Divisions vs. qualifiers

The short version

• Division — the category athletes compete in at your live event. Most competitions are built around divisions; almost every event has at least one.
• Qualifier — an optional online phase before the live event. Athletes register, submit scores, get ranked, and the top performers earn invitations to specific divisions.
• Technically you only need at least one division OR one qualifier to publish — but a qualifier with no division to feed into has nowhere to send its winners, so in practice you'll almost always have divisions.
• If you don't need an online qualification round, skip qualifiers entirely. Athletes register directly for a division and you're done.

What divisions are for

A division groups athletes who compete against each other for ranking purposes. It defines:

• Who can register (team size, gender composition, freeform skill level).
• How much it costs (base price, plus any per-division pricing or discounts).
• How many spots are available (participant limit).
• Which workouts are run, on which days, in which order (workout assignments).
• When athletes can register, when the leaderboard is published, and the start/end dates of the finals for this specific division.

Most events have several divisions running in parallel — for example: "Elite HH", "RX FF", "Scaled Mixed", "Masters 45+". Each one has its own leaderboard.

What qualifiers are for

A qualifier is the entry funnel before the live event. Athletes register for the qualifier, complete the qualifier workouts (typically video submissions reviewed by you), get scored, and are ranked on a qualifier leaderboard. From that ranking, you invite the top teams into the divisions that run at the finals.

A qualifier has its own:

• Registration window (when athletes can sign up).
• Submission window (when scores can be sent in — separate from registration so you can keep registration open after submissions close, or vice versa).
• Workouts (the qualifier WODs, typically with video review).
• Optional participant limit and price.

Composition: the most important field

Composition is a short string that simultaneously controls team size and gender requirements. It's the same on both divisions and qualifiers. The letters are:

• H — male athlete
• F — female athlete
• X — any gender

The length of the string is the team size. The letters specify each member's required gender. Examples:

• H — individual male (team size 1)
• F — individual female
• X — individual, any gender
• HH — team of 2 men
• FF — team of 2 women
• HF — mixed pair (1 man + 1 woman)
• HHFF — team of 4: 2 men + 2 women (Elite4-style)
• HHF — team of 3: 2 men + 1 woman

Level (skill tier)

Level is freeform text — "Elite", "RX", "Intermediate", "Scaled", "Masters 45+", whatever convention your community uses. It's part of the division's identity but doesn't enforce anything technically; it's mainly there to label divisions and let athletes self-select. Two divisions can share a composition and differ only by level (e.g., "RX HH" vs "Scaled HH").

Linking qualifiers to divisions

When you create a division and your competition has qualifiers enabled, you can link the division to one of them. That link tells WOD Lane: "the people in this division come from this qualifier's leaderboard." Two extra fields appear when you link:

• Cutoff start — the first qualifier rank that's eligible for this division (1 = the winner).
• Cutoff end — the last eligible rank. Leave blank for no upper bound.

Cutoffs are advisory: they're displayed publicly so athletes know what rank they need ("RX: top 1–15", "Inter: ranks 16–30"), and they help you when issuing invitations from the qualifier leaderboard. They don't auto-promote — you still issue invitations explicitly to specific teams.

Compatibility rules

When divisions and qualifiers interact, they need to agree on the basics:

• A division linked to a qualifier should have the same team size and composition as the qualifier — otherwise the rank-based invitation flow doesn't make sense.
• Reassigning a team between divisions (or between qualifiers) requires identical team size and composition. See the "Reassign a team" article for details.
• Score data is keyed on the registration, not the division. If a team moves to a sibling, scores from workouts the new sibling also runs continue to count; scores from workouts it doesn't run are ignored.

When do you need a qualifier?

Use a qualifier when:

• Demand for finals spots exceeds capacity and you need an objective way to rank applicants.
• You want to seed athletes into RX / Intermediate / Scaled tiers based on actual performance rather than self-declared level.
• Your event is invite-only and the qualifier is your selection mechanism.

Skip qualifiers when:

• Anyone who pays can compete (open registration up to the participant limit).
• You're confident athletes will self-select honestly into the right level.
• It's a small or first-edition event where the overhead of running an online round isn't worth it.

You can always toggle qualifiers on later from the dashboard if you change your mind — see the wizard step 6 article ("Online qualifiers").

Common questions

Can a division exist without a qualifier?

Yes — that's the default. A division with no linked qualifier is open registration: anyone meeting the composition can sign up directly.

Can a qualifier exist without divisions?

Technically yes during setup — but it's pointless on its own. The whole purpose of a qualifier is to feed teams into divisions. Without at least one division linked to it, registrations have nowhere to go.

What if my qualifier has different teams than my divisions?

Don't link them. A qualifier and a division are independent unless you explicitly connect them via the qualifier_id field on the division. You can run completely separate online and live events under the same competition if that fits your format.

Can I have multiple qualifiers in the same competition?

Yes. Common patterns: one qualifier per gender pattern (HH, FF, HF), or one qualifier per region in a multi-stage event. Each qualifier has its own leaderboard and feeds its own set of divisions.