Tabletop: BCP Announces New Apps On the Way
Best Coast Pairing has big updates, and new apps on the way. If you are a user, check out what is coming very soon.
Greetings Gamers! The Best Coast Pairings team is here to share an update with you about the BCP Organized Play System.
via BCP:
“Eight years ago, BCP was started with a single goal that remains the core philosophy behind what we do; make it easy for anyone to create and run a tournament. Our first app “Best Coast Pairings Tournament Organizer” for iOS had its public launch on April 20th, 2016, running Broadside Bash at Kingdom Con in San Diego. Shortly after, our crew expanded and we began work on the player apps for iOS and Android with their official launch at TSHFT that same year. This was followed shortly by the launch of the TO app for Android. At what felt like an explosive rate from the launch of these apps, we added a robust list of game systems, users and features. The list of events grew quickly, from one event a weekend to three, then hundreds and beyond. These gaming communities grew accordingly and their events expanded in size to match. We had to learn, sometimes the hard way, how to scale continuously to accommodate an ever growing number and size of events. Shortly before the pandemic, we merged with the team from Down Under Pairings to expand our crew and fill in the often requested need for a bespoke web interface in addition to the working apps. In November of 2021, we introduced our revamped website with the ability to create and run events, and have continued to expand that functionality to encompass all of the features of the TO apps, the Player apps and more.
Our journey has not always been easy or pretty, but here we are today with BCP running the world’s most massive events (1000+ players) across many different game systems and thousands of users around the world every single week. Along with all these changes, the devices, services, and infrastructure we use has had to have constant updates and enhancements as needs change and technology evolves. New versions of iOS, Android, web browsers, are a constant project by themselves to update and maintain; this is before we consider our back end systems and databases As we have expanded we have found some game systems and features require unique buildouts. Diligent work by our dedicated team has streamlined many of our processes to prevent the need for custom or double work each time we make a change, often depending on the type of device. Going back to the beginning, our goal is always to make it easy for anyone to run a tournament, and when the experience is different between one device to another it doesn’t lend toward that credo. When we began BCP, web browsers on your mobile device could not do what applications could, and now we find that the reverse is true. Some of you may have seen that the Android TO app is no longer allowing Tournament Organizers to create or run events at this time and is instead directing Event Organizers to use the web. This is due to a combination of improved and mandatory infrastructure changes to our systems and rapid expansion of new features that need to be built into the app. This leaves us needing to redesign and rebuild the apps for both iOS and Android to account for the new features and infrastructure.
So what does this all mean? In the coming months, we will be releasing new apps for both iOS and Android that fully utilize our improved infrastructure. The BCP web site at bestcoastpairings.com is already built on our new infrastructure and is using the most up to date systems and code to give event organizers and their players the best experience. It is designed to fit all mobile devices and functions similar to the apps; albeit, it also includes more features and functionality. As an additional benefit for the webpage to lead the system, we are free of the dependence on Apple and/or Google’s release schedules. Making needed changes for features, functionality, and the occasional rapid updates can happen in a more seamless manner while we make changes to one platform instead of three. Similar to Android TO, in the coming weeks we will be turning down the iOS TO App, and directing all event creation and management to the web. This will be followed shortly by the release of a new updated Best Coast Pairings Apps that will take the place of the BCP Player App on both iOS and Android.
In the meantime, we recommend that both players and tournament organizers familiarize themselves with the website and strive to use this amazing tool for their events. We thank our wonderful users for the advance grace required while we complete these changes to our systems and continue to provide you the best platform for tabletop gaming. We have so much more still to come, and the ample list of new features and functionality for both TOs and Players alike is exciting, to say the least. Lastly we would like to acknowledge and thank all the Event Organizers, TOs, Community Leaders, Conventions, Retailers, Publishers, and Players that make this community amazing and give us purpose. We would not be where we are today if it was not for your support. It is all of you that are at the heart of what we do and the life long relationships and friends we all build through events in tabletop games.”
