are at each one.
• C turns on the Auto camera: it follows the best match, cuts between shots only when the balls stop, and moves on when something bigger happens elsewhere. Any walk, drag or click hands the camera back to you.

Talk

Click Join voice to hear the people near you, coming from where they stand. Hold V (or hold the mic button) to talk; letting go stops. You hear the six people closest to you who are talking. Open the people list to mute someone just for you. Hosts can mute anyone for the whole event, which stops their chat, reactions and voice.

Voice needs a signed-in FusionCue account and your microphone. It's off until you join, and the app remembers your choice on that device.

The host

When a tournament is being broadcast, Cal Banks, the arena's host, walks the venue to the most exciting table. Cal's lines show as subtitles for everyone, and you hear them when you're close by (or anywhere in the arena, when the host switches that on).

Broadcast to YouTube and Facebook

Hosts can stream a tournament from the arena. Broadcast, at the top of the arena, opens the Broadcast window: the arena from the Auto camera with the score bug, player names, big-moment call-outs and Cal Banks' commentary. Pick YouTube, Facebook, Twitch or a custom RTMPS address, then Start broadcast. The window keeps running while you play your own match; closing it asks before it ends the stream.

Live viewing

When the tournament allows it, walk up to a live table and its big screen plays the match: both tables, the score and the players' voices, with the sound coming from the table. Press F, or Full screen on the table card, to watch it full size. Watching is free; up to 25 people can watch a match at once.

While anyone watches, the players see ● N WATCHING at the top of their game screen. Organizers turn this on or off with Allow live viewing in the tournament settings (on for new tournaments). It can't change once players have entered.

Replays

Every match's balls are saved as it's played, so you can watch any finished match again in the arena, during the tournament or after it. Press B for the bracket and click a played match marked Replay (or click it on the bracket wall, or press Replay on its table's card). Its tables light up and the balls move exactly as they did, while everyone else keeps walking and chatting around you.

• The bar at the bottom plays and pauses (or press Space), and plays at 1×, 2× or 4×. Its arrow shrinks it to a small bar with just play, the score and the time; the arrow there brings it back.
• Drag along it to move through the match. Each tick is a rack; click a rack below the bar to jump to it.
• The score on the boards counts up rack by rack, as it did live.
• When the match was recorded, the table's big screen plays the recording in step with the balls. Press F (or the full-screen button on the bar) to watch it full size. On fusioncue.com the video needs a signed-in account, like the live cameras.

Replays are only yours: nobody else sees the table change. Matches played before replays arrived have no balls to replay, but a match that was recorded still replays: the table stays empty while its big screen plays the recording, with the score counting up rack by rack. On fusioncue.com that needs a signed-in account and the tournament's live viewing turned on.

Watch on fusioncue.com

Anyone can watch a tournament's arena in a web browser at fusioncue.com/arena, no app needed: the tables and their real balls, the scores, the crowd, the bracket and the replays. Signed out, you watch: the Auto camera follows the action (press C to look around yourself) and you can read the chat. Sign in with your FusionCue account to join the crowd: walk, chat, react, talk (hold V) and watch the live tables on the big screens.

Organizers choose which tournaments show there with Show on fusioncue.com in the tournament settings. It's on for new tournaments and can be changed at any time, even after the final. Invite-only tournaments never show.

Notifications

You'll get a notification (and, for tournaments that run over hours or days, an email) when the bracket is out, when your match opens, when your opponent offers times, and when your result is in — including a drop to the losers bracket. New tournaments show a popup once; tick Don't show tournament popups to stop them. Tournament emails follow the Social switch in your email preferences.

Local tournaments

Got friends over? Tournaments → Local runs a bracket on your own table: pick the game, single or double elimination, and the players from your rig's player list (or add them there). The bracket shows who's up; press Play and the game starts with those two, and the result fills in by itself. Any result can be edited; players can withdraw; it all stays on your table.