Competing Up a Category

Last updated October 2026  ·  4 min read

Compete up lets a competitor who is entered in their own category also enter the one directly above it, for more matches or rounds. For example, J. Sato is 15 and competes in Kata 14-15 years; with compete up, she can also enter Kata 16-17 years. The extra category is always an add-on to the competitor's own entry, never a replacement.

Turning it on

Compete up is off by default. To turn it on, go to Settings › Pricing in the Tournament Manager, tick Let competitors also enter the category one step above their own on the Compete Up card, and click Save. It works with any individual event that uses a division tree (age, rank and weight categories). It does not apply to team events.

Which category is offered

Taikai App works out the single category "immediately above" the competitor's own, in this order:

1. The next rank band, with the same age group and weight class, if there is one.
2. If the competitor is already in the top rank band: the next weight class for events split by weight (kumite), or the next age group for the others (kata).

Everything else stays real. The target is exactly the division the competitor would land in one step up, so a kumite extra category uses their actual weight.

Limits

• One extra category per event.
• Under 18: one extra category in the whole tournament, not one per event.
• Never up into a Masters (40+) age group.
• Own category first. The competitor must be registered in (or selecting) their own category in that event.
• Weight needed for kumite. Without a weight there is no kumite category to move up from.

The server checks every rule again at checkout, so the limits hold even if someone edits the page.

How competitors add it

On the Select Events step, below the regular events, an optional section asks Also compete in a higher category? For each eligible event it shows Your category and two choices: No, just your category, or the one step up, for example Yes, also one rank up or Yes, also one weight class up, with its price.

Competitors who are already registered can come back later and add the extra category from the same events step. In the cart it shows as "extra category" under the event.

Price and discounts

The extra category is charged at the event's add-on price. It counts toward the competitor's discountable total, but adding it to an existing registration does not grant the early-bird or instructor discount a second time. Substitution codes never cover an extra category. See Discounts and codes.

What happens on your side

• Auto-assignment places the competitor in both divisions: their own and the extra one.
• Weight changes are followed. If a competitor's weight is corrected (profile edit or weigh-in), the next auto-assignment moves the extra category to the same category in their new weight class. Rank changes do not move it.
• Division splits remap it. When you split a division by age, rank or weight, compete-up entries move to the new divisions too, and the split summary tells you how many moved.