

Show HN: League Warrior - hodgesmr
http://leaguewarrior.com/index.html

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jwn
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!

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w4
I suspect the entendre was intended.

I like it.

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wmaiouiru
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?

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ogreyonder
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 :)

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andrew14824
Thanks for the interest. Let us know if we missed anything in the above reply.

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JeffL
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.

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

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avalaunch
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).

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bonjourmr
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 :) )

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

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andrew14824
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.

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kmfrk
Can you add some kind of gamified penalization for people who are always no-
shows? :P

Those people drive me crazy.

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

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andrew14824
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.

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danenania
You should get Ultimate Frisbee in there. Huge pickup culture.

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andrew14824
agreed, thats a great one!

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dl8
extremely cool idea, hope people in my area actually use it though.

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xpop2027
Awesome design.

