Built for one court and a group of friends

1. 1

   The problem fit in one head — badly

   We're a group of friends who book a court — usually four to seven of us, sometimes eight. What we wanted was simple: everyone partners everyone across the night, and sit-outs stay roughly equal. With four players that sorts itself out. Beyond that, someone is juggling it all in their head between games — who sat out, who's already played together, who hasn't faced who — while everyone else waits.

2. 2

   So we built the shuffle

   Eventually someone said: you write software — build something that works it out for us. So that's what happened. The first version was a simple shuffle tool. It knew who was in, who'd sat out, and who'd partnered whom, and it dealt the next game.

3. 3

   Then it kept growing

   The rotation headache disappeared — and the project didn't stop. Stats at the end of every session. Club-wide leaderboards and personal profiles. Achievements. A live view where everyone can see who's playing and who's up next. Everything runs in two-month seasons, and the best player of a season keeps a permanent award.

4. 4

   The part nobody planned

   What we actually got was more fun. People check their stats midweek. They wind each other up over the season standings. Attendance went up — not because anyone asked for that, but because there's something running that everyone's part of.

5. 5

   One person runs it — nobody else has to sign up

   One thing was fixed from day one: a single person should be able to run everything. Create a club, add your players by name, start a live session, end it — everyone gets stats. Players can claim their profile with their own account later, whenever they feel like it.

We still play every week — same group, same court. ShuttlSync is what that little tool grew into, and it's still built the same way: fix what actually annoys a real group on a real night.