Spectating
Watching a match from outside, being revived into spectator mode inside one, and the setting that blocks both.
There are two different things called spectating here, and they behave differently.
External spectators
Somebody in the lobby who chooses to watch a match.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/spectate, /spec | Open a list of the matches running right now |
/spectate <player> | Watch the match that player is in |
The spectator is teleported to the arena's spectator spawn, put in Minecraft's spectator game mode, stripped of items and effects, and given the match sidebar. A second later a spectator menu opens with the players in the match.
From that menu, or the hotbar:
- Teleport to any living player in the match.
- Toggle spectators — hide or show the other spectators, so a crowded match is not a wall of
floating names. The two states use the materials and names from
spectator.*inconfig.yml. - Leave — back to the lobby.
The match ending also returns every spectator to the lobby.
The teleport is the first step, and it fails without a destination. Set Spectator spawn on any arena you want watchable.
Who can be watched
A match refuses spectators if any living player in it has spectators turned off in
/settings. It is one player's veto over the whole match — not a per-player hide.
Only matches that are ACTIVE or STARTING can be joined. A match that ends between the menu opening
and the click sends the spectator straight back to the lobby.
Revive spectators
The other kind: a player who was eliminated inside a match with revive-time above zero. They are put
in spectator mode where they died, wait out the revive, and are teleported back to their spawn with
the kit reapplied.
They never leave the match, are never counted as external spectators, and cannot be teleported to by the spectate menu.
Between rounds of a duel, the same thing happens for the round-end delay: the round's loser watches until the arena is regenerated.
Visibility
Spectators are hidden from the players fighting, and can be hidden from each other with the toggle. The players in a match see only each other — the isolation is applied per match, so two clones of one arena running side by side never show each other's players.
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