Behind the Scenes
How This Site Was Built
A look at the technology and thinking behind The Trainer Shed's tournament platform.
Built by DigiHwy Certainty
DigiHwy Certainty empowers communities through digitalisation — building tools that help grassroots organisations run, grow, and connect with their members more effectively.
This platform was designed and developed by Emil, with inputs from Brian, to give Singapore's Pokémon competitive community a proper home online.
The Challenge
Running a grassroots gaming community in Singapore means juggling a lot — tournament logistics, player registrations, payment collection, live pairings, standings, and communication across multiple platforms. Most communities end up stitching together spreadsheets, Google Forms, and manual processes.
The Trainer Shed needed something better: a purpose-built platform that handles everything from registration to final standings, without the organisational overhead.
What We Built
Online Registration
Players register and pay online before the event. No more cash collection at the door or manual sign-up sheets.
Stripe Payments
Secure payment processing with GrabPay, PayNow, and card support — the payment methods Singaporeans actually use.
Swiss Pairing System
Automatic Swiss pairings with proper tiebreakers, the same system used at official Pokémon Regional and International Championships.
Top Cut Brackets
Automatic top cut generation after Swiss rounds, with configurable best-of matches for elimination play.
Real-Time Updates
WebSocket-powered live pairings and standings. Players see their matches the instant they're posted — no refreshing needed.
Edge-Deployed
Runs on Cloudflare Workers with D1 database — fast globally, reliable, and cost-effective for a community organisation.
Tech Stack
Framework
Astro (SSR)
Styling
Tailwind CSS
Hosting
Cloudflare Workers
Database
Cloudflare D1 (SQLite)
Payments
Stripe
Real-Time
Durable Objects + WebSockets
Community-First Digitalisation
This project is a practical example of what DigiHwy Certainty does — building digital tools that solve real problems for real communities. Not enterprise SaaS, not startup moonshots, just thoughtful technology that helps people organise, connect, and do what they love more effectively.
If you're running a community and the admin work is holding you back, get in touch. We'd love to help.