Hugo Hellberg
Hugo HellbergProduct Designer & Builder

I turned a Swedish lawn game into a Colorado tradition.

What began as a neighborhood tournament became a five-year, and counting, community ritual—and a connected platform covering discovery, storytelling, registration, competition, personality and history.

Visit Mile High Kubb
Role
Founder · Designer · Builder
Timeline
2022–Present
Experience
Web platform + live event
Technology
Figma > Webflow > Lovable · Supabase
Growth
46 → 125 players
Retention
≈80% returning teams
WHERE WE STARTED

The origin

It started with a game I grew up around in Sweden, and a belief that Denver had room for a new tradition. I wanted to create a flagship neighborhood event: a friendly but legitimate tournament with real structure, a playful personality and an absurdly large trophy. The first cup in 2022 drew 14 teams and 46 players.
The hook was the trophy. The real product was belonging.
A player throws a baton on a Kubb field
A Swedish lawn game, transplanted to Colorado.

The opportunity

Most local tournaments are rebuilt from scratch every year. Registration opens, people play, the brackets are packed away—and the cycle resets, if there is a second year.
I saw an opportunity to connect the entire experience—from discovery, storytelling and registration to competition, results, team/player characters, and history—so every tournament would make the next one richer and create a community tradition for years to come. We want to make this event one of the biggest Kubb tournaments in the US.
One-off event

Promote → register → play → disappear

Connected tradition

Discover → join → compete → belong

Discover

Make an unfamiliar game feel exciting and approachable.

Community partners, word of mouth, social content, email, photography and storytelling.

Join

Remove the barriers to participation.

Team creation made easy, and the invitation to join an in-person and digital community.

Compete

Make the tournament clear, credible and exciting.

Pool play, scoring, playoff brackets and trophies. All the elements to make it legit.

Belong

Give people a reason to identify and return.

Profiles, rosters, sagas, leaderboard, rivalries, rankings, photos and traditions.

Every registration adds a team. Every result adds history. Every year builds anticipation for the next.

The platform

In 2022 I designed the Kubb website in Figma and built an integration with Webflow, to sync the Figma designs with my Webflow site, and we used EventBrite for registration. It was a basic site with no dynamic content. It has evolved every year and in 2026 I wanted to try a new vibe coding tool and chose . This allowed me to add more dynamic content and add more creative animations.
Registration

Registration without leaving the event world

Custom signup supports teams and free agents, payments, the right player information and a direct path to team ownership.

Registration without leaving the event world on the live Mile High Kubb platformView live
Identity

Team pages turn players into characters

Profiles combine country, roster, ranking, history, win rate, rivals and an AI-assisted Viking saga—humor grounded in real statistics.

Team pages turn players into characters on the live Mile High Kubb platformView live
Tournament day

Results work during and after the event

Seven pool-play groups, individual rounds, 14 field assignments, detailed scores and a full playoff bracket remain accessible year after year.

Results work during and after the event on the live Mile High Kubb platformView live
Continuity

The leaderboard makes five events one competition

Cumulative points, championships, podiums, best finishes and years played give the community an ongoing history.

The leaderboard makes five events one competition on the live Mile High Kubb platformView live

Five years of growth

Teams
14 28

2× growth since 2022

Players
46 125

Nearly 3× growth since 2022

Fields
4 14

3.5× growth since 2022

2022

Number of fields

Prove the idea

14 smaller teams (3-4 players/team), 46 players, four fields, printed brackets and a traveling trophy established the annual tradition. An event website was built using Figma and Webflow and we used EventBrite for registration.

2023

Number of fields

Build momentum

The focus shifted from hosting another tournament to building something the neighborhood could anticipate. We expanded the website and added photo galleries and the first online brackets.

2024

Number of fields

Create a festival

A DJ and Kona Ice expanded the day beyond competition into a community gathering. We added new fun interactions and animations on the website and a results page with results from all years.

2025

Number of fields

Strengthen the personality

A best-costume trophy gave teams another way to participate and deepened the playful Viking character. Basic team profiles were added to the website.

2026

Number of fields

Build the ecosystem

28 teams, 125 players and 14 fields—plus custom registration, dynamic player and team profiles, owned by each team, full historical results for every game for all years, interactive brackets and leaderboard.

What I learned

  1. 01

    Retention can matter more than raw reach

    Returning teams create the culture that makes new players want to join.

  2. 02

    History is a product feature

    Results, records, photos and rivalries make an annual event more valuable with time.

  3. 03

    Playfulness and legitimacy reinforce each other

    Professional brackets and ridiculous team names belong in the same experience.

  4. 04

    Constraints demand systems

    Reusable data, templates and workflows are essential when a small team runs a growing event.

  5. 05

    AI expands what one builder can ship

    AI made the platform possible, but coherence still required judgment, direction, iteration and cost awareness.

  6. 06

    The live event is the ultimate usability test

    Information has to work clearly in the middle of weather, crowds, competition and celebration.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The road leads to Wisconsin.

The next chapter is a larger regional tradition—and a path for the Mile High Kubb champions to represent Colorado at the U.S. National Kubb Championship.

THE SAGA CONTINUES.