Playing Together Across Time Zones in Latin America and the Caribbean
05 November, 2026By the LFCarry team
Online games make it easy to team up with friends in another city or another country. A raid group, a ranked team or a weekly co-op night can include players in Mexico City, Bogotá, San Juan and São Paulo at the same time. The hard part is usually the clock. “9 at night” means something different in each of those cities, and a small mix-up can leave half the group waiting.
Know the offsets
Most of the region sits between 3 and 6 hours behind UTC. Mexico City is at UTC-6 all year, since most of Mexico stopped changing its clocks in 2022. Bogotá, Lima and Kingston are at UTC-5. Caracas, Santo Domingo and San Juan are at UTC-4. Buenos Aires and São Paulo are at UTC-3. A group spread from Mexico City to São Paulo therefore spans 3 hours, which is enough to turn an early evening start for one player into a late night for another.
Find the shared window
Write every player’s city and UTC offset in the group chat, then look for the hours when everyone is free. As an example, a session at 20:00 in Mexico City starts at 21:00 in Bogotá and Lima, 22:00 in Santo Domingo and San Juan, and 23:00 in Buenos Aires and São Paulo. If that is too late for the players in the south, move the start earlier or rotate it from week to week so the late nights are shared.
Watch the clock changes
Most of the countries named above keep the same time all year. The United States and Canada move their clocks in March and November, and most of Chile changes its clocks for the southern summer. If your group includes friends in those places, a weekly session set on their clock can shift by 1 hour for everyone else 2 times a year. Check the schedule in the weeks around each change.
Let the calendar do the conversion
Calendar invites carry a time zone, and most calendar apps show each guest the start time on their own clock. Send each session as a calendar invite, and the conversion happens on each player’s device.
Pick the server with care
Many online games let you choose a server or matchmaking region. Distance affects ping, so test the options with the whole group before a long session and pick the one that plays well for most players. A quick check before a raid or a ranked night saves time later.
Plan short and long sessions differently
Weeknights suit short goals, such as a few matches or a single dungeon. Save longer goals, such as a full raid or a leveling push, for the weekend, when the shared window is wider. Agree on a clear end time too, so players in later time zones know when they can log off.
When schedules do not line up
Some weeks the group simply cannot meet. LFCarry is an AI gaming companion and a marketplace for optional professional gaming services, including coaching, carries, leveling and in-game gold, and it has operated since 2016. For the weeks when the group’s schedules do not line up, a player can look at optional coaching or a carry to keep making progress until the next shared session.
A shared plan, written in everyone’s local time, keeps the focus on the game. Know the offsets, find the window, watch the clock changes and test the server, and playing together across the region gets much easier.
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