Designed an end-to-end tournament management platform that transforms complex bracket systems and participant management into an intuitive, automated experience. The UI design emphasizes clarity and efficiency while maintaining gaming aesthetics.
Role
Product Designer & Co-founder
Industry
Gaming / eSports
Duration
Ongoing
Team Size
2 members
Status
UI Complete, MVP in Development
Context
Following my experience at GoodGame Labs, I identified a persistent gap in the gaming tournament ecosystem. Despite thousands of amateur tournaments being organized annually across various gaming communities, organizers were still relying on manual processes and disconnected tools to manage their events. Current solutions either lack visual polish or require significant technical knowledge, creating an opportunity for a design-led solution.
Current solutions force tournament organizers to manually manage brackets, track results, and coordinate players across different platforms. This creates unnecessary friction in what should be an engaging and seamless experience for both organizers and participants. The passion of these community organizers, who dedicate their free time to creating these events, deserved better tools.
Opportunity
Through extensive research and interviews with Discord-based tournament organizers, we uncovered a clear need for automation and integration in the amateur tournament space. While professional eSports have sophisticated systems, amateur organizers lack access to similar tools. The market gap was clear: thousands of tournaments happening regularly, but no comprehensive solution for managing them efficiently.
These tournaments represent the grassroots of competitive gaming, where future professional players often begin their careers. By simplifying the tournament management process, we could not only help current organizers but potentially expand the entire amateur competitive gaming ecosystem.
Solution
We're developing an MVP focused on League of Legends tournaments, implementing key features that directly address organizer pain points. The system integrates with Discord for seamless authentication, automatically manages bracket progression, and records match results without manual intervention. This streamlined approach eliminates the most time-consuming aspects of tournament organization.
The platform's design emphasizes simplicity and efficiency, with a carefully crafted brand identity that underwent multiple iterations to resonate with the gaming community. Future versions will expand to support both online and physical eSports tournaments, creating a comprehensive ecosystem for amateur competitive gaming. The interface uses a dark theme optimized for extended use, with clear information hierarchy and consistent gaming-inspired micro-interactions.
Results
MVP in development
Successfully validated core concept with tournament organizers
Developed comprehensive brand identity
Developed intuitive bracket visualization system
Simplified complex tournament workflows into 3-step process
Reduced tournament setup time from 30+ mins to under 5 mins (projected)
Key Takeaways
Community passion can validate product opportunities
MVP scope should focus on core pain points rather than full feature set
Authentication integration (Discord) can significantly reduce friction
Gaming interfaces need to balance excitement with usability
