Welcome to the first issue of Campfire - where every week the Firewood team will be sharing curated links to the most interesting stories from all over the world of sports. 

We love sports, human growth + development and competition at Firewood - it's a big part of why we do what we do.

We're excited to share slices of the joy that sport brings us, with you.

"Think fast, run fast."

Those are our favorite sports stories from the past two weeks - subscribe for the most interesting links from the world of sports, curated for your inbox.

Messi debut tickets are going for more than the Taylor Swift eras tour.

July 21 can't come soon enough.

Welp, it happened everyone. My beloved Wake Forest Demon Deacons dropped their first game of the College Baseball World Series last night in a heartbreaker, where they stranded something like 8 RISP ( a number that I won't look up because it would hurt me physically to do so.) They are currently 7-1 since the CBWS has started - the rules are genuinely confusing on first read but the cliff notes version of CBWS is that you can't lose 2 in a row in the early / middle-rounds and stay in.

The silver lining is that as a result of this loss the same two teams will play again tonight at 7pm EST. We'll get to watch two of the best pitchers in the country - and projected top 10 picks in the next MLB draft - go toe-to-toe. LSU flamethrower Paul Skenes, a Paul Bunyan-esque figure and Air Force transfer who threw a college baseball record 46 pitches over 100mph in his last start and Rhett "Hair Don't Care" Lowder, one of two pitchers ever to take home ACC pitcher of the year in back to back seasons and accomplished artist (or so commentators have told me many times, we don't yet have a "stats guy" on staff.)

Both teams also sport many of the best hitters in the country. Dylan Crews, will go top 2 in the MLB draft and has reached base safely in every game this year. That's a real statistic. That's some insane Dimaggio stuff. Brock Williken, Nicky Nukes Kurtz and Justin Johnson comprise the top OPS in the 3-4-5 lineup spots in the country. These are the only two teams that have been ranked number one all year. This is a clash of college baseball titans.

If you love sports, if you love competition, if you love excellence, if you're just looking for something to do with your Thursday night, if you just hit the wrong thing when setting up your "Stumble Upon" preferences - what a Google Chrome extension that is - no matter which of those buckets you find yourself in, get ready for an unforgettable matchup between two wonderful teams on College Baseball's biggest stage on ESPN this evening.

While I wish my Deacs had won last night and avoided the potential cardiac event that every pitch may induce tonight, I also feel lucky to have been around for the CBWS ride.

The MLB rumor mill is abuzz with the idea that real-life tall tale and all around baseball phenom Shohei Ohtani may be moved to closer - in an effort for his future club to preserve his arm while still getting value out of his prodigious pitching ability.

The downside tied to this rumor is - it means that this 2nd UCL tear potentially means the end of Shohei as starting pitcher. The upside is - should Shohei relocate to a good team or should the Angels finally put the pieces together around him, we would have the opportunity to see something truly unprecedented.

Imagine if Mariano Rivera closed out a division race, while clubbing 50 bombs down the stretch. Or if Juan Soto hit a go-ahead home run and then came out and shut the door in the 9th inning of a playoff game. Those scenarios are realistically all very much real and in play for Shohei.

A while back, Shohei Ohtani ceased doing a Babe Ruth impression and started doing something entirely his own - a baseball singularity too ridiculous to fathom.

While we can mourn losing Shohei as a SP - the silver lining is that every Ohtani involved MLB playoff game could have the electricity of the last AB of the World Baseball Classic.

We should be so lucky.

After hearing all of your feedback - after watching our beta testers push every corner of the platform - after adding so many new clients over the past year - we're excited to share what we've been building.

Firewood v4 early access begins March 15, 2026 for our beta testers and legacy Firewood clients. General availability for all clients will follow — we'll share that date soon.

This isn't a small update. Our team has been heads-down building, testing, and iterating on 100 improvements across payments, registration, admin tools, website customization, security, and infrastructure. A huge number of these features came directly from client feedback and conversations - and we want to give credit where it's due throughout this post.

We realize this is a lot - but we wanted to be thorough and give you the full picture of everything that's changed. If you have questions about any of this, we're always happy to get on a call and walk through anything. Reach out to operations@firewoodcamps.com or talk to your Firewood team directly.

Let's get into it.

The Top 10 - Our Biggest Customer Impact Features

1. Firewood QuickPay - This one is a big deal. Your loyal returning customers can autofill fields while you maintain control over re-collection for important fields. They don't have to re-enter attendee profile data - without sacrificing data collection accuracy. We're seeing registration speed increases of 80% for returning customers. Learn more

2. Shopping Cart - Users can now add multiple registrations and products to their cart via the Firewood Orders API. This is why some of you have noticed a difference in order counts vs registration counts - a single cart/order can now include more than one registration + more than one item at a time. Families registering multiple kids in one transaction is a great example of this in action.

