Chelsea Carey suggests it’s impossible
CALGARY—There are a couple of notable changes to this year’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts, and they have generated plenty of opinions and debate.
First of all, the whole format is relatively new. When the pools first came into play (in 2018, if memory serves) that was possibly the most controversial change ever made to the format. I still don’t love it, but to accommodate all the teams that are now part of the event, I don’t see another option … aside from making what’s already a lengthy event even longer.
The first major change this year was awarding two of the three (now four) Wild Card spots before the event. I’ve heard some rumblings about this in that the top teams didn’t want to have to play in their provincial championships—and that is absolutely not true.
I don’t want to speak for the athletes, but I’m guessing if you asked everyone in the field if they would rather come to Calgary having won their provincial, they would all say yes. That victory is what you grew up dreaming about, and it remains so meaningful to be a provincial champion … plus, you’re coming in with a good deal of momentum and feeling great about your game.
That being said, it’s also not a great look to have a provincial final between two teams that are both going to the Scotties/Brier, win or lose. And yes, I’m aware that did happen in Alberta this year to some degree, but it happened with plenty of drama right up until the last minute (given the ramifications of the Manitoba event).
Giving out the two Wild Card spots in advance is the right decision. The battle that the Brier and Scotties are currently facing is trying to be everything to everyone—in theory, we’re trying to pick our best representative for the world championships.
But we’re also trying to be inclusive of all provinces and territories.
And still appeal to all the fans across the country who love the event for its history and tradition.
And accommodate teams that play tour events every week all season, as well as some that play a few, total, in any given year.
That’s a lot to ask from a single event. I’d suggest it’s impossible.
For whatever this statement is worth, though, I believe the 2024 Scotties and Brier championships are as close as they have ever come to accomplishing these competing goals.
In addition, deciding the Wild Card berths in advance not only guarantees the best teams will be at the event, it also opens the door for some younger teams to “break through” earlier than they perhaps would have from the tougher provinces.
Not only is it fun to see new faces at the Scotties, it’s good development for up-and-coming teams to get that experience earlier in their career. Overall, this is a positive change.
The other major change is the lack of tiebreakers in this year’s events. Earlier this season we saw the Grand Slams attempt to do away with tiebreakers, leading to a revolt from the players and a quick reversal of that decision.
Here’s the thing about tiebreakers: they’re a nightmare for the organizing committee, draw makers, ice technicians, television crew … basically everyone except the players and fans.
And sometimes it’s a nightmare for the players, too. On one occasion my team had to depart our hotel for a tiebreaker game at 5:40 a.m., which was a very early alarm clock setting.
And never forget the nightmare Pre-Trials event where they played basically all night in a long series of tiebreakers—I didn’t experience that one firsthand, but it would have been atrocious.
A young Shannon Birchard played a first TB against Shannon Kleibrink starting at 10:30 p.m. Atlantic time. Birchard won in an extra-end, so that would have ended after 1:30 a.m.
There are just so many challenges associated with accommodating these extra games that may or may not be required. Do you leave an empty draw in the schedule, in case there are tiebreakers? What if there needs to be two rounds of tiebreakers? Or do you draw a line in the sand at some point and only allow one round, but then where is the line—what’s the cut off?
It’s easy to see why any curling organization would like to do away with them. And most importantly for this conversation, World Curling has done just that.
At the world championships, there are no tiebreakers, and that has been the case for years. From that standpoint, there’s an argument to be made for mimicking that format in order to best prepare Canadian champions for success when they wear the red and white.
The draw to the button at worlds is extremely important—and it’s also a double draw. When we went to our first worlds in 2016, it took us half the week to start winning the hammer, because it was such a different format than what we had come from at the Scotties (it was a single draw at the Scotties at that time versus a double draw on both sides of the sheet at worlds).
When we won in 2019, it was the first world championship for my teammates, and one of the first things I said was that all we were going to practice between the Scotties and worlds was our draw to the button—which we proceeded to do.
We knew the importance of that LSD (Last Shot Draw) ranking, and that’s the biggest difference with no tiebreakers. It becomes so important that your focus in pre-game practices isn’t even getting the hammer for that particular game so much as it is about making sure your LSD total stays strong—luckily, those two things tend to coincide most of the time.
The biggest difference is that at the world championships, it’s a full round robin. You get a chance to play every team in the field before any of this comes into play, so before they go to LSD (which I think WCF calls DSC, or Draw Shot Challenge), they consider the head-to-head win/loss record.
(Ironically, that’s what did us in at the 2019 worlds … our DSC was No. 1 but we lost to the wrong teams).
At the Scotties’ current two-pool system, you don’t get the chance to play everyone before the tiebreaker scenarios present themselves. The Grand Slams, with three pools, have the same issue, hence the player revolt when they attempted to eliminate the tiebreakers.
At the end of the day, there are no tiebreakers at the world championships and so I understand the decision to try to best prepare the eventual winners. The challenge is they’re only mimicking parts of what the world championships feature—because the format is so different—so is this really an effective strategy?
If two teams haven’t played each other and have the same record, I hate to see one go home based on their draw score, without the opportunity to even play against the other team.
But perhaps that’s the traditionalist in me.
QUICK HITS
No one expects to go undefeated in a field like this, but when you’re rolling the way Alberta and Selena Sturmay are, that first loss—assuming it comes—can become a bigger deal in your head than it is in the grand scheme of things. The key is how you respond … I’ll keep watching Alberta in tonight’s evening draw.
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Can anyone stop Rachel Homan? It sure doesn’t look like it at the moment, and here’s the kicker … they’re doing it without the hammer, which they’ve only had to start 26% of their games in the last three events, the most recent of which was a stolen Slam win. Imagine if they start winning the LSD …
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In golf tournaments, we refer to the Saturday as “moving day”… at the Scotties it is often Wednesday, and there are a lot of logjams in the middle of these pools.
Fasten your seatbelts, folks, it’s going to be an interesting day.