Finding out Kona/70.3 Qualifying Spots

Hi all-- I've seen a few suggestions to people trying to figure out how to qualify for Kona or 70.3 Worlds that they find out who qualified at their target race last year and look at their times. The only problem is that it seems really wacky to try and determine who did that, because the allocation of spots seems really opaque (or maybe that's just me?). There's roll downs, and spots allocated to larger age groups, so how can you tell what the qualifying times were? Is there a way to find out who qualified for the M-Dot championship events at any given race? Where does this info live?
Thanks--