LibbyPlayoffs are upon us, and as a rabid Raptors and Leafs fan the hysteria has reached peak fever. I’ve been dreaming of the Leafs winning a cup since a wee one, and quickly became a Raptors fan when they had their debut in ’95. It ain’t always been pretty, but this year, with a double rainbow of hope hanging over the Air Canada Centre I gotta say I like our odds.
But odds are there’s crowds of people just like me who are amped up too. Clogging streets, hogging up parking and making getting to the actual game a chore. My go-to gadget for getting anywhere in this bottleneck of a city goes to Waze. If you don’t know this app, please remove the rock you live under. Waze is a traffic wizard, providing real-time traffic info right to your phone, so you can plan your route efficiently, arriving to the game on time, and even helping you find parking.
Raptors and Leafs both have baked Waze right into their new apps, which MLSE just launched this week. Partnering up with YinzCam, a sport app developer and Orbital, a local digital agency building powerful AR and immersive apps, both the Raptors and Leafs have harnessed this tech to introduce their new apps which are bigger and badder than ever before.
The AR/VR digital space takes on new sights when combined with the Raptors and Leafs logos. The apps come to life and deliver a fan experience that’s unique and layered with hordes of new features. Games get lit up when activated with a logo for the Raptors, while scanning a Leaf ticket will give users a video slideshow that shows the best clips from the game. Raptor fans can even win cash prizes for slamming buckets, all in a VR atmosphere courtesy the OLGC. For data nerds, heat maps show where the shots are made, giving you the intel to moneyball with the best. Contests and game experiences are enriched in the app, so whether you’re at the game, or watching from home, you have a new companion to keep you company, even through those tough game sevens. Best of all, the apps are totally to free to download via your app store.
