METHOD OF ARRANGING A MATCH BETWEEN SPORTS TEAMS THROUGH THE INTERNET AND RECORDING MEDIUM THEREFOR
Technical Field The present invention relates to a method for arranging a match between sports teams through the Internet, and to a recording medium therefor
Background Art In general, amateur teams are established all over the nation so that amateurs can play competitive sports Amateur sport teams are characteristically divided by the sport, such as soccer or baseball, regions, and ages
Amateur sports teams usually have matches with teams from nearby neighborhoods with whom they are acquainted or participate in a sporting event held by an association established in the same region Although there are many teams operating in the same region, it is difficult to have a match with other unfamiliar sports teams Further, having a match with a sports team in another region is more difficult Also even when a sport team challenges another team to a match, since the consent of all players on the team receiving the challenge is required, it takes a lot of time to arrange a final match schedule
Disclosure of the Invention To solve the above problems, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a method for arranging a match between sports teams though the Internet in which information on each of sports teams who want to have a match is receive and stored in database of a sever computer connected to the Internet and a sports team connected to the server computer selects a counterpart team meeting conditions and challenges the selected team to a match, so that one sports team can have an opportunity
to have a match with other sports teams having various conditions
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a computer- readable recording medium containing the above method
Accordingly, to achieve the above objective, there is provided a method for arranging a match between sports teams through the Internet so that the a sports team can play an actual match against a counterpart sports team meeting conditions, the method comprising the steps of (a) receiving team information and match available date from each sports team and registering the input information on a database of a server computer, (b) receiving conditions from a user accessing the server computer to select a sports team to have a match against, (c) extracting a sports team meeting the input conditions from the database and displaying the result to the user, (d) if a desired counterpart team is selected by the user, the server computer informing the counterpart team of a request for a match, and (e) if the request for a match is approved by the counterpart team, setting an actual match schedule
To achieve another objective, there is provided a computer-readable recording medium for storage of a method for arranging a match between sports teams through the Internet so that the a sports team can play an actual match against a counterpart sports team meeting conditions, the method comprising the steps of (a) receiving team information and match available date from each sports team and registering the input information on a database of a server computer, (b) receiving conditions from a user accessing the server computer to select a sports team to have a match against, (c) extracting a sports team meeting the input conditions from the database and displaying the result to the user, (d) if a desired counterpart team is selected by the user, the server computer informing the counterpart team of a request for a match, and (e) if the request for a match is approved by the counterpart team, setting an actual match schedule
Brief Description of the Drawings
FIG 1 is a view showing a system to which a method for arranging a match between sports teams through the Internet according to the present invention is applied,
FIGS 2A and 2B are a team information table and a match schedule table registered in the server computer of FIG 1 , respectively,
FIG 3 is a flow chart for explaining an example of the method for arranging a match between sports teams through the Internet according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and
FIG 4 is a screen showing a condition input window and a search result window
Best mode for carrying out the Invention
FIG 1 shows a system to which a method for arranging a match between sports teams through the Internet according to the present invention is applied In the drawing, a server computer 10 is provided at a company for providing a method for arranging a match between sports teams through the Internet according to the present invention A plurality of user computers 14 are connected to the server computer 10 to input a match schedule to the server computer 10 and manage players of an actual sports team
The server computer 10 and the user computers 14 are connected one another through the Internet 12 The user computers 14 connected to the Internet 12 has a Internet browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer which can display the content of a web in the HTML or XML format Here, the Internet 12 signifies a communications network connecting the world using TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol) protocol
The server computer 10 includes a program needed to provide a method for arranging a match between sports teams according to the present invention A database 20 includes a team information table 21 containing the name of a sports team, a corresponding league, a match
schedule, and an earned point, and a match schedule table 23 containing an expected date when sports means will have matches and information on reservation of a match against other sports team
The team information table 21 contains the name of a team, a region, a corresponding league, corresponding players, a telephone number, a place for a match, and an earned score In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, for a soccer game, the nation is divided into 14 regions and there are four divisions of an adult division, a university division, a high school division and a middle school division according to age The match schedule table 23 contains information on a schedule of matches to be played by each sports team and information as to whether a sports team is currently requested by another sports team to have a match
FIGS 2A and 2B show the team information table and the match schedule table recorded in the server computer shown in FIG 1 Referring to the match schedule table 23 of FIG.2B, information indicating that Hanvit team can have a match on 15 April 2000 is input, and Hanyang team is currently requesting a match against Hanvit team, that is, Hanvit team has not consented to the request yet
