The roster — who is online

The roster is a real-time list of every active player in the lobby. It appears on the lobby landing page at /lobby and tells you at a glance who is online, who is playing, and who is watching.

What the roster shows

The roster card displays:

A heading with the total count: “Players online (N)”.
A list of players, each showing their handle and a text status badge.
Your own entry is marked with a “(you)” indicator after your handle.

Players online (3)
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Alice (you)         ● In lobby      │
│ Bob                 ● In game       │
│ Charlie             ● Spectating    │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

Players are listed in alphabetical order by handle (case-insensitive). The list updates in real time as players join, leave, or change status.

Status values

Each player’s status is derived from their current activity:

Status	Meaning
In lobby	The player is in the lobby and not in any match. They are available to play.
In game	The player is seated in a match (whether it is waiting for players or already in progress).
Spectating	The player is watching a match as a spectator. They are not a participant.

The status updates automatically and in near real time — typically within one second of a change.

How the roster updates

The roster pushes updates from the server:

When a new player connects to the lobby, their entry appears.
When a player joins a match, their status changes from “In lobby” to “In game”.
When a player spectates a match, their status changes to “Spectating”.
When a player leaves a match and returns to the lobby, their status returns to “In lobby”.
When a player disconnects (or their reconnect grace period expires), their entry is removed.

Players in private matches appear with their derived status (“In game” or “Spectating”) but without any information about which match they are in — only their handle and status are shown.

Presence unavailable

If the roster connection fails or the server does not support the roster, the card displays:

Players online (?)
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Presence unavailable                │
│ Presence data is not connected.     │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

This means the roster data is not currently available — it does not mean nobody is online. The roster will recover automatically when the connection is restored.

Accessibility

The roster is fully accessible:

The list is keyboard-navigable (Tab through entries).
Status changes are announced to screen readers via a live region (with coalescing to avoid announcement spam during rapid updates).
All text and status badges meet WCAG 2.2 AA contrast requirements.
Reduced-motion settings are respected — no animations on status changes.

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