Hello, My name is Lightbringer (Light or Para) and I am making this to show you guys the basics of gameball, you might already know a lot of these things, in which case ... see you in the arena! But for the rest who want to learn a thing or two about gameball, This guide is for you.

Okay, So here we go, first things first, When the ball first spawns it starts neutral and once picked up it turns into either Red or Blue teams, the player to pick the ball from spawn gains ball guard and unable to have ball stolen from him in a short 1.5-2 second window.

This allows for matches with lots of players to be a less chaotic tackle-fest.

Then when a Red team player picks up a ball that a blue player has thrown or lost via a tackle they gain a shorter ball guard lasting 1-1.5 seconds, this works for either team.

When a red player scores the ball, it returns to the spawn as a red ball which means the blue team get advantage over the next spawn, allowing for equal oppertunity to get the ball from the drop down. These work both ways but don't be confused, if you pick up a teammates ball you get ball guard, rewarding good synnergy between passing players.


Tackling is dependant on your Bump force, Bump resisitance, Energy, speed and whether your in the air at the time (Easier to bump in the air). This means you need to choose where you run carefully and avoid being tackled, you'll be knocked back and loose not only the ball but some energy, more if they have a lot of bump force (Breaker i'm looking at you).

Don't be fooled, It's not just strength that increases the force of your tackle, You could easily be sent rocketing away by a watabax boucing at you or a greendy slamming into you at top speed, You don't have to have the ball to be tackled so try not to let other people bash you about, otherwise you will be stuck in low energy a mile behind everyone! ( Keep an eye on crafty players, making sure they don't bump your right before the ball spawns, could easily lead to an opposing goal!

Hoverheat management is very important, Keeping your hoverheat up is very important for staying relevant whether your racing, playing gameball or whatever kind of whacky missions you can come with. Hoverheat boosts your stats so you now need to become best friends with your shift button.

Sliding & Grinding (Shift on the ground or rail) You should be using this a lot of the time ( waiting for the ball to spawn, if you have low hoverheat with the ball, this is the only method to gain more without dropping it) Try do it only when you aren't close to anyone otherwise you could be caught very quickly.
Grinding is okay, you pick up speed fast and get energy so its a good method, but rails tend to be very easy to predict.

Tricking : When you dont have the ball, you can be flipping, tricking, sliding, wall sliding to build up a score of over 100 to either release a zap to boost you &/or your allies, and steal energy from your opponent(s).


The higher the score the more effect your zap has, but be careful for enemy zaps as if you release a large score zap (500+) and the enemy releases his zap (200) what would essentially happen is you would remove their energy and buff your teammates, then his zap would go off and they would go back into hoverheat, and your energy would be brought down, maybe into regular energy, but if you held your zap till they released theirs, you could shutdown your opponents for a few seconds and do what you need to do with full hoverheat.

Hacking directly infuences the zap strength so if you want to have strong zaps a hacking character would be recommended.

Jumping in gameball is your number one help and enemy. It being helpful (obviously) as it allows you to snag the ball, tackle smartly and traverse the arena quickly, but jumping at the wrong time could easily be enough of a mistake to give the goal away. So having too little of the stat could impede you when jumping for the ball/other players, unless your changing things up, you little rebel.
You jump + your opponent doesn't = He now has 1+(depending on how high you jumped) seconds free rain to throw the ball or run around or past you, since they move and turn quicker on the ground. A good ground player can be frustrating to play against if you are an air player and you aren't focusing on well placed jumps and turns in the air.

You don't jump + your opponent does = they can now either shoot from the air, jump off a wall if they are near one ( This gives them height advantage and they can probably shoot from over you) or they can try land and juke you out with a directional bounce.

Playing it smart - Knowing whether to make the decision to tackle or defend- If your opponent is Jumping around you, it may be worth defending your net from shots and staying on your side of the court and trying to block their path to the net rather than chasing them at their own game, once you have the ball you can lead the interaction but don't play them at their own game because you start reacting to them and this is too slow against a decent player.

Rewinding is the same, Either really useful or it's just going to put you out of position. Rewinding is useful for getting back across the court quickly, making mid-air manouvers, snagging the ball or redirecting momentum/ bounces. It helps to practise a bit and remember where your light trail is, this leads to creative uses like rewinding to tackle someone, or rewinding to receive a tackle in your wanted direction and get a boost :D

Shooting, Holding down left or right click brings up your aiming arc, the more strength chips/ball handling you have the larger your arc is, so your throw further, but your throw is also dependent on the momentum of your character i.e. if you run forward and throw/jump throw the ball will go further than if standing still. It takes a bit of getting used to but its easy enough to just practise throw out until you get the height/distance you are comfortable with, even then aiming in clutch situations isn't easy. Throwing at a 45% too ground level seems to get the most distance but running forward and throwing almost directly up can send the ball the same distance near enough.

Passing is a strong choice, when passing to an ally they get ball guard. Being able to give your teammate 1 sec of immunity is enough to create an point chance. This can also be risky though because you could also be intercepted when passing. So I suggest practising passing drills with your preffered partner and get some sort of system going where you can pass when you need to, and not fumble over each others bearings! ( If you want to take it this far). Just to make sure you aren't passing to your enemy!

When playing in teams you have positions that are simple

• Def
  
• Mid
  
• Fwd

Defence should stay near the goal and be ready for a pass backwards should a player be placed under pressure
Middle is where players fight for the ball drop and pass paths are made clear for other positions
Forward is where the players score, receiving the passes and finishing the bout with a goal.(hopefully)
Section from My good friend RockTheShoulder!

There are a few "Control" things you can do in Hover. A lot of them involve percision, timing, and proper positioning. Among other things. I'll describe dribbling and how you do it.
Like in basketball, where you bounce the ball off the ground, dribbling is basically like that. Except you're throwing the ball against the wall/ceiling/air throwing. The idea is that you catch the ball in the air before it hits the ground. There are three main ways of doing dribbling. Here they are from least difficult to most difficult:(edited)
1. Basic air dribble. You throw the ball right before you hit the ground before a bounce, throw the ball ahead of you, then bounce and catch it in the air. Tricky to pull off, but doesn't have many variations. As far as technical skill goes, this is very easy. As far as timing, this can be moderate to pull off. It is primarily used to confuse the opponent and catch them off guard. Generally ineffective against experienced players.(edited)
2. Ceiling/wall dribble. You throw the ball at the ceiling either before or during a jump/bounce, have the ball bounce off the surface, then catch it during your jump/bounce. This is probably the most robust dribble to perform, but very tricky to pull off sucessfully during a match. At least in some variations. I'll leave the variations for another writeup, but this can be incredibly powerful for the more advanced dribbles and can completely catch an opponent off-guard. Only the most experienced players can counter this effectively. Unless you mess up, then you are generally screwed.(edited)
3. Rewind dribble. This is only for the big boys, and not something you should attempt during a match without lots and lots of practice. It combines 1 or 2 with the Rewind ability to create a unique dribble. For example: You throw the ball during the descent of your bounce, throw it a little over the apex of your bounce, then rewind and catch it. Rewind dribbling is generally the last step in mastering Control, as far as I've discovered, and is definitely the hardest thing to do during a live match. You will generally catch everyone off guard if you do this successfully unless the opponent is ready for it. Useful mainly for showing off or recovering the ball when you are otherwise about to lose it (such as the opponent about to bump you as you land), or keep the ball in the air almost indefinitely.(edited)
Some, actually most, of the other Control techniques involve Accuracy or Air. You generally have to improve both to do well with Control.
Also important is that if the arena doesn't have a ceiling or it's too high/too low, you can't do some or all dribbles.