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SHIFT & EVENT OPS · CASE STUDY

NCAA Tournament Coverage

Structuring high-velocity pod operations and pre-engineered assets to execute flawless real-time coverage during college basketball’s highest-traffic tournament window.

01 / THE BRIEF & CHALLENGE

Eliminating queue latency and team burnout during multi-network broadcast spikes.

01 / THE CHALLENGE

Peak Concurrency Bottlenecks

The opening weekend demands continuous coverage across 48 games on four concurrent broadcast networks. Traditional linear queues collapse when multiple buzzer-beaters and upsets conclude within minutes, leading to severe publishing lag and designer exhaustion.

  • → 48 Broadcast Games in 96 Hours
  • → 4 Simultaneous Television Feeds
  • → Single-Queue Bottleneck Elimination
02 / THE SYSTEM & ARCHITECTURE

3-Tier Autonomous Pod Model

Replaced flat queues with specialized operational pods: dedicated Breaking Reaction Pods focused on rapid final scores, Stat & Recap Pods managing multi-slide carousels, and an independent Senior QA Gatekeeper verifying rosters and sponsors prior to release.

  • → Decoupled Real-Time & Stat Pods
  • → Dedicated Pre-Publish QA Gatekeeper
  • → Live Roster & Asset Staging in Airtable
03 / THE RESULTS & EXECUTION

Sustained Velocity at Peak Scale

Pre-staged school palettes, typography tokens, and player cutouts prior to tipoff, empowering pods to deliver record-setting asset volume under a sub-3-minute SLA while maintaining sustainable 8-hour shift rotations throughout the tournament.

  • → 200+ Daily Tentpole Assets Shipped
  • → Sub-3-Minute Live Breaking SLA
  • → Zero Shift Overtime or Burnout
02 / EXECUTION

Deliverables

National Championship Gameday — UConn vs. Michigan
Michigan — First National Championship Since 1989
NCAA March Madness — Full Tournament Bracket
NCAA March Madness — Jordan Howlett Bracket Predictions
National Championship Bracket Picks Leaderboard
56.76% of Brackets Picked Michigan to Final Four
Andy Katz's Dark Horse Final Four
NCAA March Madness — All-Tournament Team
Wisconsin Advances to Second Round
Arizona Final Four Quote Card — Tommy Lloyd on Koa Peat