2023 PNWCA Men’s Playdowns

The event will be hosted at the Evergreen Curling Club (ECC) on January 13-15, 2023. The event will begin on Friday, January 13, and finish by the afternoon on Sunday, January 15. See detailed schedule below.

 

EVENT FORMAT AND PROCEDURES

Tournament will be a double Round Robin with a two-loss provision. Each team will play every other team twice. A two-loss provision will be employed throughout this tournament. No team can be eliminated from play with less than two losses. If there is one team without two losses, that team will be declared the winner. If there is not a clear winner, then post-round robin tiebreakers will be employed. 

PNWCA is guaranteed to have 1 berth to the USCA Men’s Club National Championship. It is possible a second berth could be available. Thus, the region will determine a clear second place finisher in the event that PNWCA receives a second berth.

 

COVID-19 PROTOCOL

The competition will follow the Evergreen CC COVID-19 Protocols. 

 

SCHEDULE

 Friday, 1/13:   

11:00 am Pre-event practice & Team meeting

2:00 pm – Round Robin #1

7:00 pm – Round Robin #2

 

Saturday, 1/14:

9:00 am – Round Robin #3

2:00 pm – Round Robin #4

7:00 pm – Round Robin #5

 

Sunday, 11/22:

8:30 am – Round Robin #6

1:00 pm – Tiebreaker (if necessary)

 

A full cut will be done after the pre-event practice and between each draw.

 

EVENT PROCEDURES

WCF-approved brush heads will be required for this tournament.

Team Meeting: An “All-teams” meeting will happen prior to the commencement of play at the conclusion of the Pre-Event Practice session. At least one representative will be required to be in attendance. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss format, schedule, local conditions, including but not limited to, rules interpretation. Equipment will also be inspected at this time, including the use of WCF-approved brushes.

All player are expected to know and understand the Rules of Curling and one person from each team should be familiar with this Rules and Format document. For teams in post-round robin play, there may be a post round-robin meeting, for which at least one team representative must be present.

Pre-Event Practice will begin at 11:00 am on Jan 13. Each team will have a designated start sheet assigned to them. One team will start off ice. Each team will have ten (10) minutes on each sheet starting with one team on each sheet and rotating to the next sheet. The rotation is as follows:

 

	SHEET A	SHEET B	SHEET C	OFF-ICE
11:00 AM Pre-Event #1	Hester	Schaak	Shoesmith	Wiesen
11:10 AM Pre-Event #2	Wiesen	Hester	Schaak	Shoesmith
11:20 AM Pre-Event	Shoesmith	Wiesen	Hester	Schaak
11:30 Pre-Event #4	Schaak	Shoesmith	Wiesen	Hester

 

GAME PROCEDURES

For round robin draws, first team listed on a sheet on the Draw Schedule will have first practice and ‘red’ rocks (unless otherwise denoted). There will be a ten (10) minute practice period for each team prior to each draw. Practice will be eight (8) minutes in length. In the last two minutes of each team’s practice period a team’s two Last Stone Draw (LSD) shots to determine choice of last stone in the first end in the ensuing game will take place. Two stones will be delivered to the tee at the home end, by different players – the first stone with a clockwise and the second with a counter-clockwise rotation. The distance from the pin recorded for each stone will be added together to give the team its Last Shot Draw (LSD) total for that game. The team with the lesser LSD total will have choice of delivering the first or second stone in the first end of that game. Each player must throw one LSD stone of each turn during the course of the tournament.

If a team is late to its assigned practice, the time will be subtracted from their allotted practice time. If a team misses its practice, a combined LSD of 199.6 centimeters will be recorded and the other team will be awarded choice of last stone.

Stone color will be assigned and designated in the draw schedule. The team with RED rocks will have first practice during the pre-game practice. The time listed on the draw is the beginning of the first practice.

Games will 8-end games with an Extra End if needed. The no tick rule will be active for this event. A strict time clock will be operated by the official. Each team will be given 30 minutes of thinking time for each game. An additional 4 minutes and 30 seconds will be added for an extra end.

A 1-minute plus 10 second break will be allocated between ends. Players should not deliver the first stone of the next end until 10 seconds remains in the break. There will be a 5-minute midgame break. 

One one-minute timeout will be available per team per game. During a timeout, coaches from both teams may enter the ice to meet with players. Each team will receive one time out in an extra end.

The ice ops crew will not mop or otherwise service the ice during a game. If a true ice emergency arises, and we require help from ice ops, then we will handle that situation as it arises and delay the schedule accordingly.

 POST ROUND ROBIN RULES AND QUALIFYING PROCEDURES

Under the rules of the Two-Loss Provision, any team with two or more losses may be eliminated from tiebreakers, either by Round Robin record or on LSD average (with exceptions listed in ‘Qualifying Scenarios’ below) 

TEAM RANKING PROCEDURE: The following criteria (in order) will be used to rank the teams at the completion of the round robin: 

1)     Teams will be ranked according to their win/loss record; 

2)     If two teams are tied, there are two scenarios to consider based on which team won their round robin games; 

a)     If the Round Robin record is 2-0 (head-to-head), the team with two wins will be seeded higher and will win the tiebreaker (per the two-loss provision, see exceptions for threeway ties). 

b)     If the Round Robin record is 1-1 (head-to-head), a tiebreaker game will be required. 

3)     Where three or more teams are tied, the record of the games between the tied teams shall provide the ranking (should this procedure provide a ranking for some teams but not all, then a subsequent comparison of the record of the games between only the remaining teams that are still tied shall determine their ranking); 

4)     For all remaining teams whose ranking cannot be determined by (1) or (2) or (3), ranking is determined using the Last Stone Draw (LSD) Average. The team with the lesser LSD Average receives the higher ranking. If the LSDs are equal, then the team with the best nonequal LSD receives the higher ranking. In case all LSDs are equal, the teams flip a coin. 

In case that PNWCA will receive a second berth, we will need to determine second place under the same procedures and guidelines listed for determining first place. 

POST ROUND ROBIN ADVANTAGE: First and last stone in the first end of post round robin games is determined as follows: 

•       If the tiebreaker is played due to a 1-1 Round Robin record between two teams, a traditional practice will occur prior to the start of the tiebreaker game. 

•       If the tiebreaker is played due to a three-way tie and there is a 2-0 Round Robin record between two teams, the team with 2 wins will receive both stone handle color and last stone in the first end. 

GAME LENGTH: All post round robin games to be 8 ends and will be timed. Extra ends are not included in this time allotment. No skip’s rocks will be employed in post round robin games. Teams will continue to play ends until there is a winner.