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Show HN: League Warrior

38 points by hodgesmr 13y ago

wmaiouiru 13y ago
Great job! I have been waiting for this app for a while! Here is some of the things I think you should improve upon: 1. The sliding UI on register page is a bit confusing. Perhaps add some UI guide tutorials? You probably know this, but I want a easy way to invite my Facebook friends! 2. Since you know the available field locations, you should show it on the map to encourage the user to make the "Create Game" UI smoother. 3. There is a lag after completing the "Create Game" form. 4. Instead of just games, where can I find out about leagues around where I live? 5. Are you thinking about having people check-in during the games? 6. This might be complicated, but I wonder if it would be worthwhile to add score keeping and gamification feature with this app, to build reputation and game records. With this record, people could challenge each other. 7. Is e-sports going to be added in the future?
- ogreyonder 13y ago
  I haven't checked out the app yet but I love the concept. And I'll echo wmaiouiru here that if you don't have FB integration, it should be priority #1. Personally I'd like #7 to be in the development plan as well :)
  - andrew14824 13y ago
    Thanks for the interest. Let us know if we missed anything in the above reply.
- andrew14824 13y ago
  You have no idea how happy it makes us to hear all of that. Not just some validation on the concept, but also the build requests. Funny enough, we have discussed everything on the list. But to address it one by one. 1)We will be making adjustments to the registration screens. No worries, it will get easier. 2)We are going to make it so you can invite facebook friends and share game creations via twitter or facebook posts. 3)We are refining the backend to process quicker. 4)We may have league integration in the future. Not sure just yet. However, in the near future we plan on implementing a process to easily split people up into teams. We have discussed the ability to have re-occurring games which could be turned into league/tournament play. Who knows?! 5)The check-in feature is on certainly on the docket! 6)Gamification features will be coming with the 2.0 version late 2013/early 2014. Check out our blog (http://leaguewarrior.com/blog/ http://leaguewarrior.com/blog/) for updates there. 7)As for esports, we will base that off of demand. If users seem to want it, then we will provide it. Thank you again for taking the time to check it out.
jwn 13y ago
Cool concept. I would change the phrase "Don't Play With Yourself" to "Don't Play By Yourself". It's semantics, but to me they have totally different meanings!
- w4 13y ago
  I suspect the entendre was intended. I like it.
universepb 13y ago
Great concept, I hope it can get the user base to take off. What sports do you support?
- andrew14824 13y ago
  At the moment: -Baseball -Basketball -Cycling -Disc Golf -Football -Golf -Hockey -Lacrosse -Running -Soccer -Swimming -Table Tennis -Tennis But we are open to suggestions for adding in other support.
  - danenania 13y ago
    You should get Ultimate Frisbee in there. Huge pickup culture.
    - andrew14824 13y ago
      agreed, thats a great one!
  - herbig 13y ago
    Add nerd sports, like Magic: the Gathering and Warhammer..
    - andrew14824 13y ago
      We have discussed this and if our users seem to want it, we will add it in. Definitely a possibility.
  - larattad1 13y ago
    Airsoft and Paintball
  - kmfrk 13y ago
    I thought of something like this a long time ago, and the reason I really wanted to do this was poor information on martial-arts classes. Now, if this is aimed more at spontaneous games, then it's probably not within your domain, but that's something I'd definitely be the most interested in. You should also add volleyball and badminton to the app. Maybe go crazy and add fencing, hiking and handball, too :)
JeffL 13y ago
I definitely do think you've identified a problem that needs solving, and your app is looking nice so far. One thing that I've noticed for pick up soccer in the Bay Area is that there are a lot of games listed on meetup.com, but probably way less than 10% of them, since I personally know of a bunch that aren't on meetup. There are also several other websites that I've found on Google over the years that list some pickup games, but still, nothing that is anywhere near exhaustive. The problem that you guys might have is that your app ends up as just another small subset of the games around. If you could figure out how to become the definitive and nearly exhaustive list, there could potentially be a lot of value in it. Think about how Yelp is useful because it has all the restaurants, and how useless it would be if only 10% of the restaurants were listed. Reviews of ongoing games might be useful, as would ratings of skill level and information about the playing surface or number of fields/courts that people could search on. Another thing is that some ongoing games are already pretty full, so some sort of status that somebody could set for the game in terms of "need more people" or "near capacity" could be useful. Lastly, it's been my experience that an ongoing pick up game might have 20-30 people in attendance, but only 1 or 2 actually check in, so you don't want to necessarily count on everyone checking in.
- andrew14824 13y ago
  This is all very helpful. Definitely some good points to look out for and some worth while features to a/b test.
danenania 13y ago
The concept seems great. What's your strategy for overcoming the chicken/egg problem and getting critical mass?
- andrew14824 13y ago
  We have a lot of micro strategies that fit into a broad campaign. Basically the goal is to find those individuals who will be our first adopters and get them playing games regularly through the app. If the app really is solving the problem we believe it is, then it will become a tool for athletes to use and not just an occasional supplement. Ensuring quality games are posted and played are truly what we are after.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
avalaunch 13y ago
Everything looks great. I could definitely see myself using this. Your biggest obstacle is probably going to be reaching critical mass. There are a lot of ways to help you achieve that - in this instance I'd suggest going the OKCupid route. What they did was offer a supplementary service (quizzes) that was fun and relevant for the users even before they reached critical mass. You just need to make the app as useful as possible for existing pickup games. With the push notification reminders it's already useful but perhaps you could add score keeping (I'd love to know what % of the time I'm on the winning team) and easy group communication (without excluding non iphone users).
kmfrk 13y ago
Can you add some kind of gamified penalization for people who are always no-shows? :P Those people drive me crazy.
bonjourmr 13y ago
This is brilliant mate, will test it out now for a few weeks in Sydney. I thought of the same idea after I noticed not so much of a gap in the pickup-game space, but just no real implementations that had been executed as good as they should be. From the screenshots, this looks like the one to do it! One small thing, had some issues with the register screen returning me to login screen after I pressed the register button (I know it's in beta, just pointing it out :) )
dl8 13y ago
extremely cool idea, hope people in my area actually use it though.
xpop2027 13y ago
Awesome design.

