Self-initiated · React Native · TypeScript
Rei da Quadra — finally know who's the best player in your group.
Every padel group argues about who's really the best. Rei da Quadra settles it — automatic scheduling, live scores, rankings that update after every match, and a career history that follows you across championships. No spreadsheets, no group chat math, just play and know.
Role
Product strategy & UX
React Native engineering
Full-stack build
Scope
Full MVP from scratch
Auth, championships & rankings
i18n (pt/en/es)
The problem: nobody actually knows who's the best
Your padel group plays every week. Partners rotate, scores get tracked on someone's notes app, and the “ranking” lives in a WhatsApp thread nobody scrolls back to. Everyone has an opinion about who's on top. Nobody has the data.
Existing apps handle traditional brackets but don't understand rotating-partner formats where every player pairs with every other. There was a clear opening for one app that builds the schedule, tracks every point, and crowns the champion — no arguments needed.
How I thought about it
Two roles shape the experience. The organizer creates the championship, invites players, and manages results. Everyone else wants to see their next match, check the ranking, and track their career stats. The product had to serve both without adding friction to either.
1. Scheduling had to be automatic
Given a list of players, the app generates a full round-robin schedule where every player partners with every other player exactly once. No manual bracket building, no missed pairings.
2. Scoring needs to be unambiguous
The americano point system (3/2/1/0) with tiebreaks is specific enough that a generic scoreboard doesn't cut it. Match cards show sets, tiebreak indicators, and point breakdowns so there are no arguments after the last round.
3. Career stats keep players engaged between championships
A utility app gets opened once and forgotten. Player profiles with win rate, championship history, and a career breakdown give players a reason to check the app between events — and a reason to come back for the next one.
What shipped
- Authentication with email and password, profile setup with nickname and photo
- Championship creation with player invites and automatic round-robin scheduling
- Match result registration with sets, tiebreak tracking, and confirmation flow
- Live rankings updated after every match with the americano point system
- Championship dashboard showing position, points, win rate, and next match
- Player profiles with career stats, championship history, and win/loss breakdown
- Onboarding carousel and scoring tooltips for first-time users
- i18n with Portuguese, English, and Spanish support
Product surfaces
Success metrics
Real group adoption
First championship completed
Scheduling accuracy
100% valid round-robin
Scoring correctness
Zero disputes on points
Build time
2 weeks, AI-assisted workflow
What's next
- Push notifications when invited to a championship or when results are registered
- Real-time updates via Supabase Realtime for live ranking and match changes
- Head-to-head stats and detailed player comparisons across championships
- Admin dashboard for managing multiple championships from one place
- App Store release to open it beyond the first padel group
Live scoring during matches, tournament brackets, and spectator mode were all left out intentionally — the MVP needed to solve the actual americano organization problem first.