Inconsistency with Practice Mode and Player Limits

[fathom linden]

I'm currently trying to make it so that when only two players are present in a room, the game automatically starts as a match meant just for those two.

However, there's an inconsistency I’d like to report:
When there are three or more players in the room, if Practice Mode is selected and the game is immediately started, it initially shows a message saying, “Too many players for this mode,” and the game won’t begin.
But strangely, if I just set an auto-start value, the match starts anyway—ignoring the prior restriction. Even after that match ends, games continue to run in Practice Mode without any issue.

1. Why is Practice Mode limited to only two players in the first place?
2. Isn't it inconsistent that the game can still proceed in Practice Mode with three or more players once auto-start is set?

Also, in Versus Mode, if there are three or more players in the room and I change the player limit to 2, the game still starts just fine. The only effect is that no new players can join. Shouldn’t this behave like Practice Mode and prevent the match from starting due to “too many players”?

Lastly, I tested whether auto-start was some sort of magical bypass and tried adding more players after setting the auto-start value, but that didn’t work—so I guess it’s not that magical after all 🙄

[solemn dust]

Why is Practice Mode limited to only two players in the first place?
the intention here is that you're side by side and can actually teach each other something, or compare board states. there's absolutely zero competitive value to practice mode and we're not extremely fond of arbitrary "afk rooms" either. if you're all tiny screens with no interaction, then practice mode makes little sense, especially to new joiners who may end up in the wrong room (depending on popularity)

i think i remember there was also some plan to repurpose the targeting keybinds for more unique features (like "copy player 2's board") but that never went through

[fathom linden]

Thanks for clarifying the intention behind Practice Mode!
One thing still confuses me: even if the player limit is set to 2, the game still starts with 3 or more players — in both Practice Mode and Versus Mode.
The player limit seems to block new entries, but not the start of a match itself.
Is this a known issue that might be fixed, or is it working as intended?
I'm trying to automatically configure the room for 2-player matches using a bot whenever only two players remain, but this inconsistency makes it hard to provide a predictable environment.