Participant Stage Transfers

Platform: 🖥️ Desktop only

See also: Creating & Editing Events, Results, Classes, Courses & Maps

When you need this

You're running a multi-stage competition where participants compete in qualification rounds and the top performers advance to finals. Instead of manually moving participants between classes after each round, you configure transfer rules once and Navisport handles the rest — distributing participants to A-finals, B-finals, and so on based on their results.

When to Use Stage Transfers

A typical scenario: your competition has qualification classes like H21K1 and H21K2, where participants are split into two groups. After the qualification round, the best performers advance to finals classes like H21A (A-final) and H21B (B-final).

Stage transfers automate this process — instead of manually moving participants, you configure the rules once and Navisport handles the rest.

Configuring Follow-Up Stages

You've created your event with qualification classes and final classes, and now you need to define how participants move between them. Follow-up stages are configured in the class editor within the event editor.

To set up stage transfers:

  1. Open the event and go to the class settings
  2. Select the qualification class (e.g., H21K1)
  3. Find the Stage transfers section
  4. Click Add stage transfer to add a new transfer rule

Each transfer rule defines how participants move from this class to one or more follow-up stages.

Number of Participants Advancing

You need to decide how many participants from each qualification group should advance. The Number of participants advancing setting determines how many participants are moved to the follow-up stages. Participants are transferred in order based on their results — the best-placed participants advance first.

Batch Size for Transfer

You have multiple final classes and need to distribute participants fairly across them. The Batch size for transfer setting controls how participants are distributed across multiple follow-up stages. Participants are assigned in a round-robin pattern:

  • The first batch of participants goes to the first follow-up stage
  • The next batch goes to the second follow-up stage
  • When all follow-up stages have received a batch, it starts over from the first stage

Example: If you have 2 follow-up stages (H21A and H21B) with a batch size of 1, participants are distributed alternately: 1st place → H21A, 2nd place → H21B, 3rd place → H21A, 4th place → H21B, and so on. The follow-up stages should be selected in the order you want participants assigned.

Transfer Unapproved Results

The qualification round has just finished and some results are still pending approval, but you need to proceed with the transfer. If you want to include participants whose results are uncertain or not yet approved, enable the Transfer unapproved results option. By default, only participants with approved results are transferred.

New Bib Numbers

Participants advancing to finals need new bib numbers for the next stage. In the New Bib Numbers field, you can define new bib numbers for participants advancing to the next stage. Supported formats:

  • Comma-separated numbers: 1,2,3
  • Ranges: 1-20
  • Step patterns: 1-20/3 (every 3rd number from 1 to 20)
  • Combinations: 1-10,25,30-40/2

Bib numbers are assigned to advancing participants in result order.

New Chips

Participants need different chips for the final stage. In the New Chips field, you can enter a comma-separated list of chip numbers (e.g., 123456,789012,345678). Chips are assigned to advancing participants in result order.

Executing a Stage Transfer

The qualification round is complete, results are in, and you're ready to move participants to their finals. Once you have configured follow-up stages for your classes, you can execute the transfer:

  1. Click on the event in the event list to open the event options modal
  2. Click Participant stage transfers

Note: The Participant stage transfers option only appears in the event options when the event has classes with follow-up stages configured. If you do not see this option, make sure at least one class has stage transfers set up.

The stage transfer window shows which classes are Ready for stage transfer. If a class has no follow-up stages configured, it will show No follow-up stages.

  1. Review the classes and their transfer status
  2. Click Submit stage transfer to execute the transfer

Participants will be moved to their follow-up stages based on the rules you configured.

Putting it together: Running a qualification-to-finals competition

You're organizing a sprint competition with qualification heats and finals. Here's the full workflow:

  1. Create the event with qualification classes (H21K1, H21K2) and final classes (H21A, H21B) in Creating & Editing Events
  2. In the class editor for H21K1, add a stage transfer: set 10 participants advancing, batch size 1, and select H21A and H21B as follow-up stages
  3. Do the same for H21K2
  4. Run the qualification round and wait for results to come in
  5. Once results are approved, open the event options and click Participant stage transfers
  6. Review which classes are ready, then click Submit stage transfer
  7. The top 10 from each qualification class are now distributed alternately into H21A and H21B, with new bib numbers assigned automatically

Importing qualification rules from CSV

You have many qualification classes and finals, and configuring the follow-up stage selection order manually for each class would be tedious. You can prepare a CSV file that defines the distribution pattern and drag it onto the class editor to create all the stage transfer mappings at once.

CSV format

The CSV uses semicolons as separators. The first row contains headers that partially match the next-stage class names. Each data cell encodes which current-stage class feeds into which next-stage class, and in what order.

Cell format: <order><classRef> where:

  • order — a number that determines the position in the follow-up stages selection list
  • classRef — a partial match (case-insensitive) to a current-stage class name

Example: You have current-stage classes M21 Q1, M21 Q2, M21 Q3 and next-stage classes M21 QF1, M21 QF2, M21 QF3, M21 QF4, M21 QF5, M21 QF6.

QF1;QF2;QF3;QF4;QF5;QF6
1Q3;2Q2;1Q1;2Q3;1Q2;2Q1
4Q1;3Q3;4Q2;3Q1;4Q3;3Q2

Reading the first data row:

  • 1Q3 in column QF1 means: class matching "Q3" gets next-stage class matching "QF1" at selection position 1
  • 2Q2 in column QF2 means: class matching "Q2" gets next-stage class matching "QF2" at selection position 2
  • 1Q1 in column QF3 means: class matching "Q1" gets next-stage class matching "QF3" at selection position 1

All rows contribute to a single stage transfer per class. The numbers define the global order of the follow-up stages selection list.

How to import

  1. Open the class editor for the parent class (e.g., M21)
  2. Navigate to the stage that contains the qualification classes
  3. Drag and drop the CSV file onto the stage classes section (where the class accordions are listed)
  4. The qualification rules are applied — one stage transfer is created per class with the ordered follow-up stages list
  5. Fill in the remaining fields manually: Number of participants advancing, Batch size for transfer, etc.