ETOPICT

Inspiration

Our project is about sports and education. We are members of the National Team of Ukraine in orienteering and we are also coaches of juniors and athletes with disabilities.

Orienteering is a unique sport that combines physical abilities and intelligence. Therefore, many orienteering athletes are not only involved in sports, but are also professionals in various activities: IT, engineering, science, education… And we too.

Therefore, we are looking for non-standard opportunities for the development of our favorite sport, so that it develops and develops those who practice it, and also becomes closer to everyone.

The Coronavirus pandemic has prompted the development of a new type of orienteering -E-TrailO - online orienteering. Now the International Orienteering Federation is discussing the issue of official recognition of E-trailO, and therefore, software tools are needed to conduct such competitions in compliance with all the rules, and, first of all, the FairPlay rules. And we don't want to be left behind

What it does

We develop ETOPICT: E-Trail Orienteering Platform for International Competitions and Trainings. This is a Trail-Orienteering simulator - a platform on which any athlete can train in trail orienteering without leaving home, a coach can organize a training session for their athletes (and share it with other people if they wish), and competition organizers can conduct any competitions: official and unofficial, from the Club championship to the World Championship. And thanks to the decentralization and open data in the blockchain, the principle of justice will be ensured. Also, E-TrailO competitions provide an opportunity to attract new participants who have not previously been involved in orienteering.

How we built it

We have been conducting Е-TrailO training and competitions since 2020, when this type of orienteering began to develop. We tried competitions and trainings using different technologies, and also participated in similar competitions that were held all over the world using different technologies. However, we have seen that the use of adapted technologies (Google Form, Google map and others) severely limits the possibilities of organizing high-quality and fair competitions. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a specialized platform. Now there is a platform for conducting one of the varieties of Trail-O - TempO simulator from Libor Forst (Czech Republic). We hope that our platform will become the basis for another type of TrailO - PreO.

Challenges we ran into

The main problem we faced in organizing E-trail competitions was to ensure fair results and equal opportunities. There are two reasons for this: the unequal technical capabilities of the participants (the speed of computers and the quality of the Internet channel) and the provision of fair summing up.

The first problem can be solved through community support (DAO). The second problem is mostly solved through the use of a decentralized blockchain system, as well as through the involvement solutions of NEAR-ecosystem, such as Calimero.

Another problem is the support of motivation for both participants and organizers of the competition. It can be solved both through NFT-based rewards (usіng Mintbase NFT infrastucture) and through the possible commercialization of international competitions (using Roketo stream technology).

Accomplishments that we're proud of

More than 500 people from about 20 countries of the world took part in the international and all-Ukrainian E-trailO tournaments that we held. Most of them expressed their desire to continue participating in E-TrailO competitions. We hope that they will become the first users of our platform, and also attract their friends and colleagues.