Gamercraft - Enhanced Tournaments
How to reinvent the competitive experience?
The challenge: Gamercraft players constantly complained about the excessively long wait times for scheduled tournaments ("Why so long to start?" kept coming up on Discord), creating frustration and limiting engagement.
My solution: I designed Flash Tournaments - instant tournaments allowing players to compete immediately without waiting, while optimizing the classic tournament experience.
The observed impact: Flash Tournaments quickly became the platform's main revenue source, generating more income than scheduled tournaments. Discord feedback completely changed: from "I've been waiting for 2 hours" to "Flash tournaments are so addictive!" This innovation transformed player impatience into a competitive advantage for Gamercraft.
A competitive and fluid user journey
The classic user journey on Gamercraft involved several steps:
Registration: The player chooses a tournament and registers with credits or real money.
Waiting and preparation: They wait for the tournament to start, learn the deadlines to complete their matches, and follow the rules.
Results: Once all participants have finished, scores are analyzed and prizes are awarded.
This structure generated several frustrations among players: excessively long wait times, difficulties participating in scheduled tournaments, and impatience to play immediately. I identified these friction points and redefined the experience to eliminate frustrations.
User experience improvement
Rethinking information for better clarity
I collaborated with the Discord community to understand what motivated players to choose a tournament. The feedback helped guide my strategy:
Display of essential information (cash prize, date, rules) from the homepage.
Clear details at registration: score calculation, prize structure, and payment.
Once registered, players had a complete tournament overview: deadlines, instructions, and flow.
Flash Tournaments: play now, win fast
To address player impatience, I introduced Flash Tournaments. Unlike scheduled tournaments, these events allow players to register and start immediately. The main challenge was maintaining a consistent experience while simplifying the interface to clearly differentiate these two types of tournaments.
Flash Tournaments quickly became a success, generating more revenue than scheduled tournaments while satisfying players seeking instant events.
User testing and research
Recruiting participants for testing was a challenge, as the majority of users were in Brazil and spoke Portuguese. I used channels like Discord to identify English-speaking players and ensure the tests were representative. These tests validated the positive reception of Flash Tournaments and allowed me to finalize the necessary adjustments.
