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By Jonathan Brazeau

VICTORIA — It'll be lights out and away we go on the Grand Slam of Curling season when the GSOC Co-op Invitational begins Tuesday at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.

The season's first Grand Slam tournament will also be the first major test for teams that remodelled their rosters during the summer as they prepare for a new quadrennial on the long road to the 2030 Olympic Winter Games in the French Alps.

Not everyone has hit the road early and often to start the 2026-27 campaign. Those who decided to run it back with the same lineups have taken a slow and steady approach out of the gate.

Full-event, weekend and day passes are available for the GSOC Co-op Invitational. Visit GSOCtickets.com to purchase yours today.

Can't make it to Victoria? Sportsnet will televise three draws daily from Tuesday through Friday. Sportsnet’s coverage continues on Saturday with the women’s quarterfinals. The action then moves to CBC, the free CBC Gem streaming service and Sportsnet+ for Saturday's remaining playoff games. CBC will broadcast the women’s final on Sunday, before returning to Sportsnet for the men’s championship finals.

Morning round-robin games and tiebreakers (Tuesday-Saturday) are available for live-streaming via Rock Channel for an additional fee.

Check out our broadcast schedule for more details and never miss a moment.

Here is a rundown of everything you need to know, plus storylines to follow, for the GSOC Co-op Invitational in Eight Ends.

FIRST END: Formerly known as the Tour Challenge, the GSOC Co-op Invitational features 16 teams in both men's and women's divisions with a combined $400,000 prize purse. True to the event's new name, the GSOC competition committee invited the first 12 teams. The final four teams qualified through the new Satellite Events series.

Each team will play four games during the preliminary round: three against teams in their pool and one crossover game. Teams earn three points for a regulation win, two points for a shootout win and one point for a shootout loss.

The top eight teams overall will advance to Saturday's quarterfinals. If necessary, one tiebreaker round will be played Saturday morning.

Both finals are scheduled for Sunday.

SECOND END: Here are a few unique rules at the GSOC Co-op Invitational that you should know.

• Each team may blank an end only once per game. If a team blanks a second time, they will lose the hammer for the following end.

• Teams have 29 minutes of thinking time, plus two 60-second timeouts.

• There are no extra ends during the preliminary round, tiebreakers or quarterfinals if games are tied after eight ends. A draw-to-the-button shootout will determine the winning team. Extra ends will be used for the semifinals and finals, if needed.

THIRD END: The most shocking lineup change of the off-season was as close to a one-for-one trade as we'll ever see in curling. Of course, we're talking about the Scottish shuffle. Grant Hardie moved over to Ross Whyte's club to throw third stones and skip, while Robin Brydone headed in the opposite direction to join Bruce Mouat.

Hardie spent the past nine seasons with Mouat — winning two Olympic silver medals, two world titles and 12 Grand Slams — but was looking for a new challenge to stay motivated. This certainly fits the bill.

Losing Hardie will hurt for Mouat, but Brydone is a fine replacement, having earned two Grand Slams and a world bronze medal with Whyte.

Which new-look team will gain the early advantage? Mouat has played in only one tournament so far, missing the playoffs at the Euro Super Series with a 2-2 record. Meanwhile, Hardie was a finalist in that event and won the AMJ Shorty Jenkins Classic.

The Scottish men's program has never been better in the Grand Slam era. Mouat and Whyte won a combined eight Grand Slams over the past two seasons. One of the two teams also appeared in every Grand Slam men's final during those two years. Whyte and Kyle Waddell faced off in an all-Scottish final last season at the Players' Championship (now known as the Players' Cup).

Those teams were a triple threat. Now add junior sensation Orrin Carson, who will make his Grand Slam debut after qualifying through the Satellite Events series by reaching the semifinals of the Euro Super Series. Carson has won bronze medals in three of the past four world juniors.

FOURTH END: Canada's Olympic teams skipped by Brad Jacobs and Rachel Homan had a different start to the season, squaring off in The Battle last month in Port Elgin, Ontario.

Both skips have retained the same lineups that stood on the podium in Milano Cortina as they now begin their seasons in earnest.

Jacobs has won the Brier and Olympic gold with his Calgary-based crew of Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert, but still seeks a Grand Slam title with this group. The skip from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, has won seven Grand Slams, with his most recent in January 2020.

Homan, who earned Olympic bronze, dominated the Grand Slam women's scene over the previous quad. Her Ottawa-based team won nine titles, appeared in five other finals and missed the playoffs only twice in 21 tournaments, with a 14-event playoff streak. Homan and longtime teammate Emma Miskew have won a record 20 Grand Slams together. Will Homan continue to roll in a new Olympic cycle?

FIFTH END: Canadian men's teams skipped by Matt Dunstone, Brendan Bottcher, John Epping and Kevin Koe bring new-look lineups to the GSOC Co-op Invitational.

With second E.J. Harnden stepping back, Dunstone added Mark Nichols, who became a free agent after iconic skip Brad Gushue retired. The reigning Brier champ Dunstone and his Winnipeg crew won the Okotoks Classic during the final weekend of September.

