Promote categories

In Copernico, you can use the category promotion functionality.

What does this mean?

Categories can be set up so that participants from various categories are promoted into a new, consolidated category. A common example is when the top five male and female participants from any age group are grouped into a new overall category (the number of winners is set by the award Amount).

As a result, participants with the 5 best times will no longer be part of the category corresponding to their birth date but will move to the new category.

Normally, the category to which participants are promoted is not age-dependent.

1. How is it configured?

1. Create the categories. As shown in the example image, there are different age-dependent categories (M35, F35, M40, F40, etc.) and 2 non-age-dependent categories. In the example, "Absolute Male" and "Absolute Female".

2. In awards (the event Awards section), create the necessary awards for the event, as well as the awards needed for each category to which the participants will be promoted. In the example, "Absolute Male" and "Absolute Female".

3. In the awards used for category promotion, click the pencil icon to open the Advanced editor. Once inside:
   1. Review the award settings: Name, Amount, Split, Result mode, Type of award and its detail (male, female, or the category, attribute or team type).
   2. Select the Promote Category check box.

   3. In Target Category, set the category to which participants will be promoted if they receive that award. In the example, "Absolute Male" for men and "Absolute Female" for women. You can choose an existing event category or type a new one (as the interface says: "You can select an existing one or enter it manually"). If the event has no categories, the field is not shown.

      In this example, gender is used to promote participants to a new category, but with this new functionality, promotion can be based on gender, categories, or even an attribute award.

2. How to promote the categories

The calculations for category promotion are not automatic. They must be done manually before publishing or printing the event results. To do this:

1. In the left side menu, open the Race Options menu (··· icon), choose Promote Categories and select the event. Only events with at least one award set to promote are listed; if there are none, the option is disabled.

2. The Promote Categories window opens with the event name, with one block per promotion award: each award winner and, on the right, the category they will move to. If the changes are correct, click Commit.

3. The category change is saved as participant issues: you will see it in Participants and in the Issues panel (more information in Managing issues).

4. Of course, this change will also be visible when printing the awards.
5. If you need to undo the promotion (for example, because a time has changed and the award winners are different), open Promote Categories and the event again. The window tells you that categories have already been promoted for that event and that you need to roll it back to promote again. Click Roll back: the issues created by the promotion are deleted and the participants return to their previous category. You can then promote again.

3. How is category promotion different from non-cumulative awards?

When promotion categories are configured and calculated, this action changes the participant's category, moving them from their original category to the promoted one.

In contrast, non-cumulative awards do not change categories. Participants can win awards that may or may not be associated with a category. In turn, the awards of a block can be cumulative or non-cumulative (Non-cumulative awards check box). For more information on non-cumulative awards, see Trophies.

For example, an event may have 10 male and 10 female categories, but only the top 5 men and top 5 women will receive an award.