We all love beach volleyball, but I think you’d agree that it could use more ways for fans to connect to the game and to each other. I created a beach volleyball fantasy game to help do just that. Over the past year I’ve been working hard at building up my coding skills and got this ready just in time for a test drive at the Itapem tournament. In Beach Pick’em, you choose the teams you expect to finish in the top 5 at World Tour events. The better your picks, the more points you score.
It is a simple concept and it is working great with a limited number of users. Before making a complete launch for the 2022 season, it is important to test it out with as many people as possible at a real event. Please check out the Beach Pick’em game and let me know what you think so I can keep making improvements before a full season gets underway.
How to play
First of all you need to make an account. Then, visit the tournaments page to view all of the upcoming World Tour events. At this time only the men’s and women’s tournaments in Itapema are available. Drag teams you think will make the quarterfinals from the teams list into your selected list and put them in order. Save your picks and you are all set.
You can update your picks as many times as you want, up until the main draw starts. So, if you see a team in the qualifiers that you think will make the quarterfinals, you can add them to your picks, right up until the first serve of pool play. If you pick a qualifier and they get eliminated, you can replace them. So go ahead and sign up and make your picks. You can always change them later this week.
Enjoy the tournament as a participant
You may not have the ranking points needed (or the height or volleyball skills) to play on the world tour, but now you can enjoy tournaments in a new way. Once the main draw starts, you can see how your picks stack up against the rest of the world. Did many people agree with your number one? Is your surprise pick for third place going to be the difference maker for you?
When the tournament reaches the quarterfinals, the points will start to pour in. The tournament leader board sand the overall leaderboard will show us who is the true beach volleyball genius is.
To find the game more easily from the Beach Volley Blog website, there is a new ‘Games‘ page. You can find it in the menu above easily.
I need your feedback
If this kind of game is something you’ve been waiting for, please check the ‘survey’ box when you register. I really need to hear from you as I continue to improve the game and create more in the future. Groups and friend challenges aren’t available at this time, but will be part of the full blown game in 2022.
For this trial run of the game, it is being hosted at a service called Heroku. One consequence of using Heroku is that if nobody has visited the game site for a while, it goes to idle mode. That means if you visit when it has been idling it can take up to 30 seconds for it to start. Just be patient and it will wake up soon. For the full version of this game, I’ll host it right here at beachvolleyblog.net, but since I’m in a hurry to get as many people signed up before Itapema, I left it on Heroku.