"I’m just excited to play the best in the business," Dunstone said in last week's Eight Ends. "That's what we signed up to do. That's what we work for, and that's what we're going to get in a week's time, so it's awesome to be back."

Meanwhile, Nichols' former teammates Bottcher and Geoff Walker stuck together and added Jake and Tanner Horgan. The Edmonton club has reached the semifinals in all four events to start the season.

The Toronto-based Epping is now playing one province over in Winnipeg, adding B.J. Neufeld and Ryan Wiebe to replace the Horgan brothers. Along with lead Ian McMillan, the team reached the final of the AMJ Shorty Jenkins Classic to qualify for this event.

"It was a tough field, and we knew that the chances were a little bit slim, but we had a great week," Epping said last month. "We're really happy that we get an opportunity to go to Victoria."

It'll be the Grand Slam top-tier debut for Wiebe.

"Not that we're all not trying hard, but we were (trying) a little extra hard for Ryan because it's a pretty cool experience being in the Grand Slams," Epping said. "They’re such great events, highly thought of, and, obviously, the field is the best in the world. Pretty pumped for him."

Koe, who finished runner-up to Dunstone in the Brier, has a new third. Johnson Tao joined after Tyler Tardi left to skip his own squad.

Big changes also took place on the Canadian women's side. Kerri Einarson parted ways with third Val Sweeting, alternate Krysten Karwacki and coach Reid Carruthers just days after earning silver at the women's worlds. Shannon Birchard and Karlee Burgess moved up to third and second, respectively, with Jocelyn Peterman joining at lead.

Sweeting, who joined Victoria's Kayla MacMillan, will meet her former team during Thursday's evening draw.

Victoria fans will also have Taylor Reese-Hansen's home team to cheer for. Reese-Hansen — one of the few who didn't make any lineup changes over the summer — won a GSOC Tier 2 title last season and will make her major series debut on home ice.

SIXTH END: A rivalry has emerged in Switzerland between Alina Pätz and Xenia Schwaller.

Pätz returned to skipping after eight years with Silvana Tirinzoni, winning Olympic silver, four world titles and six Grand Slams. She hasn't missed a beat with her Geneva club, winning three straight titles to start the season at the Euro Super Series, Stu Sells Oakville Tankard and AMJ Shorty Jenkins Classic. Pätz defeated Schwaller in all three of those finals.

Team Tirinzoni appeared in the past six Grand Slam women's finals, winning the last two at the Canadian Open and Players' Championship. Can Pätz continue the streak with her new lineup?

Among the skips seeking their first Grand Slam title, Schwaller tops that list. It's been a meteoric rise for her team that won the world juniors two years ago. Schwaller upset Tirinzoni at Swiss nationals last season and went on an incredible run through the World Women's Curling Championship to bring home the gold.

SEVENTH END: Meanwhile in Sweden, the rivalry between Anna Hasselborg and Isabella Wranå should ramp up.

Hasselborg and her team are set for another run after winning a second Olympic gold medal in Milano Cortina. Hasselborg began her season with a semifinal finish this past weekend at the Autumn Gold Curling Classic.

Wranå also earned gold at the Olympic Winter Games — in mixed doubles — and added a bronze medal with her women's team at the World Women's Curling Championship. Wranå has two title wins on tour this season and reached the Autumn Gold quarterfinals.

On the men's side, Oskar Eriksson is now calling the shots with Niklas Edin stepping back from the tour after winning his record-extending eighth world championship as a skip. So far, so good, as Eriksson won the Nufloors Penticton Curling Classic this past weekend for his second title of the season.

EIGHTH END: We're big in Japan? Two men's teams and four women's teams from Japan are competing in the GSOC Co-op Invitational and are worth keeping tabs on.

Team Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, Team Miku Nihira and Team Satsuki Fujisawa were competition committee selections.

Team Takumi Maeda, Team Miyu Ueno and Team Yuina Miura all qualified through the Satellite Events series, and all three are playing in their first Grand Slam major tournament.

Maeda was the finalist at the Karuizawa International, and Miura earned her promotion to the top flight after finishing runner-up in the Prestige Hotels and Resorts Curling Classic. Both reached the finals of the Jr. GSOC U25 last season in Nisku, Alberta. Maeda captured the men's title, while Miura was the women's runner-up.

Ueno, who won a second Japanese women's title in June, was a semifinalist at the AMJ Shorty Jenkins Classic to earn a berth.

EXTRA END: A pair of new No. 1 teams will look to prove they belong on top of the world rankings.

Eun-ji Gim's club from South Korea has one Grand Slam women's title, winning the National in 2023. Her team has changed the throwing order this season: Gim now skips while throwing third, with Min-ji Kim handling the last rocks. The team enters the GSOC Co-op Invitational having reached back-to-back finals on tour. Gim took the Prestige Hotels and Resorts Curling Classic and finished runner-up in the Autumn Gold Curling Classic.

Yannick Schwaller's team became the first Swiss men's squad to reach No. 1. Schwaller, who captured last season's Canadian Open to earn his first Grand Slam title, opened this season with back-to-back wins at the Baden Masters and Euro Super Series.