3. Apple Pay - Users registered with Apple Pay will have the option to pay via click + face scan on the Checkout page. We've seen this dramatically speed up mobile checkout. Stripe data shows Apple Pay alone produces ~14% revenue uplift. Learn more

4. Full CMS Landing Page Template Builder - Drag-and-drop content management with 10+ reusable sections (Hero, Gallery, FAQ, Testimonials, Coaches, Video, CTA, etc.), live preview mode, and customizable navigation menus. Admins can build full marketing pages without touching code. This is a huge one.

5. Fully Customizable Registration Flows with Data Templates - Build exactly the registration flow you need. Collect exactly the data points that matter to your program. This has been one of our most requested features and we're so excited about how it has turned out. [Links: Datapoint Glossary | Feature Documentation]

6. Google Wallet - Users registered with Google Wallet can use their saved payment methods directly at checkout. [Learn more]

7. Apple Wallet Passes + QR Check-In (Premium and above) - Generate downloadable Apple Wallet passes with embedded QR codes for registrations. Staff scan QR codes on-site for instant check-in, with a manual fallback workflow for non-QR setups.

8. Persistent Carts - Shoppers can close their browser or switch devices and still find every cart item waiting for them. No more lost carts.

9. Klarna / Afterpay Integrations (Premium) - Buy now, pay later options for your customers. We're excited about this one.

10. Automated Camp Reminders - Calendar-friendly reminders fire a week and a day before camp. This has significantly reduced day of no-shows for our clients.

Checkout & Payments (11-21)

11. Store Credit Wallets - Issue credit that athletes can apply automatically at checkout - great for rainouts, loyalty perks, or make-goods.

12. 100% Off Checkouts (suggested by USF Volleyball - Firewood Premium and above) - Full discount codes and store credit functionality.

13. Advanced Discount Engine - Target promo codes to camps, products, or individual cart items - stackable with universal discounts.

14. Transparent Fee Break-Outs - Orders now separate Stripe, platform, and application fees line by line. We think transparency matters here - especially for athletic departments and business owners that need clean financial reporting.

15. Sticky Cart Icon - A header cart link shows item count everywhere on your site - this has been a nice conversion booster.

16. Sell Products Through the Platform - Merchandise, gear, add-ons - sell it all through Firewood. (Ask the Firewood operations team to beta test this new feature - will be bundled in new subscription tiers starting in Q3 2026. Legacy Firewood accounts will be able to purchase a la carte.)

17. Stripe Reconciliation Export - Tie your Firewood data to the data in Stripe. Export Order and Registration data for your business with custom date ranges, YTD, monthly, and daily options. We're launching improved Stripe reconciliation tooling with v4 specifically for athletic departments and business owners.

18. QR Code Support (Beta) - Easy scannable links to your events via QR code. (Behind a feature flag - ask operations@firewoodcamps.com about turning this on.)

19. Apple Pay & Google Wallet Logos on Orders + Registrations - So you can see the impact of these new checkout methods on your business.

20. Rich Price-Point Metadata - Each price point now shows Created At, Updated At, and a custom title for rock-solid audit trails.

21. Order Receipts via Stripe - Easy to re-send to customers or for customers to access after the fact.

22. 58 Datapoints Available by Default - A massive library of data collection points ready out of the box. See the full glossary

23. Email Account Verification (suggested by UTEP Volleyball) - Available to all customers. This verifies email accounts at registration time - catching typos and invalid addresses before they cause issues.

24. SMS + Cell Phone Number Verification - Verify phone numbers at registration for better contact accuracy (beta - Firewood premium and above)

25. Enhanced Document Uploads - Restricts file uploads to Word docs + PDFs or specific image formats during registration with previews and progress bars. Re-size, flip and edit images in realtime.

26. Improved Registration Flows - Clearer errors regarding required fields, centralized in one place. No more hunting for what went wrong.

27. Default Liability Waivers - Set default waivers with specific event assignment + customization. With Firewood v3/v4 we allow default waivers to be set up - and for different waivers to be applied to different camps.

28. Default Refund Policies - Set default refund policies with specific event assignment + customization. Same flexibility as waivers.

29. Refund Policy Agreement - Worth noting - your refund policy is now explicitly agreed to in the same step as the liability waiver during the registration checkout process. No ambiguity.

30. Customizable Datapoint Names - Rename any datapoint to match your organization's terminology.

31. Improved Form Fields - All select fields now start with an un-selectable "Choose XXXX" placeholder - this was a client suggestion that we thought was smart and implemented across the board.

32. "Pending" Registration Badge - Unfinished checkouts carry a bright status tag so admins can follow up quickly.

