Automatic Team Progression

MyCup can automatically advance teams between tournament phases based on match results. Once you wire a slot to its source (a group position or a previous match's winner/loser), the slot fills itself the moment that source completes — no manual reshuffling between phases.

Supported flows:

• Group → Knockout: top finishers of a group fill a knockout match slot.
• Group → Group: an entire second group stage redistributes by Phase 1 standings (e.g. all 1st-place teams into one Phase 2 group, all 2nd-place teams into another).
• Knockout → Knockout: winners (or losers, for 3rd-place matches) advance to the next round.

How to wire a slot#

All auto-wiring lives in the slot picker dialog. There is no separate "match settings" tab for sources anymore — clicking any team slot in the bracket or group card opens the same unified dialog.

Step 1 — Open the slot picker#

On the Structure page (Advanced view), click any slot (an empty slot, a manually-assigned team, or an already-auto-wired chip like "1st from Group A"). The slot picker opens.

Step 2 — Pick the mode#

At the top of the picker, choose between two tabs:

• Pick a team — choose a registered team from the searchable list. The slot is filled immediately with that team.
• Auto-advance — wire the slot to a source. The slot stays empty until the source completes, then fills automatically.

Step 3 — Configure the source (Auto-advance)#

Under Auto-advance, pick a source type, then its source:

• Group position — pick a group and which finishing place (1st, 2nd, …)
• Match winner — pick a knockout match; the slot fills with the winner
• Match loser — pick a knockout match; the slot fills with the loser (useful for 3rd-place matches)

The group/match dropdown is filtered to earlier phases in the same division. Same-phase and cross-division sources are excluded automatically, so you can't accidentally create a cycle or pull a team from the wrong division. For Group position, the position dropdown is bounded by the source group's team count, so you can only pick a valid finishing place.

Click Set source to save the wiring. When the source phase is already complete, saving also resolves the slot immediately — no need to wait for an event.

Group → Group autopromotion#

The slot picker also lets you wire slots inside a second (or third) group-stage phase to positions in an earlier group stage. This covers the common "redistribute by standings" format:

Phase 1 — 3 groups of 3 teams. Phase 2 — same shape, but distributed by Phase 1 finishing place: all 1st-place teams into Group 1, all 2nd-place teams into Group 2, all 3rd-place teams into Group 3.

To set this up, open each Phase 2 slot, choose Auto-advance → Group position, and point it at the matching group and place in the earlier phase. For the example above, you'd wire the three slots in Phase 2 Group 1 to 1st place of Phase 1 Groups A, B, and C; the slots in Group 2 to 2nd place of each; and so on.

Because the source dropdown only lists groups from earlier phases in the same division, you can't wire a slot to a group in the wrong phase or division.

Visual indicators#

Before the source completes#

The slot renders as a pill with a chain-link icon and the source label:

• 1st from Group A — waiting for Group A to finish its matches
• Winner of Semifinal 1 — waiting for Semifinal 1 to finish
• Loser of Semifinal 2 — waiting for Semifinal 2 to finish

After resolution#

The chip swaps to the actual team name. Generated matches that reference the slot also update with the team — Phase 2 round-robin fixtures and knockout brackets all "wake up" with real teams the moment the source phase finishes.

Match generation with unresolved slots#

You can generate matches on the Structure page before all slots resolve. Round-robin fixtures and knockout matches are created with TBD placeholders for the unresolved sides; you can already set kick-off times, venues, and referees from each match's Match Centre. When the source phase completes, the team IDs are filled in automatically — your schedule stays intact.

This is what makes the feature practical for tournaments where Phase 2 starts shortly after Phase 1's last match: organisers can pre-plan everything and let the system populate teams on the fly.

Multi-division tournaments#

Auto-wiring is scoped to a single division throughout:

• Source dropdowns (groups and matches) only list phases in the same division as the slot being edited.
• The Pick a team tab shows only teams belonging to that division.

Cross-division progression is intentionally not supported automatically — if you need to move a team between divisions, do it through participant management.

Score corrections after resolution#

If you correct a match result that has already triggered a progression — for example, a final group match score is re-entered and changes who finished 1st — MyCup re-runs the resolution for that source. The dependent Phase 2 slots and matches are rewritten in place. You don't need to clear and reassign anything by hand.

This also works for knockout chains: if a Semifinal winner changes, the Final's team slot and match update accordingly.

Manual override at any time#

Auto-wiring is never a one-way door. To override a resolved or pending auto-wire:

1. Click the slot to reopen the slot picker.
2. Switch from the Auto-advance tab back to Pick a team.
3. Choose the team you want (or use Clear this slot if you want it empty).

The override sticks — the slot won't re-resolve from its previous source unless you switch it back to Auto-advance.

Troubleshooting#

The source dropdown is empty / disabled#

Cause: No earlier phase exists in the same division, or the structure hasn't been saved yet.

What to do:

• Make sure at least one earlier phase (group stage or knockout) has been added.
• If a phase exists but isn't showing, check that it's in the same division as the slot you're editing.
• Save the structure and reopen the picker.

Teams not advancing automatically#

Check:

• All matches in the source phase/group are marked as Finished, not just scored.
• The source phase item (group or match) is correctly selected in the slot picker.
• For Group Position sources, the position number is within the group's team count.

If everything looks right but the slot is still empty, opening the Structure page is enough to trigger a defensive resolution sweep — any sources that completed while no one was watching will be resolved on page load.

Wrong team advanced#

Check:

• Match results are entered correctly.
• The group's tiebreaker settings produce the standings you expect.
• The position number in the slot picker matches the place you intended (1st vs 2nd, etc.).

Correcting the underlying match result re-runs the progression automatically — no manual cleanup required.

Related features#

• Tournament Structure — setting up phases and formats
• Matches & Scheduling — managing match results