Pre-lobby

Pre-lobby
What it is	The wait in your team’s spawn area before a match starts
Where it is used	King of the Hill (the only mode that turns it on in the game files)
Points to Cash	1 point = 1 Cash, paid when the match starts
Normal starting Cash	10,000 in the game’s currency table, with the points paid on top (see Starting Cash below)
Most you can bank	5,000 points
Free points	150 when you arrive, then 250 every 60 seconds
Ways to earn more	Hot Potato, the soccer pitch, the moving practice targets
Minimum time in the lobby to be paid	15 seconds

While a match is filling up, players wait in their team’s spawn area. The game gives them things to do and counts what they earn as pre-lobby points. When the match starts, the points are paid out as extra starting Cash.

How points become Cash

Rate. One point is one Cash. There is no multiplier.
Timing. The whole amount is paid in one go at the moment the match starts. It is added to your normal starting Cash, not instead of it (see Cash and Rewards).
Cap. You can bank at most 5,000 points. Anything above that is lost.
Discount. At the same moment you get a first-purchase discount tag, which the economy settings use for a price cut on your first buy (see Shops).
Time in the lobby. You are only paid if you have been in the lobby for at least 15 seconds when the match starts. Points that would arrive in your first 15 seconds are refused. This is read from the game code, not seen in play.
Late arrivals. A player who joins when the lobby is already full or already declared ready does not get the arrival points and is not paid. A player who joins a match that is already running has no pre-lobby at all.

Where points come from

Source	Points
Arriving in the lobby	150, once
Waiting	250 every 60 seconds (only counts if the lobby lasts that long)
Hot Potato pass	10 times the pass multiplier: 10, 20, 30 and so on
Soccer goal	50 to the last player to touch the ball
Soccer assist	25 to the last player who passed it to the scorer
Moving practice target	The damage of your hit, rounded down. Melee blows and fists do not count

These are the only sources in the game. The pitch and the targets are described in Boundaries and Safe Zones. The game’s text and sounds for the awards know exactly three reasons: the potato, shooting and soccer.

How long it lasts

The lobby ends in two steps, and each one has a countdown that starts only once its condition is met (see King of the Hill).

Player count. The match waits until 60 players have been placed on a team. Until then this step has no time limit at all. When the 60th player is on a team, a 10 second countdown starts.
Ready-up. This step needs at least 9 players and every one of them ready. When that holds, a 5 second countdown starts.

So the wait has no fixed length: it lasts as long as it takes to fill the lobby, plus about 15 seconds of countdown once it is full and ready. A lobby that is already full when the step begins starts its countdown at once. A server owner can set other counts and times. The game’s code also has a pause flag on the server that holds the countdown while it is set; what sets it was not found.

Points stop being accepted when the lobby is declared ready, or once 60 or more players are in it. After that, new points are refused. Because the wait for players has no time limit, the 250-points-per-minute award can pay out for as long as the lobby stays open and unfilled; in a lobby that fills in under a minute it never fires.

What happens at match start

The soccer pitch, with its ball, and the moving practice targets are removed from the spawn areas. Goals and target hits cannot score once the match has begun.
The Hot Potato mini-game switches off. Whether a potato you are still holding is taken away was not checked; its fuse ends the chain anyway.
Your pre-lobby points are paid as Cash (above).
Nothing in the game moves you when the match starts. The pre-lobby is played in your own team’s spawn area, and the match begins with you where you stand (inferred from the absence of any such step; not seen in play).
Nothing heals you, refills your health or empties your inventory at that moment. Gear, ammunition and anything else you bought or picked up in the pre-lobby stay with you (inferred from the absence of any such step).
The other things that switch on with the start are the zone and its music, the on-screen match display, wagers, refunds and call-for-help requests, which only work once the match is playing. None of them changes the player.

Starting Cash

The starting balance in the game’s currency table is 10,000 Cash. It is the same in every mode that uses the normal currency; the only different starting amounts are the two co-operative missions (3,000 for Strike and Disarm, 2,000 for VIP Escort; see Strike and Disarm and VIP Escort). The game applies this balance when you join, as your player profile is set up, not when the match starts, so it is already there before the pre-lobby begins. It is applied only when the game mode does not keep Cash between matches. A networked server keeps it by default, so on those servers your Cash when you join comes from your saved player profile on the online service, which the game does not show; the 10,000 is then the table value and the first-time balance (inferred), not something the client hands out each match. The server settings file has an entry for overriding the starting Cash, but this version of the game has no such setting, so it does nothing. The pre-lobby points are the only Cash the start of the match adds.

Sources

Categories: Game Modes & Maps Game modes