33. Adjustable Pending Grace Periods - Choose how long pending orders stay open before expiring.

34. Mexico (+52) Country Code - Added to all phone number input fields. We're going international.

35. Customize Event Panel Style - Choose between searchable list, dual camp panels, or Firewood Classic. Options for list, grid, or dual-panel layouts.

36. Searchable Events Table - For camps with a lot of events - server-side pagination and caching keep 100-camp lists fast.

37. Dynamic Branding Panels - Drop in promo banners or sponsor logos without touching code. Use Branding Panels + the Gold Standard Firewood Template to customize website content on the fly. (Behind a feature flag - ask operations@firewoodcamps.com if you're interested.)

38. Dual-Camp Pages - Side-by-side layouts for simultaneous boys & girls sessions.

39. About Page Fully Customizable - Complete control over your About page content.

40. Purchase & Attach New Domain Names - Buy and connect new domain names directly through the platform. We've done this for several clients already and it's been a smooth process.

41. Admin Panel Backgrounds & Text Completely Customizable - Secondary admin panel color, admin panel text color - it's all yours.

42. Email Logo Size Customizable in Admin Center - Upload any width and we snap it to pixel-perfect size in every email client.

43. Plain English + SEO-Friendly URLs - Clean, readable URLs that search engines and humans both appreciate.

44. Social Post Embeds - Facebook, Instagram, Twitter / X.com, YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok - embed them directly on your site in any event description + rich text area. 

45. Event Header Image Options - Made the event header image bigger and square - this is optional and opt-in. You can stick with the small circle if you prefer.

46. Customize Logo Background Color for Checkout Page - Match your checkout to your brand.

47. Social-Share Fixes - OG tags render correctly so your event links look great when shared on social platforms.

48. New Camp Event Share Links - Easy sharing for individual events.

49. Turbo-Charged Image Uploads - Upgraded Uppy.js javascript uploader to automatically shrink image sizes without sacrificing quality - speeds up website load times significantly.

Admin & Team Management (50-63)

50. Search Command Palette (Cmd+K) - Keyboard-driven global search for the admin panel. Fuzzy search across camps, registrations, users, and orders with instant results, categorized sections, and full keyboard navigation. Same UX pattern as GitHub/Notion/Linear. This one is really nice.

51. Role-Based Access Control - Fine-grained permissions for every team member, with 5 new roles and granular flags like view-finance, manage-discounts, etc. Directors can delegate safely without giving away the keys to everything. Role Glossary

52. Team Management Hub - Invite, promote, or suspend staff from one tab with duplicate prevention baked in.

53. Admin Camp Analytics Page - Deep insights into how your camps are performing.

54. Admin Notes Feature - Add notes to Registration and Order pages for internal communication between staff.

55. Quick CSV Export + Filtering - One-click export links on key admin pages. No more waiting for background jobs.

56. Improved Export Functionality - Better, more reliable data exports across the board.

57. Improved Conversion Funnel Analytics (Premium and above) - See exactly where customers drop off and optimize your registration flow.

58. New Admin Menu (Beta) - A streamlined admin layout with search bar. Ask our team to enable it.

59. Updated Admin Event Table - Shows active registration counts instead of total counts. Changed "Total" to "Total (Active)" on the Dashboard (client request - UCF).

60. Increased Active Camper Count Text Size - Live, real-time totals so coaches can track sign-ups at a glance. We made these bigger because you told us you needed to see them faster.

61. Added "Created At" column on Admin Camps Page - Easier camp sorting. This was a client suggestion.

62. Filter Orders by Specific Events - Find exactly what you're looking for.

63. Over-The-Air Feature Flags - Ops can toggle beta features like QR codes per account - no deploy needed.

Email & Communications (64-74)

64. Revamped Emailing System - Completely overhauled with better design, reliability and deliverability - hitting over 95% successful deliveries with our beta testers.

65. Attach Documents to Confirmation Emails - Send waivers, schedules, or any documents along with confirmation emails.

66. Email Template Preview Gallery - View every transactional email with real data before hitting send. This is great for vetting your communications before they go out.

67. Smarter Mail-Merge - Bulk emails now populate custom templating fields without issues.

68. Gmail + Outlook Specific Email Links - Deep links that open directly in your email client of choice.

69. Automated Refund Emails - Brand-consistent refund confirmations automatically land in customers' inboxes with full line-item details.

70. Drip Email Campaigns - Automated onboarding sequences for new administrators.

71. Contact Lists (Firewood Premium) - Build and manage your contact database.

72. Batched Waitlist Invitations (Beta) - Select multiple waitlist invitations and send branded invites in one click.

73. Gmail-Optimized Receipts - Schema.org markup brings rich cards right inside Gmail.

74. Year Added to Email Blaster Tabs (Client request - HPU) - We added the year to the Camp Email Blaster select tabs so it's clear which camp is which when you're doing bulk sends.

