Built With Customers: The Tournament Feature

We’re excited to introduce the Tournament Feature in ggLeap, built for esports programs, LAN centers, schools, and competitive gaming communities.

For the past year, the Tournament Feature has been in quiet development. Not because we were trying to hide it, but because we wanted to build it the right way. Before making a big public announcement, we wanted real operators using it, real customers testing it, and real feedback shaping the product.

The idea behind the Tournament Feature came from listening to our customers. Across schools, LAN centers, and esports venues, we kept hearing the same challenges. Running tournaments and leagues can be harder than it needs to be. Operators are often bouncing between spreadsheets, Discord, bracket tools, manual reminders, registration forms, and disconnected player data. That creates more work for admins and a less connected experience for players.

We knew there was an opportunity to make this better.

So we partnered with Mike from TourneyBit, who brought deep experience in tournament infrastructure and a clear understanding of what competitive gaming tools need to become. Internally, the project kicked off under the code name ggArena. Together, we started building a feature inside ggLeap that could support tournaments, leagues, player registration, scheduling, standings, profiles, and the workflows that matter most to real esports operators.

What made this process special was the way it was built.

Our customers became part of the development process. (42) ggLeap customers across commercial LAN centers, K-12 schools, collegiate programs, and after-school/community organizations helped test the feature, find bugs, request updates, challenge assumptions, and push the product forward. In many ways, they became our extended QA team, testing the feature in real environments with real players, real events, and real operational needs.

Each week, Mike shared product update videos showing what was built, what changed, and what was coming next. Those updates became more than simple release notes. They gave our customers a real-time look at development and showed how their feedback was being turned into actual product improvements. Features around registration, leagues, player schedules, tournament visibility, admin workflows, and performance were all shaped by that loop. That feedback-first approach is a big part of this story.

We did not want to build another generic bracket tool. We wanted to build a tournament and league feature that fits the way esports programs actually operate. That means supporting both beginner and advanced admins. It means making the player experience clearer. It means helping centers and schools run repeatable programming, not just one-off events. It means giving ggLeap customers a better way to activate their communities and keep players engaged.

How to Turn On the Tournament Feature in ggLeap

1. 1. Log in to ggLeap.
   2. From the dashboard, open Settings.
   3. Select Add-Ons Marketplace.
   4. In the Game section, find the TourneyBit add-on.
   5. Toggle the TourneyBit add-on on.
   6. Return to the ggLeap dashboard and click Tournaments to open the Tournament Feature and create your first tournament.

The Tournament Feature was built to make it easier to create tournaments, test leagues, and explore competitive programming inside the ecosystem you already use. This is a big milestone, but it is not the finish line. It is the next chapter.

We are going to keep listening, keep improving, and keep building with the customers who helped get us here. Huge thanks to Mike, TourneyBit, and every customer who tested, broke, improved, and believed in the Tournament Feature along the way.