WeSports

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Inspiration

About two weeks ago, I – a passionate, below-average basketball small forward – decided to get something to write on my below-average exercise schedule. I remember looking through my WhatsApp contacts one-by-one, thinking whether or not he/she knows what basketball even is (Mum might play basketball, right?). But a light of hope shone when I hovered over Jack – a social butterfly with plenty of basketball experience. Surely enough he had a chat group of basketball enthusiasts which I joined in a flash; expect nothing less from the esteemed Jack.

I was imbued with confidence. This was the dawn of my basketball career. The eager basketballer inside me quickly tossed an invite into the chat – not a big deal, just a typical “hey, guys - anybody wanna play?”.

Classic. How could you turn down an invitation like that? For the average naïve sports community newbie, I expected nothing other than yeses. It took me by surprise when The Storm hit me. The group chat of 100+ participants erupted in a flurry of texts. It was almost like I was the prime minister in a press conference after publicly committing a war crime. What I got was everything other than yeses. Jack was the first to respond, “Sorry can’t play, busy this week”.

A nice lad in the chat responded “yooo, im down to play anytime” “u know the court in ladybarn park?” Ladybarn Park is in Manchester. I live in Bath.

Another 25 or so Jack-wannabes said they’re busy this week too. Jack suggested next Saturday, but I couldn’t possibly miss my brother’s hockey game.

Someone even asked, “hey is this volleyball?”

Eventually I got a group of ten to play, but the court was a 45-minute drive from my house, with a phone booking that took 15 minutes. I had to convince myself that it was a small price to pay for my epic basketball journey. Two of them didn’t even show up because they had a “sudden emergency”. No worries, the eight of us that turned up could still shoot some hoops together.

It had come to my attention that we had a minor issue. None of us had a ball.

The eight of us decided to ask the nearby players if they had anyone free and a ball to spare. That was when we met Dom and Grant. Both of them stood an entire head taller than me. They dominated the court. They were faster, taller, and just all around better than the rest of us. Looking at it from every angle, my team was just Dom and his four cheerleaders. It was a 1v1 - Dom vs Grant, just disguised as a "five-on-five". In the end, neither I, the seven others in from the chat, perhaps even Dom and Grant enjoyed that basketball session. I thanked the players for the game, and I was on my way.

That was an utter disaster and as of now that group is archived and muted and never to be brought up again.

That was when I realized the problem: “I know how to play the sport, I just don’t know who, when and where to play”

I may be a below average basketball player, but a problem like this can surely be solved by an average programmer such as myself. Thus, we created WeSports.

What it does

WeSports is an app which allows for easy formation of sports groups. Whether you are a recreational enjoyer or an experienced competition enthusiast, WeSports can find you the perfect group, venue and equipment to enjoy your game straight away.

Our team identified the main problem in playing sports, is finding the right people to play with. Often people are faced with the difficulty of skill differences, time management, distance and lack of equipment.

All you need to provide is what you want to play, where you want to play and the skill level you want to play at - WeSports will handle the rest.

WeSports gets rid of the friction, and shows you everything you need. Join group chats from a list which are ordered and presented with your preferences in mind. Chat to the group members and get to know them better. Book your preferred venue through our app, and we'll plan out your journey with Google maps. Don't have equipment? We'll book/request equipment from the venues, or even link you to shopping pages for what you need.

How we built it

WeSports was built using Kotlin, Jetpack compose, and XML. Android studio was used to create the interface and functionality.

Challenges we ran into

At first, some of us were unclear with the direction of our project.

We had compatibility issues between Jetpack compose and Kotlin.

Many of us were new to GitHub, so we had to learn how to use it.

Luckily we made our way around these challenges.

One challenge which is still complete is the sorting algorithm for our groups. We still need to think about what weighting each of the factors contribute to the final indexing of the groups.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

For this hackathon, we were very impressed at our idea generation stage. This was our first time in a hackathon, so we were very impressed that we could get a working UI.