forerunner
n.someone or something that comes before a new thing and shows what it will be like. In sports, it is a team or player that wins a match before the final game.
n.a person or thing that precedes and indicates the coming of another. In a sporting context, it refers to a team or individual that wins a preliminary match to qualify for a later stage.
“The team was the forerunner to the eventual champions.”
“The semi-final match served as a forerunner to the final, giving the crowd a taste of the high-stakes action to come.”
“While the early rounds are often dismissed as mere warm-ups, they serve as a vital forerunner to the championship, establishing the psychological and physical demands of the season.”
“Disc jockeys: Teens who wanted to listen to something different from their parents anointed radio D.J.s such as rock ’n’ roll hype man Dick Clark and rap forerunner Jocko Henderson as their tastemakers.”
From Middle English forrenner, foreriner. Calque of Latin praecursor (“one who runs before, a forerunner”). Equivalent to fore- + runner and/or forerun + -er.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.