qualifying tournament; preliminaries; trials
Refers to a competition or event held to select participants for a main tournament or higher-level competition. Common in sports and contests.
He won the qualifying tournament and earned a spot in the national competition.
I'm practicing every day for next month's preliminaries.
本戦 is the main tournament or competition that follows the qualifying rounds.
Compound of 予選 (yosen, 'preliminary selection') + 会 (kai, 'meeting' or 'event').