It is solo and you aren't interacting with other players.
You are shooting yourself, it happens when you shoot into the output of a teleporter instead of a weapon tp.
If you shot other players you would stack perfectly on them.
But that is another side effect of the update that broke the map it seems XD
As for getting an easier rank 1:
I think the rank 1 times are no longer possible, the laser has a reload time that takes about as long as the ball can travel for.
So if you hit a wall or yourself you still have to wait for the laser to reload thus each shot takes as long as it did before.
The only difference is when your ball can bounce you can get it further in that same time before the laser reloads.