The number in the circle is the registration count the round begins at, not a round number. A dot reading 19 means that round starts at the nineteenth entry. The one exception is a competition whose registration has closed, where the dot on the round it finished in shows the entry count it actually reached.
This section only behaves this way on a dynamic competition, where awards and fees move with the number of entries. On a static competition the awards are fixed and there is no ladder to read.
What each part of the timeline is telling you
- The circle. The entry number that round starts at.
- The bar between circles. How full the current round is. It fills as entries come in, and a round already complete shows as full.
- Current round grants. The heading on the first round shown. These are the awards in play right now.
- Next round grants. The heading on every round below it. All of them carry that same heading, so read down the ladder by the numbers rather than by the headings.
- "N registration(s) left in this round." How many more entries before the competition moves up a round.
Rounds already passed are removed, not greyed out
The timeline shows the current round and the ones ahead of it. Once a round has been filled it disappears from the section entirely.
So the top of the ladder is where the competition is now, not where it started, and the numbers in the circles will not begin at 1 on a competition that has taken entries. If you registered earlier and the round you paid in is no longer on screen, that is why.
The "registrations left" line appears once
Only the first round on the timeline carries it. The rounds below have no equivalent line, and their sizes have to be read from the gap between one circle and the next.
What the ladder does and does not lock in
Your fee is fixed by the round you register in. Entering while the competition sits in an early round is cheaper, and that saving is permanent.
Your awards are not. There is one award set for the whole competition, and it belongs to the round the competition finishes in, not the round you joined. Everyone who entered competes for the same set. How competition awards are decided goes through the full ladder and what each round carries.
Seeing rounds further ahead
Load More at the foot of the timeline brings in the next rounds. The section loads a page at a time rather than the whole ladder at once, so a short-looking timeline is often not the end of it.