How do tournament cycles and claiming rewards work?

Is there an easy way to check if the player has already joined the tournament so we don't call beamContext.Api.TournamentsService.JoinTournament needlessly before setting score every time as in the example? Can we rely on GetPlayerStatus response to have the tournamentId if the player have joined one already to check this? (also is that correct that the player need to only join the tournament once and the next cycles he will be automatically participating?)
Can rewards only be claimed in bulk? If a player has not claimed rewards from a previous cycle and got a new reward in the current one, how will this look? Will the rewards get summed up or the same currencies will have multiple entries in a list of TournamentRewardsResponse when we try and call GetUnclaimedRewards(tournamentId)? We would like to display the history of placements alongside of claiming/showing claimed rewards for past cycles. I see there is a GetStandings call optional int cycle = -1 parameter, can it be reliably used too see past performance of a player? How many cycles back can it go?
Does the tournament cycle reset instantly or is there a time lag between cycles?