FIG 3 is a flow chart for explaining an example of the method for arranging a match between sports teams through the Internet according to the present invention Referring to the drawing, a person responsible for management of a sports team of players belong to an actual sports team accesses the server computer 10 through the Internet to input information about the sports team and an expected date for a match The server computer 10 generates the input team information table 21 and match schedule table 23 thus establishing the database 20 (S110) An Internet user accesses the server computer 14 using the user computer 14 (S120) Here, the server computer 10 receives ID and password input by the user and approves a membership A new member performs a predetermined entry process to receive approval of a membership
After a membership is approved, the server computer 10 allows the
user to select a team to have a match against (S130) Here, as shown in FIG 4, a condition input window 41 for inputting conditions for a match to search for a counterpart sports team as shown in FIG 1 , appears on the user computer 14 Thus, the user can select a region selection button 41 a, an age selection button 41 b, a team name input section 41 c, and a match date 41 d with respect the counter sports team from the condition input window 41 Of course, when a total button 41 f is selected, all sports teams registered on the server computer 10 are searched for
As describe above, when conditions are input and a search button 41 e is pressed, the server computer 10 extracts a counterpart team suitable for the conditions from the match schedule table 23 and displays the result on the user computer 14 (S140) The result of the search includes a team name 43a, a request state 43b, and a match available date 43e, as shown in the search result window 43 of FIG 4 Here, when each of the teams corresponding to the name of team 43a is pressed, detailed information corresponding to each team is searched from the team information table 21 shown in FIG 2A and displayed Referring to FIG 4, "Requesting" indicated in the column of the request state 43b in the search result window
43 indicates that Cheongsol team requested Hanvit team to have a match on 25 March 2000 "Waiting" in the request state 43b indicates that
Hangang team in the team name 43a which can play on 15 April 2000 has not yet requested for a match
The user selects a sports team in "waiting" in the request state 43b and requests a counterpart sport team to have a match (S150) For example, when the Hangang team in "Waiting" in the request state 43b is selected, a screen (not shown) for requesting a match against the Hangang team is provided so that a match request can be made
The server computer 10 stores the contents of a match request requested by the user on the match schedule table 23 on the database 20 and informs the counterpart team of such a fact (S160)
Then, the counterpart team being requested for a match accesses
the server computer 10 and answers the match request (S170)
If the counterpart team refuses the match request, the refusal is stored on the sever computer 10 and such a fact is informed to the user The user receiving the refusal of a match request searches for other counterpart team by using the condition search window 41 and sends a match request to the searched counterpart team
If the counterpart team consents to the match request by the user, the result is stored on the server computer 10 and the consent is informed to the user (S180) The request state and the match approval result may be displayed in a match schedule table (not shown) indicated as a calendar
Then, the user's team and the counterpart team have a match on the scheduled date (S190)
After an actual match is played, the result of the match between the user's team and the counterpart team are input on the server computer 10
(S200) Here, the match result is preferable registered on the server computer 10 only when a defeated team approves the result of the match
Since a point according to the result of a match are assigned to each sports team, a defeated team receives a relatively lower point The server computer 10 recalculates the input result of a match into a point and assigns the point to each of the sports teams (S210) Here, a winning team receives 4 points, drawn teams receive 2 points, and a defeated team receives 1 point, and the points are accumulated on the earned point of the team information table 21 of FIG 2A Thus, information on amateur sports teams located all over the nation is collected through the Internet and stored on the database 20 of the server computer 10 Then, a user accessed the server computer 10 selects one of the sport teams registered on the database 20 having appropriate conditions so that an actual match can be played As a result, the geographical and time limits in arranging a match between sport teams can be overcome and sports teams having the same preference can be
connected
Also, the present invention can be realized on a recording medium as a code which can be read by a computer The computer-readable recording medium includes all types of recording media for storing data which can be read by a computer system For example, there is ROM, RAM CR-ROM, magnetictape, floppy disk, and optical data storage device as a computer-readable recording medium Also, the computer-readable recording medium includes one realized in the form of a carrier wave, for example, transfer on the Internet Thus, the scope of rights claimed for the present invention is not limited to the above preferred embodiment but should be limited by the accompanying claims
Industrial Applicability As described above, the present invention in which the respective sports teams can select counterpart teams meeting the conditions by accessing the server computer through the Internet and a match schedule can be arranged so that an actual match can be played, has the following effects Previously, under the real circumstances, matches are arranged only between adjacently located sports teams However, since a team may request all sports teams registered on the server computer to have a match, sports teams located far from a requesting team can have a match with no geographical limit Further, instead of manually requesting a counterpart team to have a match, a match can be arranged by searching for a match available date of each sport team registered on the server computer so that the result of a match request can be easily checked and the time needed to set the match schedule can be save