So this week I finally got an email from US Soccer explaining they have decided to move assigning platforms. So they finally decided to drop game officials and move to a new platform for assigning. The new platform is Officials Connect for all USSF assignments. My thoughts while I agree GO was certainly dated and sometimes very frustrating to deal with I think change was inevitable. At the moment I don’t think Officials Connect is finished (just double checked email it’s not). So it’s still in a live beta mode. Any thoughts on the new system? By a long shot anyone familiar with assigning referees using US soccer GO’s? Is anyone familiar with this assigning platform?? I’ll wait till my first couple assignments in the spring to say more about the new system. And after I have to try and attempt to complete my US soccer game report.
I know it’s still in beta, but it seems a lot slower than GO. Also, I’m not a fan of the password with at least 1 uppercase and one “special character”. At the moment, I prefer GO.
Considering no one has actually used it yet other than maybe poking around a tiny bit this poll is rather premature.
I realized the poll may be a bit premature. But I wasn’t sure if anyone had any experience with this platform at the local level or if someone had some insider knowledge from Chicago.
So my state JUST went to game officials (from arbiter) for state league games. HS still uses arbiter. It’s quite rare that I do anything assigned by us soccer but I guess I’m gonna have to keep track of all three.
I wonder, what this will provide that Game Officials doesn't? I know it is the current style, but there just isn't a lot of contrast on the page which makes it difficult for me to see what is going on in some places. I also can't help but notice that there are no games in the system yet but I have DA games on February 10th assigned in GO.
Re-do this poll in 12 months. Though I noticed as I was logging in that the site itself was asking if I would recommend it.....not quite yet.
Just received an email saying I had been signed up and telling me how to log in, but haven’t received any further info about the site. At first glance it seems to take to long to load things and it’s a little complicated to figure out, but I assume it will be better once they finish it and actually start using it for assigning.
The email I received mentioned that If you have games for 2019 and you’ve already accepted it in GO’s. It should migrate over to Officials Connect once it’s completely live. I’m wondering if they will port over all my assessments and other goodies in my portfolio.
I got the introductory email for this new system on Sunday. I logged in yesterday and set up all my info. Not much else to do now but wait for an assignment. Hopefully, all the previous info from GO migrates over.
GO was bought several times and is not under Stack Sports. GO via Stack Sports is being revamped and rebranded to OfficialsConnect. I use GO for my own leagues and use Arbiter for a group I assign for. Arbiter is a piece of garbage in comparison to GO as a referee, assignor and administrator. I have little complaints about GO. There was a window where tech support sucked. It is now really good again. OC is in beta mode and no-one knows but Development Academy users. (Not sure it is even being actively used yet. They state it is mostly based on GO features and navigation. Supposed to be more visually friendly. Lets hope it is more App and phone based for the referees. This is the future. I want a hard date when this will be presented to GO users. I want to know if data will be transferred to OC and if older records from GO will be maintained in OC. Very anxious as GO feels to be the best product out there. If OC is not all around better they will have messed up a good thing. They state OC will be public in the new year. We need to know when. Hopefully well in advance of Spring Leagues beginning so the transfer can be more seamless.
US Soccer told us that spring DA will be assigned on OC, and my LAC said spring assignments start soon, so still no official date. I'll update whenever I get a spring assignment, and I do know spring assignments in GO were transferred over to OC. I really hope I won't be missing GO after the switch is made.
Can’t use OC on my phone apparently... Page gets cut off and there is no option to scroll over so I can’t use it effectively at all. Hopefully an app comes out or this gets fixed. Anyone else have this problem?
Same. I can’t use it on mobile. Supposedly our LAC (National assignor) is saying that by the 15th he will have more functionality but who knows until after the 1st.
Wow, OC has been delayed by USSF. From the email: Good evening Officials & Assessors – We hope you this email finds all of you well! The U.S. Soccer Referee Program team has been continually monitoring the Officials Connect development, and during our final evaluations, information came to light that will impact the roll out of Officials Connect.Details and action items below – please read. Details: Officials Connect will NOT roll-out in January as originally planned. It will roll-out during the 2019/20 Development Academy season (July 2019) & 2020 Professional League seasons (January 2020). Games were not migrating into Officials Connect and this fix was projected further out than anticipated. We are still in full support of Officials Connect, but will utilize Game Officials in the interim. Action Items: Ensure your Game Officials unavailability is up to date Re-assign and re-accept assignments in Game Officials, that were previously in Officials Connect. We apologize for the inconvenience this has no doubt caused. We are very excited about Officials Connect and believe it will be a tremendous assignment platform, allowing for a seamless assigning process. Please feel free to reach out toreferee@ussoccer.org and we can assist with any questions you may have. Thank you again! Referee Programs So we get to enjoy the beauty of GO for 6 more months.
As a software developer, I had guessed that either it wouldn't be ready or half the features would be broken. The only question was, would US Soccer force it and result in a huge CF or delay it. I'm glad that it has been delayed.
Over 5 years later and Officials Connect, now finally rebranded as Stack Officials, has been dropped by US Soccer. GO users are still using GO. Still waiting for a finalized and better platform before they transfer to new platform. After Stack Officials had been released for use over one year ago in 2022 it is still an incomplete system and no where near GO's functionality. Currently, August 2023, and now GO is running extremely slow. Transitions between pages has become painful and at times will display error page. Is this on purpose by GO so current users are then told/encouraged to shift to "our new and faster product." I will be closing out my GO account at end of 2023 finalizing my several club's Fall season. I will not be migrating to Stack Officials. I highly suggest current GO users to check out Assignr.com I have tested their FREE 14-day trial account and I am very satisfied. MLSNext has adopted the use of Assignr.com for the upcoming 2023 Fall/Winter season. As a former GO fan and early advocate of its platform I am impressed with Assignr.com the functionality, navigation, visuals and very nice and functioning phone app all are improvements over GO. In many ways it is better than GO and they are working on implementing new features that MLSNext/OMG has suggested/requested. They provide two models of payment structures very unique. I liked the per game fee structure of GO and Assignr.com complements this approach. Those that have a smaller referee roster, then there are fee structures for this approach too. If I could I would transfer my assigning today to Assignr.com Unfortunately I have to wait until the new year. I know what I will be doing on New Years Eve.
I saw that OMG transferred to Assignr as well. This brings my assigning platforms up to 5: RefQuest+, GameOfficials, Arbiter Sports, Demosphere, and Assignr. I'm just thankful that Assignr defaults to 'Not Available'. Every time I got a new group in RefQuest+ it took me 15 minutes to update all of my blocks and that is with the blocks already existing.
For reference for those who may not be aware, US Soccer transitioned to Demosphere this past offseason and it has been used throughout 2023.