Playing paper football online
You can play a specific person or a stranger, with no account either way. Here is what actually happens behind the two buttons.
Two ways to reach an opponent
A private room. One player creates a room and gets a short code. The other types that code in. Send the code by any means you like — chat, text, shouting across the room. Nothing else is needed and neither player has to be signed in.
Random matchmaking. Press find match and you are put in a queue. The first two people in the queue are paired and the game starts. Waiting time depends entirely on who else is online right now, which the badge on the home page will tell you honestly.
There is also a third option people forget: two players on one device, passing the phone. It needs no server at all and is still the best way to teach somebody the game.
What the server actually does
The server is authoritative. It does not simply relay your moves to the other player — it keeps its own copy of the board and validates every move against the same rules engine that runs in your browser.
The practical effect: a modified client cannot make an illegal move. If the move does not check out on the server, it is rejected and the board does not change. The rules engine is shared code, so the version deciding what is legal on the server is literally the same file that draws the legal moves for you on screen.
This also means the game survives a browser refresh better than a peer-to-peer design would: the truth lives on the server, not in either player's tab.
Disconnects, rematches and abandoned games
If your opponent's connection drops, you are told rather than left waiting. An empty room is cleaned up automatically after a short delay, so codes get recycled and nothing lingers.
After a finished game either player can offer a rematch. The board resets, sides swap, and the same room code stays valid — you do not have to re-share it.
Deliberately quitting a losing position is the oldest trick in online gaming and it is worth saying plainly what happens: the game is recorded as it ended. Leaving does not erase the result.
Fair play and what gets excluded
Ranked play has one obvious attack: play against yourself from two devices and feed your own account wins. The countermeasure is deliberately simple and deliberately conservative.
When two players in a ranked match appear to be on the same network, the match is still played and still recorded in the history — but it does not affect either player's rating. No warning, no ban, no accusation: the game just does not count.
This inevitably catches some innocent cases. Two flatmates on the same Wi-Fi, or two friends on the same office connection, will find their matches unranked. That is a deliberate trade: a false positive costs a genuine pair of players some rating points, while a false negative would let one person quietly manufacture a place at the top of the table. The first is annoying, the second destroys the ranking for everybody.
The addresses used for this check are kept for a limited period and then deleted; the details are in the privacy policy.
Playing without an account
Everything above works without signing in. Your device generates a random identifier the first time you open the game, and that identifier is what appears in rankings.
The limitation is exactly what you would expect: the identifier lives in your browser. Clear your site data, switch phones, or open the game in a private window, and you are a new player with a new rating. Signing in with Google exists to solve that one problem — it links an anonymous identifier to an account so your history follows you.
Nothing else about the game changes when you sign in. There is no separate account-only mode, no gated content, and no advantage.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an account to play online?
No. Room codes and random matchmaking both work without signing in. An account only makes your ranking portable between devices.
Why did my match not count towards the ranking?
Most likely you and your opponent appeared to be on the same network. Matches between players who look like they share a connection are recorded but excluded from ratings, because that is the easiest way to inflate a rating artificially.
What happens if I lose connection mid-game?
Your opponent is notified. The room is cleaned up after a delay if nobody returns.
Can someone cheat by modifying the game in their browser?
They cannot make illegal moves. The server keeps its own board and validates every move with the same rules engine that runs in your browser.
Fancy a game?
No install, no sign-up. Opens in the browser and works offline against the bot.
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