Spain are world champions

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is over. Congratulations to Spain: well played and very well deserved!

And with the World Cup over, this chapter of Kicks & Picks comes to an end too. This was the first vibe-coded app I made that people actually used and cared about like this. There were, of course, a few amateur moments along the way, but I genuinely tried my best to keep it fun, clear and fair. I never imagined it would turn into such a fiercely played game.

Congratulations to Alp Uçar, our Kicks & Picks champion (this is a little awkward: that line was pre-scripted, and I genuinely did not know what to do when my own name appeared in it), and to Antonio Clausi and Maurizio Mansi for completing the final podium. That table moved around until the very end.

A special shout-out to Giacomo, who held the lead for so long and finished #4, and to Emre Saruc, who joined much later and still climbed all the way to #5. Both made this race much more dramatic than was healthy for me.

Most of all, I want to thank Seren Deniz Yanık, my wife, who supported this nonsense little project even when it came at some cost to our household. She brainstormed with me whenever something broke, helped me think through how to keep the tournament fair, and only made me sleep on the couch once when one of those decisions happened to favour somebody else over her. She also played slightly frighteningly well, and even led the tournament for a while!

And finally, thank you to every single person who gave it a go. I hope Kicks & Picks made the World Cup a little more fun for you, because it certainly did for me. The first thing I did every morning was check how we had all fared. I also caught enough of you checking it in the kitchen while we were grabbing coffee to know I was not completely alone in that.

Here is to many more fun memories together. I do not know yet what happens to Kicks & Picks next. I still have the domain for another year, so let us see.

Love you all. Thank you for giving my little side project a chance, and for becoming part of it.

Alp Uçar