75. Agentic Purchasing with UCP Protocols - (Premium and above) Customers can register and pay with AI agents. This is the future of how customers will interact with camp registration - agentic purchasing that works with Universal Checkout Protocol standards.

Waitlist, Bookings & Engagement (76-81)

76. Improved Waitlist Functionality - Completely revamped waitlist management with new sorting and filtering properties.

77. "Time / Date Waitlisted" Column (Client request - Wake Forest) - Know exactly when someone joined the waitlist.

78. Bookings Functionality (suggested by Wake Strength & Conditioning - Firewood Premium) - A new way to manage bookings on the platform.

79. "Show Spots Remaining" - When there are fewer than 10 remaining spots, you can set to show that in the UI. Creates urgency and helps fill your camps.

80. Calendar View - See your events on a beautiful calendar with a modern, React-powered calendar picker that renders instantly on mobile and desktop.

81. Comparison View + Timeline Comparison (Premium and above) - Side-by-side data comparison and performance tracking over time.

Refunds & Reporting (82-85)

82. Refund Index Page - A single location where easy access to all of your v3/v4 refunds are in one place

83. Itemized Refunds - Order refund screens now list each refunded registration or product line - crystal-clear breakdowns.

84. Region-Aware Refund Engine - Refund calculations honor country-specific fees and platform policies.

85. Data Exports (Premium Firewood Tiers) - Advanced export capabilities including batched medical form exports and bulk waiver exports (suggested by CZ and Wake Women's Soccer).

SEO & Discoverability (86-87)

86. Schema.org Structured Data (Rich Snippets) - Automatic JSON-LD generation for Event, Organization, Person, FAQ, Place, and BreadcrumbList schemas. This improves your Google search appearance with rich snippets (pricing, dates, locations) and makes your events more discoverable by AI search engines.

87. AI-Forward SEO Upgrades - We're building for the future of search - not just today's search.

UX, Accessibility & Design (88-95)

88. All Flows Fully Re-Designed - Top to bottom, improved UI + UX across the entire platform.

89. Massive Accessibility Improvements - New hover states, larger touch targets, stricter color contrast across the UI.

90. Improved Attendee Profiles - Totally re-designed with new fields for recruiting website profiles.

91. Improved Staff Bio Pages - Embed videos, accolades, and social links to boost credibility.

92. Improved Breadcrumb Navigation - Always know where you are in the platform.

93. Re-Designed Registration Show Pages - Fresh look, better experience.

94. Improved Directions Page Design - Cleaner design with larger tap zones for finding the field on mobile.

95. Friendly 404s - Helpful error pages route lost users to upcoming events instead of dumping them on the homepage.

Security, Performance & Infrastructure (96-101)

96. Over 250+ Security Upgrades and Patches - Critical CVE patches across Rack, Puma, Nokogiri, and more. 250+ dependency bumps patching critical vulnerabilities. We don't cut corners here.

97. Advanced Rate Limiting & Bot Protection - 15+ distinct throttle rules covering login, signup, checkout, API, magic links, and passkeys. Redis-backed counters, known scanner/bot blocklists, path-traversal detection, and proper 429 Retry-After responses.

98. Biometric Sign-In + Authentication Passkeys (Premium and above) - The future of login. Plus Magic Login Links for passwordless authentication and SSO for enterprise clients.

99. Frontend Bundle Size Reduced by 65% - We reduced our frontend bundle size by 65% for better performance + reliability on low-latency networks. This is a massive improvement for users on mobile or in areas with spotty internet.

100. Better PDF Generation and Performance - Faster, cleaner PDFs across the platform. Printable waivers render full-width with signature lines on page 1.

101. Onboarding Checklist & Progress Tracker - A guided 5-step setup wizard (branding, domain, billing, Stripe Connect, first camp) with completion percentage tracking - so new administrators know exactly what's left to launch. Plus Firewood University with tutorials and video walkthroughs for getting things done on the platform.

Thank Yous

I realize this is a lot of text - but we wanted to be transparent about everything that's gone into this release. Firewood v4 wouldn't exist without our community of camp directors, coaches, and administrators. So many of these features came directly from your feedback and conversations:

And to every beta tester who has been using Firewood v4 and pushing it to its limits - thank you. Whenever bugs are reported, work items are created so we can investigate + address them - please continue to report if you run into anything. It is always appreciated.

Firewood v4 early access begins March 15, 2026 for beta testers and legacy clients. General availability date coming soon.

We're constantly working on improving our HelpDocs documentation and onboarding - if you have ideas for how we can continue to make those better, please let us know. And as always, we're happy to get on a call and talk about your camps and how we can make Firewood better.

Our team is always available at operations@firewoodcamps.com - and feel free to reach out to your Firewood team directly.

Let's go.

Questions? Feedback? Want to set up a Zoom to walk through anything? Reach out to operations@firewoodcamps.com.