Bundesliga) are an end-of-season competition, held annually to determine the clubs that were promoted from the Amateurligas, later the Amateur Oberligas to the 2.

After the introduction of the Regionalliga in 1994, the promotion round was greatly reduced in length, generally only involving two teams.

The winners of the Amateurligas Nordbaden, Südbaden, Schwarzwald-Bodensee and Württemberg played out a third promotion spot.

The winners of the Amateurligas Saarland, Südwest and Rheinland played out a fourth spot.

In 1979 and 1980 there was no play-offs as the nine southern Amateurligas had merged to four Oberligas and therefore each champion was promoted directly.

In 1975 and 1976 the champions of the Amateurligas Niederrhein, Mittelrhein and the second placed team in the Oberliga Nord played out two promotion spots.

In the southern group the four Oberliga champions of Bayern, Baden-Württemberg, Hessen and Südwest played out two promotion spots.

In the northern group the winners of the four Oberligas Berlin, Westfalen, Nordrhein and Nord played out two promotion spots.

From 1984 the runners-up of the Oberliga Nord was also included in this play-off, taking the number of teams to five.

The reason for this was that each of the first two Regionalligas covered areas with a population and playing strength roughly equal to the combined second two.

After the changes in the league system in 2000, the reduction of the numbers of Regionalligas from four to two, direct promotion was available to the 2.

The champions and runners-up of the two Regionalligas moved up without having to play a promotion round.

Rot-Weiss Essen Greuther Fürth Kickers Offenbach LR Ahlen These were staged in the five seasons from 1996 to 2000 to determine which team was directly promoted.

From 1998, the loser of this games got a second chance for promotion by playing the runners-up of the other two Regionalligas.