Card break boards for TCG and sports streams

A break board is the spot map. Taken or open, team or slot, and price if you choose to show it. platform Help explains how to run a break in the app. This post is about what buyers must read on screen while you pull.

Good boards speed the room up. Bad boards create the same three chat questions every night: is that taken, what is left, how much. Fix the graphic before you blame the audience.

Phone test first

Hold the mockup one-handed. If a buyer cannot tell which spots are left in two seconds, the board fails. Fancy borders do not fix tiny type. Desktop zoom lies.

• High contrast for open vs claimed.
• Team or slot names large enough for a pocket phone.
• One accent color for your brand, not five competing glows.
• Leave room for platform chrome and the card itself.
• Price (if shown) secondary to claim state.

TCG layout vs sports scoreboard

TCG boards (Pokémon is the common example) lean on set structure, chase labels, and slot clarity. Buyers care which spots map to which part of the set. Sports boards often read like a scoreboard: team grid, claimed marks, maybe a price column.

Same job, different map. NFL and NBA grids are the sports examples we use most. Do not force a 32-team sports layout onto a Pokémon set break. Match the format you sell that night.

What belongs on the board

Minimum: every spot, claimed or open, readable names. Optional: price, chase callouts, your logo, a soft brand frame. Not optional: colliding with the card cam or the platform's own UI.

If the board is denser than a subway map, split information. Put seller-only density on an off-board. Keep the stream board honest for phones.

On-stream vs off-board

On-stream boards are for buyers. Off-board is the denser control surface the seller uses between pulls. Mixing those jobs on one messy layer is how shows get confusing and how you mis-call a spot mid-break.

Running Pick Your Team or Stash or Pass? Pair this with Pick Your Team and Stash or Pass boards for live streams on this blog. That post covers format states. This one covers the map itself.

Common board failures

• Type too small for a phone held at arm's length.
• Claimed and open nearly the same color.
• Logo and ornaments louder than the spot grid.
• Board covering the card or sitting under chat.
• One board trying to be both buyer view and seller spreadsheet.

How we build a kit

We start from your format, spot count, and brand color. Then we phone-test claim states before polish. You get files sized for your canvas, ready for OBS Image or Browser Source. See OBS setup for Twitch overlays and boards if you need the drop-in steps.

Need a custom board kit for your next fill? Free Audit with TCG or sports, and how many spots you run. Discord works too.