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, click any slot (an empty slot, a manually-assigned team, or an already-auto-wired chip like "1st from Group A"). The "Assign team" dialog opens.

Step 2 — Pick the mode#

At the top of the dialog, choose between two modes:

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

Step 3 — Configure the source (Auto mode)#

In Auto mode, three controls appear:

• Source type:
  • From group position — pick a group and which finishing place (1st, 2nd, …)
  • From match winner — pick a knockout match; the slot fills with the winner
  • From match loser — pick a knockout match; the slot fills with the loser (useful for 3rd-place matches)
• Source group / Source match — the 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.
• Position (Group Position only) — a dropdown bounded by the source group's team count, so you can only pick a valid finishing place.

A preview banner below the controls shows exactly what the chip will read once saved (e.g. "1st from Group A"). When the source phase is already complete, clicking Confirm also resolves the slot immediately — no need to wait for an event.

Group → Group autopromotion#

The unified 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.

You can wire every Phase 2 slot one at a time via the slot picker, or use the bulk action below.

Auto-fill by position (bulk action)#

Every non-first group-stage phase header shows an ✨ Auto-fill by position button. Clicking it wires every empty slot in that phase's groups using the rule:

Slot i of target group g ← position g of source group i

In plain English: the first target group fills with all 1st-place finishers (one from each source group); the second target group fills with all 2nd-place finishers; and so on.

The action is:

• Idempotent: slots that already have a manual team or an auto-wired source are skipped — re-running the action is safe.
• Scoped to the previous group-stage phase in the same division. You don't pick a source phase; it always uses the immediately preceding group-stage phase.
• Single-click: a confirmation dialog appears before any change is written.

If you need a different distribution rule (snake draft, seeding, custom mapping), configure slots individually via the slot picker instead.

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 click 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 on the Matches page. 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.
• Auto-fill by position works within the current division.
• Manual override (Manual mode) 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 the mode toggle from Auto back to Manual.
3. Pick the team you want (or use Clear 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.

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