Real-time BJJ Tournament applicants

Hello. This is Quartz, the creator of the Post Black Belt app. Can you believe we’re already halfway through 2024? I hope everyone is doing well. May is the month of family, and it’s always a time of reflection and gratitude. In this post, I’d like to share the story of how I created a web service as a heartfelt gift for my coach (haha).

While developing the Post Black Belt app, I also wanted to participate in Jiu-Jitsu tournaments. Luckily, my professor and her friend decided to organize a tournament called Queens Combat. I was thrilled to help them out. I hope you enjoy reading this and that you'll share the tournament with fellow Jiu-Jitsu enthusiasts.

0. What is Queens Combat?

The coach at my gym is the fourth female black belt in Korea. She has taught me so much, not just about Jiu-Jitsu but about many other aspects of life as well. When she started her journey in martial arts (Long time ago...), there were very few female competitors, making it rare to compete against someone in the same weight class, and there was little support for female athletes. To create more opportunities, she decided to host a women’s Jiu-Jitsu tournament.

To support this meaningful initiative, I decided to create a web service for managing the tournament. By the way, the poster above was made by a friend from the gym. Quite talented, right? Haha.

1. Conceptualizing the Queens Combat Service

I often note inefficiencies I encounter in daily life and think about how to turn them into services.

1.1 What Can a Developer Do for a Jiu-Jitsu Tournament?

The idea for a Jiu-Jitsu tournament service was one I seriously considered and even wrote a 1-Pager for. I have participated in three tournaments so far and frequently watch my fellow gym members compete or follow IBJJF matches.

Here are some of the inconveniences I noticed while participating in or observing tournaments:

For the viewer of the bracket: Ensuring my registration was successful, checking how many competitors are in my weight class, and finding out when my gym members are competing.
For the creator of the bracket: Filtering participants by weight class, belt, etc., and updating registration status (payment, weight class changes, cancellations, etc.).

1.2 Planning Features

With the decision to create the service, I had to think about what features to provide. While I initially thought the biggest need before participating in a tournament would be for bracket information, I realized it was more crucial to manage applicants effectively at the initial stage.

For the operator: The ability to easily verify applicant information and payment status.
For the applicants: Ensuring their information submitted via Google Forms is accurately conveyed.

2. QUEENS COMBAT X Post Black Belt

So, what was the result of this implementation? Let me introduce the features I developed.

2.1 Real-Time Confirmation After Google Form Submission

When participants register for the tournament via Google Form, we use the Google Sheets API to fetch the information in real-time. This allows them to review their submitted information and check if their friend has also registered as promised (😁).

2.2 Updating Payment Confirmation

After registering for the tournament, participants often wonder if their payment has been confirmed. This feature is designed to benefit both participants and organizers.

2.3 Checking Participants by Bracket

Finally, at the top of the page, you can select filters for belt, age, and weight to see how many participants are in your division. By copying the link provided at the bottom, you can view the real-time status of registrations in your weight class.

Conclusion

I have been developing and updating this service over the past month, and I'm quite satisfied with the result. I believe it turned out pretty well. Please feel free to provide any feedback, and I will try to incorporate it (unfortunately, there seems to be a bug when opened in the iOS Instagram browser, which I am currently fixing 😱).

Thanks to the excellent sponsors, there are many gifts waiting for the participants. While Jiu-Jitsu tournaments can be intimidating and overwhelming, about 30% of the participants are in the Master category, and people from various belt levels are participating, so it should be a unique experience. Although I really want to compete, I will be working as staff to ensure the tournament runs smoothly. I'm envious of those who get to participate.

Lastly, I will leave the participation link here and wrap up this post. Your participation and interest would be greatly appreciated!

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