Project idea: free polo tournament software

Submitted by jfrench on Sep 12 2009 7:03pm

Tournaments

drizz wrote:

i noticed there are a few pieces of software that facilitate round robin style tournament play, but they cost money (not sure how much). i'd like to see something open and free for the community. an offline interface (eventually a mobile interface for iphone/smartphones?) with the ability to upload results to the internet (a module added to this site?) seems like the way to go. this would aid in the standardization of tournaments, since that seems like an ultimate goal. maybe i'll take this on soon, unless someone is already working on such a project. any developers interested in collaborating?

jfrench

Seattle

This sounds hot. It would be awesome to support a bunch of tourney types (round-robin, Swiss rounds, single elim, double elim) and multiple platforms (Mac, PC, Linux, smartphones, this website).

I've e-mailed Kev to see if a) he's interested and b) can give an estimate of how hard it would be to integrate something like this into the site.

Jesse
Collar City Bike Polo
Troy, NY

the j is for jesse
Troy, NY: 2008 - 2010
Seattle, WA: 2010 - present

drizz

Seattle

here are some thoughts:

programming language: python because it's cross platform (comes installed on mac os x and most linux distros, might even come with windows now, but if not it's a free download), quick and easy for developers at any level to learn, and it has adequate libraries/toolkits for creating a gui or integrating c and java code. not sure what this site is done in, but php would be more than capable of accepting individual tournament uploads and displaying the data; it would also be nice to have a section for individual/team/regional statistics

storage: xml at the client for temporary storage to be uploaded during/post-tournament, but probably a sql database would be best for the more permanent server side

any brain-stormers out there?

---------------------------
carve. smash. eat shit.

kev

Toronto

This site is built with drupal (php/mysql) and i would definitely be cool to store the results of tourneys here. if the data is coming in xml it wouldn't be too hard to build that out.

lucky

We could use stored tournament data for a fantasy league!

Seriously, great idea. Sorry I'm not qualified to help implement it, but I would use the hell out of it.

Chicago Bike Polo 2003-2008
St Louis Bike Polo 2008-fun

Wanna buy some polo stuff?
http://www.fixcraft.net/stcago

vince

Portland Bike Polo

yo, i'd be way down for helping with this...

i'd recommend a web interface, it'd work on any OS, easy to adapt for iPhone-ish screen size, and we could use some magic to get it working offline too if that's important.

i do this shit for a living, and i have hosting

i code in ruby these days. like python, its simple sexy and powerful

lets make this happen!!!!

eh jackal

East Van Bike Polo

justin gullickson from calgary and i have several ideas for this.

referees if necessary, but not necesarily refereeing

frazer

PENSACOLA BIKE POLO

klack klack klack

drizz

Seattle

NERDS!!!

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carve. smash. eat shit.

Cory_skullshag

Calgary Bike Polo

Hahahaha Nerds.. so sweet .. check out ALJ Tournament Maker 2.1

...BallAholics...

#10

drizz

Seattle

i was thinking something more tailored to the 2 day, round robin then double/single elimination tournament that most cities play, but even that would be a default template. a single, web interface/repository would facilitate seeding/ranking standardization and be a great way to share/compare statistics, which would also aid in selecting a tournament mvp player. a centralized, almost real time place for people to "watch" large tournaments via .ca or an rss feed would be the closest thing to having bike polo on radio or television.

---------------------------
carve. smash. eat shit.

#11

stevenso

Tulsa

I'd be down with drawing up some user-interface protypes. Seems like web-based with phone interface would be the most useable—especially court-side! I agree with Vince that Ruby would be cool.

#12

brian from ottawa

Ottawa

check it.. Tournament Scheduler Pro 5.0

Tournament Software

Create single & double elimination tournaments for up to 128 players or teams. Works for any sport!

http://www.allprosoftware.com/ts/

it's only 100 dollars

#13

jfrench

Seattle

Bump.

Jesse
Collar City Bike Polo
Troy, NY

the j is for jesse
Troy, NY: 2008 - 2010
Seattle, WA: 2010 - present

#14

Zack

DC Bike Polo

I used something like this when we ran a tournament last year. I found some open-source tournament software (php/mysql) and hacked it together to work for polo. It made running the tournament so much easier (real-time standings, and it showed the next 5 games always so you don't have to constantly bug the organizer to know when you're playing). I meant to clean it up for other people to use, but I never got around to it since I don't really know mysql.

A static version of the results is here: slapdickpolo, I can put up the working version if people are interested.

#15

kev

Toronto

Yep, definitely interested in seeing the working version.

#16

ilikegum

yeah, post it please. we've got a few sql lords here so we can probably tighten it up.

Will and I were talking about this the other night and it seems like this is the easiest route to go php/asp front end and sql back. if you already have the frameworks built then this might be exactly what we need, with very few mods.

#17

drizz

Seattle

i've built a relational database, but i've yet to do any querying since i haven't entered test data. working on that now...

---------------------------
carve. smash. eat shit.

#18

kev

Toronto

for what it's worth (not much), a google doc for round robin:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pSqpbYqQylkfXvBn1TlrrYA&output=html

we projected this on the wall of the gym used on the first day of NYC in Madison

note the posted start times of the games so that people knew when they were playing.

#19

kenichi

Portland Bike Polo

i'm way into this. i could do ruby, python, java or php. in that order. i could set up a trac instance for wiki and ticketing, and also host the source and/or app itself. i've got something similar/tangential to this idea going in a rails app, but it's not done.

