As a result of even after an electrical experience by means of the Grand Slams, Olympic trials, Olympics, Scotties, Brier and world championships, there may be one occasion nonetheless to come back.
Rock League — a brand new skilled curling outfit — will make its debut Monday at Toronto’s Mattamy Athletic Centre.
Reside protection all through the week can be out there on CBC Gem and CBCSports.ca, with attracts each day at midday, 3:30 p.m. and seven p.m. ET. A champion can be topped on Sunday at 4 p.m. ET.
Even should you’ve been locked in on each finish of a wild 2026 season, Rock League will supply one thing totally different, with new guidelines and new groups that ought to spice issues up.
And should you’re the sort to scoff and name it gimmicky — nicely, can we curiosity you in a Brad Jacobs vs. Oskar Eriksson match to open the proceedings on Monday? Thought so.
The format
Right here’s every little thing else it’s good to know:
Every of the six groups will play one another as soon as in the course of the spherical robin from Monday by means of Friday, culminating in a matchup between the Canadian-centred Maple United and Protect Curling Membership on Friday evening.
Throughout this era, every match will include three separate video games: males’s, ladies’s and combined doubles. Normal managers should disperse their gamers throughout all three sheets, with lineups submitted the evening earlier than every match.
One twist: whereas gamers can’t transfer between matches, GMs are capable of alter their lineups inside every sheet at any level in the course of the sport.
From there, every of the six golf equipment can be seeded for Saturday’s combined fours matches, with the highest seed taking over the sixth, 2 vs. 5 and three vs. 4. Every of those matches will include two mixed-fours video games — and GMs can change or substitute gamers between sheets after any finish.
On Sunday, the semifinals will pit the highest 4 groups in opposition to one another, with the winners transferring onto the championship match. The champions will obtain $100,000 US for his or her workforce, and a league MVP who takes residence $5,000 can be named.
The groups
Six groups of 10 gamers — 5 males and 5 ladies — every will go head-to-head over the course of the week.
The curlers themselves are among the many highest high quality — of the 60 set to compete, 39 participated on the Milano-Cortina Olympics. That features Canadian males’s gold medallists Brad Jacobs and Brett Gallant, in addition to Swedish ladies’s champion Anna Hasselborg and your complete bronze-medal-winning Rachel Homan rink.
Not like the Olympics, nevertheless, the groups have combined nationalities, although every has a theme. For instance, Workforce Homan second Emma Miskew is a part of Alpine Curling Membership, which in any other case options 9 Europeans.
In actual fact, every of the 4 Homan rink members are dispersed throughout 4 totally different groups, which ought to make for some attention-grabbing and odd sights.
The opposite 5 groups are Frontier Curling Membership (captained by American Korey Dropkin), Maple United (captained by Homan), Northern United (captained by Scotland’s Bruce Mouat), Protect Curling Membership (captained by Jacobs) and Storm Curling Membership (captained by Japan’s Chinami Yoshida).
The groups have been assembled by Rock League strategic advisors and Canadian curling greats Jennifer Jones and John Morris.
Workforce Homan stopped by the CBC Sports activities digital studio to share their pleasure for the brand new curling league, Rock League, and why followers ought to tune in.
The foundations
Right here’s the place issues get even weirder.
For starters, each fours sport will include seven ends, whereas combined doubles stay at eight. There are not any concessions, since whole factors scored is a standings tiebreaker. Any ties can be damaged by a draw to the button.
There must be loads of motion inside every sport — in fours, groups can solely clean an finish as soon as each 4, or else they lose the hammer.
Easy sufficient. Not too radical. Now, bear with me: in fours, in the course of the seventh finish, any stone on the button is counted as two factors. You may already sense that last-end drama ratcheting up.
Oh, and another factor: Rock League can be testing a hog-line digicam Monday by means of Friday. If issues go nicely, it is going to be absolutely carried out Saturday and Sunday. Groups could have one hog-line problem per sport.
Why is {that a} large deal? Nicely, should you assume again to the Olympics, the hog line turned an enormous speaking level within the Canada-Sweden controversy, through which the Swedes accused the Canadians of double-touching previous the hog line, and the Canadians accused the Swedes of … organising an unlawful hog-line digicam.
Now, the road could also be underneath much more scrutiny.
CBC Sports activities sits down with Canadian skip Rachel Homan following her emotional bronze medal win on the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. After years of chasing an Olympic podium, Homan displays on lastly capturing her first Olympic medal and what the second meant to her and her teammates.
The stakes
Along with the champion and MVP, every workforce will get descending payouts, with second place taking $60,000 and third incomes $35,000. There’s additionally an award known as The Final Competitor, voted on by all athletes, of which the winner will obtain $5,000.
Greater than the monetary rewards, nevertheless, this week of Rock League motion is being billed as a preview season.
The true imaginative and prescient can be borne out over 5 weeks from January by means of April subsequent 12 months throughout Canada and the U.S. However by beginning with one week in Toronto, league proprietor Nic Sulsky is placing his playing cards on the desk — whereas an entertaining week of curling might be catalyst for your complete idea, a flop may hinder the entire thing earlier than it nicely and actually even started.
Loads of sports activities offshoots — from LIV Golf to enviornment soccer – have taken their pictures on the institution up to now. Rock League isn’t fairly that, as a substitute working in live performance with the Grand Slams and key worldwide occasions. However it’s of the identical vein as a daring reinvention of a long-loved sport filled with custom.
There’s each cause to consider Rock League will in the end be hailed as a hit. However as everyone knows, it’s the primary impression that issues most.
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