Frequently Asked Questions

What is team dominoes? What are the rules?

Team dominoes is a board game played with tiles ("fichas") that are placed to match either end of a chain. It is played in teams of two players each, with partners sitting opposite each other at the table. The objective of the game is to be the first team to reach a certain number of points, usually 100 or 200, by winning rounds. A round is won by the team that first plays all their tiles or has the lowest total value of tiles when no more plays can be made. For a detailed explanation of the rules, please refer to our How to Play page.

What is LaFicha?

LaFicha is a multiplayer online game mobile application to play team dominoes with friends or people online. When playing with friends, the app uses live video chat between players to mimic the social aspect of an in-person board game. Team dominoes is a board game popular in Spain and Latin America played with tiles ("fichas") that are placed to match either end of a chain. See our "How to play" introduction to the game.

How do I play with friends?

From the home screen, create a table, then you'll see a dialog to invite people or start the match. Tap on the invite button and send the link to your table to your friends so they can join. Once your friends join, you can start the match.

How many people can join a table?

When you create a table or become the owner of one, you can invite as many friends as you like. Only four friends will be able to sit at the table and play, but others can still watch as observers. Whenever a player disconnects or abandons the table, the first observer will take their seat to resume play.

How do I play with people I do not know online?

From the home screen, tap on the "Play online" button. This will take you to a screen where you will wait for other users to become available to play. The first match will start automatically. To make it safer, this modality of the game does not use video chat for communication.

Someone invited me to a table, but I don't know them. Should I join?

No. You should only join tables shared with you by people you know and trust.

Can I share the link to a table through social media?

You can share the link to join a table any way you like as long as only people you trust have access to it. We don't recommend you post a link to a table publicly on social media. We want you to play with people you select manually to reduce the risk of people you do not know or do not trust to join the table. Therefore, we recommend you share the link to join a table only through private channels like text messaging or email.

What counts as an abandoned match?

Whenever you are playing a match with friends or with other people online and you close the app or abandon the table before the match finishes, the match counts as abandoned. It won't count as an abandoned match if all other players are robots at the time you abandon the table. It also won't count as abandoned if you leave the table after the last game of the match ends and before a new match has begun. Matches you play on your own table without inviting friends never count as abandoned.

How is the rating calculated?

Your rating goes up when you win a match and goes down when you lose. How much it goes up or down depends on the difference in rating between your team and your rivals. When you win against a team with a high rating, your rating goes up more than if you win against a weaker team. Conversely, if you lose against a strong team your rating won't go down as much as when you lose against a weak one. Team ratings are calculated by averaging the ratings of the two players in the team. Therefore, playing with a partner that has a much lower rating than you will cause each win to accrue more rating points than when playing with a strong partner. Similarly, when playing with a weaker partner, losses won't cause you as many points. To determine the exact number of points lost or gained, we use the Elo rating calculation which is very similar to the one used in chess.

How is the game played?

Team dominoes has a few rules that are easy to learn by anyone and yet it is endlessly strategic. For the basic rules refer to our How to Play page. Dominoes strategy can get very complex and we would not do it justice trying to summarize it here. For some tips we recommend you follow Sr. Mano on YouTube (in Spanish with some English-dubbed videos).