Magic. Well, modding. The mod came to be because depending on ref travel speed there are areas of the ring where you can't get a 3 without finisher, maybe not even with finisher for the true snail referees. A teleporting referee makes it fairer.

So referee teleporting was implemented: when the ref is in a traveling-to-ref state, the model is hidden. To do near instant travel, during this move each frame the ref is moved to the halfway point between current position and target position. So travel time is almost same from anywhere in ring. Once within a small minimum radius, the "teleport" ends and a repurposed and recolored Mist asset is deployed. The asset has a base color, so darker colors work best.

The mod is currently configured for a small group of specific named refs (ex. Cheshire cat, Foot Clan Ninja) but could just as well use a config file for naming refs that should teleport.

wait, ref appeared with smoke, how?

LMAO...straight yeeted