38 points by hodgesmr 13y ago

Great job! I have been waiting for this app for a while! Here is some of the things I think you should improve upon: 1. The sliding UI on register page is a bit confusing. Perhaps add some UI guide tutorials? You probably know this, but I want a easy way to invite my Facebook friends! 2. Since you know the available field locations, you should show it on the map to encourage the user to make the "Create Game" UI smoother. 3. There is a lag after completing the "Create Game" form. 4. Instead of just games, where can I find out about leagues around where I live? 5. Are you thinking about having people check-in during the games? 6. This might be complicated, but I wonder if it would be worthwhile to add score keeping and gamification feature with this app, to build reputation and game records. With this record, people could challenge each other. 7. Is e-sports going to be added in the future?

ogreyonder 13y ago
I haven't checked out the app yet but I love the concept. And I'll echo wmaiouiru here that if you don't have FB integration, it should be priority #1. Personally I'd like #7 to be in the development plan as well :)
- andrew14824 13y ago
  Thanks for the interest. Let us know if we missed anything in the above reply.
andrew14824 13y ago
You have no idea how happy it makes us to hear all of that. Not just some validation on the concept, but also the build requests. Funny enough, we have discussed everything on the list. But to address it one by one. 1)We will be making adjustments to the registration screens. No worries, it will get easier. 2)We are going to make it so you can invite facebook friends and share game creations via twitter or facebook posts. 3)We are refining the backend to process quicker. 4)We may have league integration in the future. Not sure just yet. However, in the near future we plan on implementing a process to easily split people up into teams. We have discussed the ability to have re-occurring games which could be turned into league/tournament play. Who knows?! 5)The check-in feature is on certainly on the docket! 6)Gamification features will be coming with the 2.0 version late 2013/early 2014. Check out our blog (http://leaguewarrior.com/blog/ http://leaguewarrior.com/blog/) for updates there. 7)As for esports, we will base that off of demand. If users seem to want it, then we will provide it. Thank you again for taking the time to check it out.

