The Grand Slam of Curling is ready to rock St. John’s, N.L., for the KIOTI National.
The series announced Tuesday the list of teams and the draw schedule for its third event of the season, Nov. 26 to Dec. 1, at the Mary Brown’s Centre.
Full-event and weekend passes are sold out. Individual draw tickets for the remaining draws (Tuesday to Friday afternoon) will be available on Wednesday, Nov. 13 at Noon NT.
The KIOTI National features 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world.
That includes hometown heroes Team Brad Gushue, ranked No. 2 in the world. Gushue finished runner-up to world No. 1 Team Bruce Mouat in the HearingLife Tour Challenge and the Co-op Canadian Open to begin the Grand Slam of Curling season.
World No. 1 Team Rachel Homan leads the women’s division after winning the Co-op Canadian Open title Sunday. Homan defeated world No. 2 Team Silvana Tirinzoni in Sunday’s final.
Team Joël Retornaz and Team Eun-ji Gim will return as the defending champions after capturing the titles in Pictou County, N.S., last season. Retornaz’s victory was the second of three straight Grand Slam men’s titles while Gim made history by becoming the first South Korean club to capture a major championship in the series.
Teams were invited to the KIOTI National based on the World Curling Federation’s team rankings as of Oct. 22. Team Black received an invitation after winning the HearingLife Tour Challenge Tier 2 women’s title in October.
Both divisions are split into four pools of four teams for round-robin play. Each team plays four round-robin games: three against the teams within their pool and one crossover game based on seeding. The top eight teams overall will advance to the quarterfinals. If necessary, one tiebreaker draw will be played to determine the final playoff berths.
For a printer-friendly version of the draw schedule, CLICK HERE.
