A good number of changes will be made to the provincial circuit at the start of the 2024-25 season. The objective of these changes is to enhance the experience of teams who are taking part in the events.
These changes were developed after meetings involving competitors, members of the board of directors and Curling Quebec personnel. Most of the changes will be applied to the men provincial circuit specifically, but one of them will also be applied to the senior provincial circuit.
Here is a breakdown of the changes who will be applied from September 1st 2024.
Mandatory use of World Curling approved brushes:
The use of World Curling approved brushes will now be mandatory for everyone who participates in a men OR senior provincial circuit event.
This change is made to make it easier for events to be added to the CTRS which will make them more interesting to play in. This change will also ensure that teams playing in provincial circuit events, who are used by many teams to qualify for provincial championships, will have an even playing field.
We also believe that this change will help teams be better prepared to play in our provincial championships for which the use of World Curling approved brushes has already been mandatory for eight years.
Mandatory registration to the men’s provincial circuit to accumulate points
Teams will now have to register for the men’s provincial circuit to be able to accumulate points. This registration will be separate from registration to the Hardline Tankard provincial championship. This means that any team will now be able to appear on the provincial circuit standings if they wish to without need to pay to register for the Tankard.
This registration will be free and will be done through a registration form that will be available a couple weeks before the start of the 2024-25 season.
Teams will have until October 15th to register to be able to keep the points they accumulated before their registration. Any team that has not registered by October 15th will not be able to count the points they accumulated until then (from December 4th 2023 to October 15th 2024). After October 15th, a team that is not registered to the provincial circuit before the start of an event will not be able to accumulate points during that event.
The objective of this change is to allow teams who do not want to participate in the Hardline Tankard provincial championship to still appear on the provincial circuit standings without any cost.
Teams will not have to be registered to the provincial circuit to play in the circuit events unless they want to accumulate points.
Automatic updates of the men provincial circuit by Curling Quebec
Starting on September 1st 2024, teams who are registered to the men provincial circuit will no longer need to declare their points for tournaments held in Quebec like they had to in the past. After circuit events, organisers will have to inform Curling Quebec of the purses obtained by each team and the points will be automatically added to the provincial circuit standings.
Please take note that for events held outside of Quebec, teams will still need to declare their points to Curling Quebec to have them added to the standings. Teams will have 14 days after the conclusion of an event to declare their points.
Teams who are also registered to the Hardline Tankard will be identified in the standings in order to give a clearer picture of the points race to qualify for the provincial championship.
The objective of this change is to have a standing that is more up to date through the season.
Limit of one Regional qualification tournament per region:
From the 2024-2025 season and onwards, each region will be limited to hosting one Regional Qualification tournament each season. For the first two seasons of these events, if 6 or more regions applied to host a Regional Qualification tournament, a maximum of 1 event would be offered to 6 regions. But, if less than 6 regions applied and 2 clubs from one region wished to host events, a region could get more than 1 Regional Qualification Tournament.
It was determined that having more than 1 event per region created an unbalance of chances to qualify for the Hardline Tankard.
Furthermore, to encourage teams to participate in the provincial circuit events, qualification spots for the Hardline Tankard that are not used by Regional Qualification events will be distributed by alternation to the provincial circuit points first and the CTRS points second.
Teams who have further questions on these changes are welcomed to contact Émile Asselin (emile.asselin@curling-quebec.qc.ca).
