Competitive 2K. Real brackets. Real money.
The UPA Esports platform handles everything the Unified Pro-Am Association needs to run competitive NBA 2K tournaments at scale. Tournament brackets, team registration, Stripe entry fees with automatic winner payouts, persistent player profiles with ELO rankings, and a full match scheduling system. Shipped in one month for EvThatGuy's association.
Esports
Platform type
Unified Pro-Am Association
Stripe
Payments
Entry fees and winner payouts
Active
Status
Live and running tournaments
1 mo
Ship time
Full platform to production
The Challenge
Before UPA Esports, running a competitive 2K association meant managing brackets in spreadsheets, collecting entry fees via Venmo with no escrow, posting results manually, and hoping everyone agreed on the standings. The admin overhead was enough to limit how many tournaments could run per season.
The platform needed to automate the full tournament lifecycle. Players register and pay through the site. Brackets generate automatically from the player pool. Results submit through a dispute-resistant flow. Winners get paid out automatically through Stripe without a commissioner touching the money.
The one-month deadline was real. The association had a season start date. Every system had to be functional, not just sketched out, before the first tournament opened for registration.
Platform Systems
Single and double elimination bracket generation from any player count. Brackets seed automatically from player rankings. Round advancement triggers the moment a result is submitted. Bye handling for non-power-of-two player pools.
Entry fee checkout with webhook-confirmed registration. Prize pools accumulate in escrow until tournament end. Automated winner payout via Stripe transfers with configurable split percentages. Refund handling for cancelled events.
Team creation with roster management, captain assignment, and invite flow. Teams lock at registration close. Roster changes require commissioner approval before tournament start.
Persistent player records with win/loss history, ELO-style rating, tournament placement tracking, and linked Discord and 2K gamertag verification. Rankings update in real time after each match result.
Automated match generation with scheduled time slots. Players receive notifications for upcoming matches. Commissioners can reschedule with reason logging. No-show policy enforced automatically after timeout.
Match result disputes flagged through an in-platform flow. Both players submit their version of the result. Commissioners review flagged matches with a clear resolution interface. Every dispute is logged for accountability.
Public leaderboards showing overall rankings, current season standings, and tournament-specific results. Leaderboard pages update live. Filterable by season, game mode, and team vs. individual.
Full commissioner control: tournament management, player verification, dispute resolution, payout oversight, and season configuration. Designed for non-technical admins with clear action flows.
Payment Flow
Tournament goes live with entry fee and bracket size. Players register and pay through Stripe Checkout. Webhook confirms payment before roster slot is reserved.
Registration closes. Prize pool is calculated from total entries minus platform fee. Brackets seed from player ELO rankings. Byes assigned automatically.
Matches play out. Results submit through the platform. Disputes flag for commissioner review. Bracket advances automatically on confirmed results.
Final match confirmed. Stripe transfers trigger automatically to registered payout accounts for top placements. Payout receipts generated and logged. No commissioner touching money manually.
System Map
Data Flow
Tech Stack
One Month Out
UPA Esports launched on schedule. The first tournament opened for registration with the full platform operational: brackets generating, entry fees collecting, player profiles tracking, and leaderboards live. EvThatGuy's association had real infrastructure instead of Discord threads and spreadsheets.
The Stripe payment flow removed the biggest friction point in competitive 2K. Players trust automated escrow more than Venmo transfers. Commissioners do not have to chase payments or manually split prize pools. The system handles every edge case including no-shows, forfeits, and disputed results.
This is what a one-month sprint can produce when the scope is clear, the architecture is planned upfront, and every system is built to production standards from the first commit. The platform is active and running tournaments right now.
Tournament brackets, Stripe payouts, player profiles, and leaderboards are already built and shipped. Book a 15-minute call and we will scope your version.