The lobby is Europa Neo’s default landing page at /lobby. It is where you choose a display name, browse public matches, and decide whether to play or watch. No account is required. The site root redirects here.
On your first visit, the Your name card asks for a display name. Enter a name and choose Set name. Once accepted, the card says Playing as your handle and Ready to play. The browser remembers this guest session and name when you reload.
Handles must:
Well-formed emoji count as one character. Unpaired or malformed Unicode characters are rejected. If the name is invalid, the field shows an explanation — correct it and submit again. A name can also be rejected because another active visitor is already using the same name (case-insensitive, whitespace-trimmed). Choose a different name in that case.
The accepted spelling and casing are shown to other players. To rename yourself, enter a new value in Change name and choose Update name. Renaming does not create a second player. Your updated name takes effect in the lobby list and for future matches; while you are in an ongoing match, other participants continue to see the name that was active when you joined. A name remains reserved while a temporary connection is within its reconnect grace period.
Tip: Handles are temporary guest names, not accounts. Clearing browser storage or restarting the server starts a fresh guest session; it does not recover the old name.
The Public matches list shows eligible public games. Each row gives a short match label, status, occupied seats, capacity, board size, and tick interval.
| Row status | Action |
|---|---|
| Waiting for players with an open seat | Choose Join to claim one player seat. |
| Waiting for players and full | No action is offered; the game is about to start automatically. |
| In progress | Choose Spectate to watch without joining as a player. |
The list updates when games are created, filled, started, or cleaned up. Finished games are not kept as history. If a game fills or disappears between the time you read the list and choose an action, the lobby reports that it is unavailable and refreshes the list.
If there are no eligible games, the lobby says No public matches right now — create one to get started.
Choose settings in Create a match, then choose Create match:
The server validates the settings. If a setting is unsupported, an explanation appears beside the relevant field and no match is created. Creating a match reserves your player seat and opens a waiting room. There is no separate Start button: when the required seats fill, the match starts automatically.
After choosing Join or Create match, you enter the match view. Before the game starts, it shows a waiting overlay — for example, “Waiting for 2 more players… (1/3)” — your accepted handle, and the seat count (shown as k / N). Keep the page open. The board appears and begins ticking when the match starts. The waiting message announces the transition for screen readers as well as visually.
The match view keeps a semantic address such as /match/m-123/join. You can use /match/m-123 to let the match state choose between player entry and spectating, or /match/m-123/spectate to request read-only viewing explicitly. These addresses contain the match ID, not your handle, reconnect session, or transport details.
Your own active match is marked Your match if you return to the lobby. Its row does not offer another Join or Spectate action, so the same guest session cannot accidentally claim a second seat.
Choose Spectate only on an In progress row. Spectator mode shows the full match view, including all participant handles, but it is read-only:
Participant labels are handle-first and come from the server’s accepted handles. If a handle is unavailable, the interface uses a generic label or a safe ID fallback; IDs are correlation data, not credentials. Labels are presented as separate, direction-safe fields, so a right-to-left or mixed-direction name cannot reorder surrounding text. Bearer credentials are never shown as labels, printed in diagnostics, or requested from players.
The match header has Leave to lobby. Choose it to release your match presence and return to /lobby; focus moves to the lobby heading and the return is announced. The accepted handle remains available for your next lobby action.
Every match has a Copy link action that copies the match address to your clipboard. The link is the canonical /match/<match-id> URL — it contains the match ID only, not your handle, reconnect session, or transport details.
| Match type | Copy link appearance |
|---|---|
| Private match | A dedicated share row — the link is the only way for others to join, so the action is prominent and unmissable. |
| Public match | A subtle icon button — the lobby listing is also an entry path, so the action is quieter. |
After copying, a brief Copied! confirmation appears. If the clipboard write fails (for example, the browser denies permission), the URL is displayed as selectable text so you can copy it manually.
Send the link to a friend. When they open it in their browser, they are guided through handle setup (if needed) and then asked whether they want to Play (if seats are open) or Spectate. Participants who already have a seat go straight into the match without an interstitial. Private matches are joinable and spectatable only through the shareable link — they do not appear in the lobby list.
You can reload the page at any time; the /match/<match-id> address remains stable and your existing reconnect behavior is preserved.
If a player’s connection drops, the match shows Reconnecting to match… and tries to restore the connection. Keep the tab open. A temporary disconnect can reclaim the same seat and handle during the existing 60-second reconnect grace period. After the grace period, the seat is forfeited and you must choose another match or create a new one. The resume credential is handled by the browser and server; do not copy or share it.
The lobby uses visible messages and screen-reader announcements instead of leaving a blank page:
Use the native buttons, fields, radio buttons, and selects with Tab, Shift+Tab, arrow keys, and Enter or Space. The first Tab stop is Skip to main content. Errors and state changes are announced, focus is visible, and returning from a match places focus on the lobby heading. Reduced-motion settings are respected.