The email I've been waiting for

Got the confirmation today - CardCore has been accepted as an official vendor at the Star Wars: Unlimited Sector Qualifier in Atlanta on April 18-19, 2026.

This is a big deal. Sector Qualifiers are the highest level of organized play below Galactic Qualifiers. We're talking 500+ players, serious competition, and the exact audience that would benefit from what CardCore does. We get five eight-foot tables - two up front, one on each side, and one in the back. That's a real booth. Not a folding table in a corner, but an actual vendor presence at a major competitive event.

The booth fee is $500, due by March 31st. For context, if we sell even $500-1000 worth of singles from our 5,000+ card inventory, the booth pays for itself. But card sales aren't the real goal. The real goal is getting 50-100 new CardCore users signed up on-site with the convention QR flow we've been building.

What shipped today

While that email was sitting in my inbox, we were heads-down shipping convention tooling. Here's what went live today:

QR Portal and Customer Dashboard (COREAPP-629) - This is the cornerstone of our convention strategy. Staff scan a player's QR code at the booth, and instantly see that player's full customer profile - their collection, wishlists, trade history, purchase history, and account status. No more fumbling through spreadsheets or asking players to spell their username. Scan, see everything, move on to the next person. At a busy booth with a line forming, this saves minutes per interaction.

Wishlist Sharing and CSV Export (COREAPP-630) - Players can now share their wishlists via link and export them as CSV files. This matters for conventions because players prep wishlists before events. "I need these 15 cards to finish my deck." Now they can share that list with vendors (us) ahead of time, and we can pre-pull cards before they even walk up to the booth. It also means players can import wishlists into other tools or share them with friends coordinating group purchases.

Profile QR Code Repositioned (COREAPP-631) - Moved the QR code and action buttons to the top of the profile page. Small change, big impact at a convention. When a player opens their profile to show staff their QR code, it needs to be right there - not buried below the fold where they have to scroll. Every second of fumbling costs us when there's a line.

QA Bug Batch (COREAPP-627) - Our external QA tester Victor started today, and we immediately crushed a batch of bugs he found: search layout issues on mobile, deck name display problems, collection image loading, and a trade flow edge case. Having fresh eyes on the app before a convention is invaluable. He's finding things we've been blind to for weeks.

Rate Limit Adjustment (COREAPP-626) - Temporarily disabled the bug report rate limit so Victor can submit reports without getting throttled during his intensive testing sessions. We'll re-enable it before the event.

Getting booth-ready

Beyond the software, we're prepping the physical presence. Ordered our first CardCore branded polo shirts today. It's a small thing, but showing up to a 500-person tournament in matching branded polos instantly signals "we're a real company, not three guys with a laptop." First impressions matter when you're asking store owners to consider your platform.

The booth plan is taking shape around three screens:

An attract loop display cycling through our highest-value singles and recent repack pulls. A live tournament companion display showing real-time pairings and standings from melee.gg - proof that our tournament integration actually works. And a touchscreen demo kiosk where players can open a simulated repack pack without even creating an account. Touch, open, see real cards from our inventory, get hooked, scan the QR code on their phone to make a real account.

The conversion funnel is: attract with the displays, engage with the demo kiosk, convert with the QR code signup flow, retain with a free repack token granted by staff. If we can get that loop under 60 seconds from "interested stranger" to "has an account with a free pack to open," we'll hit our 50-100 new user target.

Two events, 25 days

Here's the timeline that's now very real:

April 12 - Our first Premier Qualifier. This is the dress rehearsal. Smaller event, our home turf. We're running the tournament operations, testing the companion display, and validating the QR check-in flow with real players.

April 18 - Atlanta Sector Qualifier. The big one. Five tables, 500 players, branded booth, full inventory, staff in polos, three display screens, and a convention scanning system that didn't exist two weeks ago.

That's 25 days to finish the attract loop page, the demo repack kiosk, the win celebration overlay, sort and price 5,000+ cards, finalize marketing materials, and make sure the app doesn't fall over under load. Good thing we just rebuilt the server to handle it.

What's next

Tomorrow I'm starting on the attract loop display page - the auto-cycling showcase that runs on the left monitor at the booth. After that, the demo repack kiosk. These are the two pieces of custom software we need built before April 12th so we can test them at the PQ before deploying them at the Sector event.

The infrastructure rebuild from last night means the server can handle the load. The QR portal means staff can scan players efficiently. The wishlist sharing means players can prep before the event. Now we need the visual hooks that make people stop walking and look at our booth.

Twenty-five days. Two events. Let's go.