jwn 13y ago

Cool concept. I would change the phrase "Don't Play With Yourself" to "Don't Play By Yourself". It's semantics, but to me they have totally different meanings!

w4 13y ago
I suspect the entendre was intended. I like it.

universepb 13y ago

Great concept, I hope it can get the user base to take off. What sports do you support?

andrew14824 13y ago
At the moment: -Baseball -Basketball -Cycling -Disc Golf -Football -Golf -Hockey -Lacrosse -Running -Soccer -Swimming -Table Tennis -Tennis But we are open to suggestions for adding in other support.
- danenania 13y ago
  You should get Ultimate Frisbee in there. Huge pickup culture.
  - andrew14824 13y ago
    agreed, thats a great one!
- herbig 13y ago
  Add nerd sports, like Magic: the Gathering and Warhammer..
  - andrew14824 13y ago
    We have discussed this and if our users seem to want it, we will add it in. Definitely a possibility.
- larattad1 13y ago
  Airsoft and Paintball
- kmfrk 13y ago
  I thought of something like this a long time ago, and the reason I really wanted to do this was poor information on martial-arts classes. Now, if this is aimed more at spontaneous games, then it's probably not within your domain, but that's something I'd definitely be the most interested in. You should also add volleyball and badminton to the app. Maybe go crazy and add fencing, hiking and handball, too :)

JeffL 13y ago

I definitely do think you've identified a problem that needs solving, and your app is looking nice so far. One thing that I've noticed for pick up soccer in the Bay Area is that there are a lot of games listed on meetup.com, but probably way less than 10% of them, since I personally know of a bunch that aren't on meetup. There are also several other websites that I've found on Google over the years that list some pickup games, but still, nothing that is anywhere near exhaustive. The problem that you guys might have is that your app ends up as just another small subset of the games around. If you could figure out how to become the definitive and nearly exhaustive list, there could potentially be a lot of value in it. Think about how Yelp is useful because it has all the restaurants, and how useless it would be if only 10% of the restaurants were listed. Reviews of ongoing games might be useful, as would ratings of skill level and information about the playing surface or number of fields/courts that people could search on. Another thing is that some ongoing games are already pretty full, so some sort of status that somebody could set for the game in terms of "need more people" or "near capacity" could be useful. Lastly, it's been my experience that an ongoing pick up game might have 20-30 people in attendance, but only 1 or 2 actually check in, so you don't want to necessarily count on everyone checking in.

andrew14824 13y ago
This is all very helpful. Definitely some good points to look out for and some worth while features to a/b test.

danenania 13y ago

The concept seems great. What's your strategy for overcoming the chicken/egg problem and getting critical mass?

andrew14824 13y ago
We have a lot of micro strategies that fit into a broad campaign. Basically the goal is to find those individuals who will be our first adopters and get them playing games regularly through the app. If the app really is solving the problem we believe it is, then it will become a tool for athletes to use and not just an occasional supplement. Ensuring quality games are posted and played are truly what we are after.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

avalaunch 13y ago

Everything looks great. I could definitely see myself using this. Your biggest obstacle is probably going to be reaching critical mass. There are a lot of ways to help you achieve that - in this instance I'd suggest going the OKCupid route. What they did was offer a supplementary service (quizzes) that was fun and relevant for the users even before they reached critical mass. You just need to make the app as useful as possible for existing pickup games. With the push notification reminders it's already useful but perhaps you could add score keeping (I'd love to know what % of the time I'm on the winning team) and easy group communication (without excluding non iphone users).

kmfrk 13y ago

Can you add some kind of gamified penalization for people who are always no-shows? :P Those people drive me crazy.

bonjourmr 13y ago

This is brilliant mate, will test it out now for a few weeks in Sydney. I thought of the same idea after I noticed not so much of a gap in the pickup-game space, but just no real implementations that had been executed as good as they should be. From the screenshots, this looks like the one to do it! One small thing, had some issues with the register screen returning me to login screen after I pressed the register button (I know it's in beta, just pointing it out :) )

dl8 13y ago

extremely cool idea, hope people in my area actually use it though.

xpop2027 13y ago

Awesome design.