Digitalization of Martial Arts’ Competition Management System: Varsity Combat Sport System 2025

Abstract

University-level athletic events frequently depend on fragmented manual administrative procedures, resulting in inefficiencies, data errors, and operational delays. This article highlights the design, development, and usability assessment of the Varsity Combat Sport (VCS) 2025 System, a comprehensive web-based digital platform created to oversee Malaysia’s first national varsity combat sport tournament. The Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (KPT), in conjunction with MASUM, MSP, MASISWA, and MASKOM, orchestrated VCS 2025, which had 838 athletes from 46 contingents around Malaysia, participating in disciplines including as silat, taekwondo, and karate. The system replaced traditional paper-based methods with a centralized digital solution that includes registration, medical documentation, accreditation, scheduling, real-time results, medal tally calculation, reporting, and multimedia preservation. The platform, built on WordPress as the primary content management system and connected with the proprietary M Taekwondo Form System, automates athlete registration, division mapping, and data processing. A usability assessment was performed experimentally, including five dimensions: ease of use, interface and design quality, functionality, learnability, and user satisfaction. Results include elevated overall usability, increased administrative efficiency, less human mistake, and augmented transparency. The research illustrates the feasibility of scalable digital transformation in the organization of university sporting events.