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Is there not a word that denotes when a competitor wins by someone else in the tournament refusing to play them or outright quits / steps down?
Isn't there some formal word to denote this type of giving up? I'm not sure but I believe it may also be applicable to when someone is disqualified for whatever reason they yield the rank to the one left standing? Maybe I'm mixing things up.
if you win a game or competition by default, you win because the other person does not play or does not finish the game.
(MacMillan Dictionary)
From The Wisconsin Times
Terry McCoy won by default when his opponent refused to wrestle after receiving a minor injury during the match.
From Events, Places and Societies edited by Nicholas Wise, John Harris
Durban's Commonwealth Games 2022 (CWG2022) bid is a unique case study of an event that was “won by default” because the only other competitor, Edmonton, withdrew their bid in February 2015 – citing economic woes, especially the fall in global oil prices (Akinadewo, 2015).
Usage instances of “win by forfeit” vs “win by default” in Google Books
To win by forfeit.
From MW:
by forfeit
idiom
as a result of forfeiting by the opposing side
We won the game by forfeit when the opposing side failed to show up.
From Cambridge:
forfeit
verb [T]
to give up or lose something because you cannot do something that the rules or the law says you must do:
She had to forfeit the tennis match after she fell and hurt her wrist.
I had originally left this as a comment, because I only thought it applied to tennis. As it turns out, I was mistaken.
If somebody wins because they didn't face an opponent (the opponent never showed up in the first place), it's called a walkover:
[Merriam-Webster]
1 : a one-sided contest : an easy or uncontested victory
2 : a horse race with only one starter// Granada will be no walkover for the spurting champions.
— SI.com, "Granada vs. Barcelona Live Stream: Watch Online, TV Channel, Time," 21 Sep. 2019// There had not been a walkover in a major U.S. stakes race since Coaltown won the Edward Burke Handicap on April 23, 1949.
— Paul Montella, San Diego Union-Tribune, "AP Sportlight," 19 Sep. 2019
It seems to be used more figuratively than literally, but it is definitely used on the scoreboard in tennis to show rounds of a tournament that somebody has won when their opponent didn't show up. From the entry I found, it seems it's actual scoring terminology used in horse racing too (albeit much less commonly than in tennis, or any two-person sport, where only a single contestant need not show up).
In addition to the other answers, to win by resignation also works and is in some contexts more widely used. For example, in chess, it's more common to speak of a player who "resigned" rather than "forfeited".
Using "resign" makes it clear that the player actually started a specific game and then admitted defeat, whereas a "forfeit" applies not only to individual games, but to matches (sets of games). Forfeit also can mean either that the player lost by resignation or that they simply did not play and then lost by default.
For example: "Bobby Fischer forfeit the World Champion title to Anatoly Karpov by refusing to play their match." vs. "Bobby Fischer resigned from the game after his opponent made a series of brilliant moves."
"Tap"
I didn't see this addeessed as it relates to combat sports, or wrestling. I would consider a tap out, or submission to be the opponent quiting. Typically a fighter will tap (rapid, successive tapping on their opponent, or elswhere if they can't tap the opponent), which signifies to the referee/official that they are quitting, and to stop the fight.. There is also such a thing as a "verbal tap", which involves a fighter simply saying "tap, tap, tap". In some combat sports, screaming in pain, is deemed a verbal tap.
A "tap" usually happens when the fighter is subjected to a technique in which is extremely painful, they are unable to breath (such as a choke hold, or sleeper hold) or which will result in a very serious injury, or even CAREER threatening injury. This is typically seen as knee bar, or more commonly, and arm bar, but there are other less common ones. Finally, fighter will tap, if they are about to lose consciousness (submission holds that cut off blood to the brain), although it's not unheard of that a fighter will refuse to tap, understanding that once they lose comsciousness, the referee will stop the fight. On ocasions, you will see a fighter tap due to just getting the crap punched out of them, but they are fighters after all, so I find this to be very rare in professional combat sports. I suppose they are accustomed to getting punched.
There are many YouTube videos showing highlights of the best combat sport submissions in MMA, Jujitsu and Wrestling, as well as other submission sports.
Another common term is a bye
bye (noun)
the position of a participant in a tournament who advances to the next round without playing
When you advance without playing anyone - either because the opponent couldn't/wouldn't play, or sometimes just because there's an uneven number of teams remaining - we say you "had a bye".
