DKS Sports Day

Description: A 50-person sports day for my 27th, and two weeks of build-up, run by one person

Info: For my 27th I wanted everyone I know in one place, competing. Teams of 6, 10 games from lagori to pickleball, a fixed clock from 4 to 9pm, then trophies and a party. Running that for 50 people on my own meant the app had to do the organising: get people in, form the teams, keep them excited for two weeks, and run the day.

What I focused on:

• Started from what guests would actually do. No accounts: everyone gets a personal link by text, and the only thing they fill in is a player card (photo, walk-up song, trash talk). Events were cut by what people asked for: mini football went when only 2 of 17 people wanted it.
• Designed the rules around the experience, not the bracket. Every team plays every event once, a win is 5 points and a loss is 2, so showing up beats winning a few. A fixed clock means a late team only delays itself.
• Made a two-week run-up out of the app: invite, team draft opens, captains recruit from a pool that shows who plays what, power rankings, free agents placed, teams lock. Each beat goes out as a push notification.
• Built it to need one organiser. Captains pick their own squads, guests act as runners with a four-button screen per match, and the schedule regenerates in a minute if the gym booking falls through or it rains. React, Firebase, and team picks in one transaction so two captains can't grab the same person.