NextUp, Tournament Brackets & SMS Automation
Creator · 2014 · 2 min read
A tournament management platform that automated bracket progression and competitor notifications via SMS to reduce manual coordination at gaming events.
Overview
NextUp was my first foray into backend engineering: a tournament platform that read a Challonge bracket and coordinated competitors by SMS, automating one of the most stressful parts of running a gaming event.
Problem
Running large gaming tournaments, the hardest job was finding registered competitors across multiple stations as people wandered off-site. Even with staff, tracking everyone and all the scores was error-prone and stressful.
Constraints
- Competitors are mobile and easily distracted across a venue
- No app download for competitors; a phone number had to be the only thing they gave
- Solo build by someone new to backend engineering
- Whole events depended on the system being correct
Approach
Organizers entered participant names and phone numbers and linked a Challonge bracket. When the tournament started, NextUp read the bracket and texted the competitors due to play; they replied with a W or L to report results, the system updated the bracket and texted the next match, and it flagged conflicts for organizer verification.
Key Decisions
Coordinate competitors over SMS via Twilio Reasoning Alternatives Text reaches people anywhere in or near a venue with no app to download; a phone number was the lowest-friction way for a competitor to plug into the organizer's bracket.
- On-site displays and PA announcements
- A dedicated mobile app
Tech Stack
- PHP
- MySQL
- Twilio API
- jQuery
- Challonge
Result & Impact
NextUp ran several tournaments with real early success and interest, and I was proud of the implementation; with a solid, resilient backend it could have become a real product. But a mid-event failure with no result backup forced a replay, and I sunset it. It taught me a full web-application stack and the importance of resilience.
Learnings
- Systems that own a live event need backups and failure recovery from day one
- A polished implementation isn't a product without a resilient backend to stand on, which I didn't have yet
- It was a formative introduction to backend engineering and web app architecture
During my years after high school, I was deep in competitive video gaming, traveling to local tournaments and some across state lines, and eventually becoming a well-known organizer who hosted some of the first international gaming tournaments with significant prizes. That firsthand experience is exactly why I knew the pain NextUp set out to fix.
The whole idea lived in a text message: it told a competitor they were next up to play, which is where the name comes from.