- <3 kenichi, pdx

#20

GaGoosh

East Van Bike Polo

Watch the trac wiki app nerdlinger.

B.O.P. 4-EVA

Okay catfish, I'm going to move my mouth like this...

#21

Zack

DC Bike Polo

It took me a few minutes to remember all the hacks I did to it, but it works now, sort of. The software I found somewhere on the web and is designed for soccer leagues, not tournaments, so it doesn't have any scheduling. I modified it to show upcoming games, to fit on the small screen I was using, and to have 2 separate groups for the round robin. You enter the games manually with no score to set it up. After each game, click on the name of the match under "upcoming matches", enter the score, and then it updates the standings and the next 5 games. Made scorekeeping and telling people who is up much easier, but it could use a whole lot of improvement, like automatic scheduling, more than 2 groups, etc. I taught myself php to use it so it's ugly.

Anyway, check it out here: http://slapdickpolo.com/test. Settings can be changed in /admin/ (u: admin, p: bikepolo). It might be useful as a base, and I think an AMP environment is the best bet. The original software is here: http://www.tpl-design.com/tplleaguestats.php

#22

drew

Seattle

I would be interested in helping out with this software, ive been using a small program for the Seattle tournaments which has worked pretty well. It was originally written to deal with out complete round robin tournament last year, but it wouldn't take much effort to make it support more tournament types. At the moment it can also publish results in realtime to the web.

#23

jawn

Nanaimo Hardcourt Bike Polo

i was scouring the internets last night looking for some software that i could use to run our upcoming tournament...and...i actually found one...and its FREE and it looks pretty good. runs swiss rounds, single/double elim, round robin, blah blah blah. lotsa options. I was up until 4am playing with the thing. somebody else who has anything to compare it to wanna check this out to see how it stacks up? lemme know i've never run brackets before.

http://www.splendidcity.net/

nmopolo.co.cc

#24

MidwestMegs

Chicago

Contact vince(COMOPOLO) through here. He ran some sort of software at Midwests 7 and the NA's this year in Madison. Both tournaments ran smooth as butter. He really knows what he is doing!!

Midwest is best!!

#25

.kremin.

Milwaukee

i had some talks with people in berlin. I'm sure you nerds could design a easy to use program for polo. plug in the number of teams and the number of courts press a button and bam your tournament is mapped out for you. I bet people would be willing give this nerds some money for their hard work.

http://www.mkebikepolo.com/wordpress/
Das Beaver Boys

#26

polojoel

Get a pencil and notebook. Learn how to do it by hand. That way you know what's happening and what's next, without having to push buttons on the device that's back away from the people on the court where you should be.

This weighs less than your ipad, and is prettier and more fun.

#27

eh jackal

East Van Bike Polo

swiss rounds joely, swiss rounds. computers make life easy, and are as small as the ibrone.

referees if necessary, but not necesarily refereeing

#28

polojoel

My blackberry has been indispensable at tourneys. I've used it to pull up visuals of empty brackets. I've used it to find the nearest hospital and order two dozen burritos for immediate pickup. I watched regular updates from Madison.

Running brackets or swiss rounds or whatever is different. It takes a human to make the trains run on time.

#29

eh jackal

East Van Bike Polo

i had forgotten that the computers did everything and the humans just sat and watched them do it.

referees if necessary, but not necesarily refereeing

#30

chris bottles

Edmonton Bike Polo

Didn't HAL run the brackets for NAs?

#31

ilikegum

You sound like my 65 year old father when he's trying to explain to me why he hates email.

"Get an envelope and a stamp, then all you have to do is write it, seal it, get into your car, drive to the post office, drop it off and drive home... all without having to push buttons on a device. See how much easier that is than the computer you're using?"

#32

nedderweevil

San Francisco Bike Polo

With the beer/drinker ratio as high as it was at PDX this year, I think cardboard was the way to go.

--
Credo quia absurdum

#33

thomas

Bikepolo Karlsruhe

hello,

max (of karlsruhe) startet to modify a shedule-software for the greifmasters in karlsruhe (feb 2010). we got a huge display where the games where displayed. it worked fine!
...display: http://arkitipintel.com/2010/02/08/greif-masters-2010-bike-polo-tournament/

for the worlds morgan and max were working on a version for more courts etc. i dont know on what point the stay right now.

there's also a xml-api. (i think) and it's web-based, so you can update for a website in realtime.

....also kev might have some more info's 'bout that.

bikepolo karlsruhe

#34

kev

Toronto

For 32, 24, or 16 team double elimination brackets i created this google doc template https://docs.google.com/previewtemplate?id=0Autj3tqs5MHTdHZWdE80NDk1R2Zy...

It was used at both NAHBPC and WHBPC, and updated so that the rest of the world could keep up with the final day, see http://tinyurl.com/whbpc2010-finals and http://tinyurl.com/nahbpc2010

If you don't have internet access at a tournament you can also try downloading it as an Excel or ODT file and running it offline, although it's not the best for providing updates to the players unless you have a printer, which they did in Berlin.

#35

vince

Portland Bike Polo

I used this at Midwest 7 and NAs this year in Madison...

http://github.com/binaryseed/podium

by next season it'll be running as a site anyone can use to run a tourney, and we'll probably use it for all NAH tourneys.

it's purpose is for running Swiss rounds. brackets can be done on paper or in a google spreadsheet quite nicely, but maybe if I feel extra nerdy I'll bake that in too. maybe version 3