The Grand Slam of Curling will kick off its 2026-27 season with the GSOC Invitational, Oct. 13-18, at Victoria’s Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.
Formerly known as the Tour Challenge, the GSOC Invitational is the newest of the five events in the series and has been held in communities from coast to coast across Canada.
Here’s what you need to know for the 2026 GSOC Invitational.
Tickets
Full-event and weekend packages are now available! To purchase yours today, CLICK HERE.
Qualification
The 2026 GSOC Invitational will feature 16 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams.
In both divisions, 12 teams will receive open invitations from the GSOC Competition Committee.
Four teams will also be determined via Satellite Events. The Grand Slam of Curling has partnered with established tour events this season to provide new opportunities for teams to receive entries into Grand Slam events.
Feeder Satellite Events
• Euro Super Series (Aug. 20-23; Stirling, Scotland)
• AMJ Shorty Jenkins Classic (Sept. 16-20; Cornwall, Ontario)
• Karuizawa International (Sept. 17-20; Karuizawa, Japan)
• Prestige Hotels & Resorts Curling Classic (Oct. 1-4; Vernon, B.C.)
Broadcast
Every game of the 2026 Grand Slam of Curling season will be available to worldwide audiences via live streaming at watch.rockchannel.com.
Fans can also catch up anytime with full on-demand replays in the archived games section.
Additional broadcast details for the 2026 GSOC Invitational will be announced closer to the event.
History of the GSOC Invitational
The inaugural event took place in 2015 in Paradise, N.L. Team Koe defeated local favourites Team Gushue in an extra end during the men’s final, and Team Tirinzoni stole to win the women’s final over Team Homan in what has been dubbed the “fog bowl.”
This will be the second time the event runs in B.C. Cranbrook hosted in 2016, with Team Edin and Team Sweeting capturing the titles.
Team Mouat and Team Homan were victorious in the event last season in Nisku, Alberta. Mouat also took the men’s title during the previous season in Charlottetown and will now look to become the first to three-peat in the event.
Team Jacobs also won back-to-back men’s titles in 2018 and 2019.
Team Homan, who was also victorious in 2022, is the lone multi-time winner in the women’s division.
The event previously included a Tier 2 division. Skip Kerri Einarson won the Tier 2 title twice, in 2015 and 2017, and completed a full-circle moment when she won her sixth Grand Slam in the event’s top-tier division in 2024.
