News Tour Challenge

Thunder Bay, get your moose calls ready to cheer on Team McCarville!

The hometown club headlines the field for the Tour Challenge, the third event of the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season, taking place Nov. 6-11 at Tournament Centre.

The Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling announced Wednesday the teams and pools for the Tour Challenge Tier 1 featuring 15 of the top men’s teams and 15 of the top women’s teams from around the world.

Team McCarville is slotted in Pool C of the women’s division and will face off against Team Fleury of East St. Paul, Man., Edmonton’s Team Walker, Winnipeg’s Team Robertson and Team Scheidegger of Lethbridge, Alta., in round-robin play.

“For the event to be coming to Thunder Bay is pretty amazing,” said skip Krista McCarville. “I haven’t ever really curled in an event in Thunder Bay, like a really huge event like this. To be curling in this is awesome. For our families to watch and not have to travel far to come and watch us is really nice.”

Teams were invited to the Tour Challenge Tier 1 based on the World Curling Tour’s Order of Merit (OOM) as of Oct. 1. If a team declined, the next-ranked team on the OOM received an invitation.

Both men’s and women’s divisions are split into three pools. Teams play four round-robin games against the teams within their pools. The top eight overall advance to the playoffs. A full draw schedule of round-robin matches will be released in the near future, keep it here at thegrandslamofcurling.com for updates.

A $200,000 purse is on the line in the Tier 1 division plus points in the race for the Pinty’s Cup, which is awarded to the season champions. Winners of the Tour Challenge Tier 1 also earn berths to the season-ending Humpty’s Champions Cup running April 23-28 at Saskatoon’s Merlis Belsher Arena.

The Tour Challenge Tier 2 will also feature 15 men’s and 15 women’s teams but with a twist. While 10 teams in each division will be selected from the World Curling Tour’s Order of Merit, the remaining five spots will consist of teams from within the region of the event. The teams and pools for the Tour Challenge Tier 2 are expected to be announced later this week.

Full-event passes are already sold out, however, a very limited number of tickets for round-robin draws are still available at tourchallenge.goigniter.com. Purchase yours today before they’re gone!

If you can’t join us in Thunder Bay, Sportsnet is the place to be with broadcast coverage beginning Thursday, Nov. 8 at 11:30 a.m. ET and online streaming available at Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (international). To see the broadcast schedule, CLICK HERE.