On May 7th, a meeting was held with the Curling Quebec directors, the competition committee and representatives from each regional association. The main topic of discussion stemmed from a proposal sent in by the Association de Curling de Nord-Ouest Québécois (ACNOQ) which suggested changing to a new 16-team provincial championship. In short, they proposed to return to a more regional qualification process in order to increase the competitive player pool in Quebec. This meeting allowed for a great discussion among all representatives and several interesting points were brought forward:
- Allow for the inclusion of regional teams was well as more central/mixed region teams;
- Increase the number of participants involved in the qualification process;
- Make the process very accessible by keeping the eligibility criteria to a minimum;
- Allow for the inclusion of Colts and Club championship teams in the following year’s qualification process.
Following that meeting, the competitions committee along with two regional representatives got together to evaluate the different possibilities which would be used in the qualification process for the men’s provincial championship. The people in attendance were: Émile Asselin, Jean-Sébastien Roy, Martin Crête, Adam Rocheleau, Robert Desjardins, Pamela Nugent and Alanna Routledge. Their objective was to take all of the information presented at the May 7th meeting, and to create a revised proposal to submit to the Board of Directors. The following proposal was presented to the board, and it was agreed to be tested for the 2023 provincial championship, with the option of revising the process at the end of the season as required. Without further ado, here is the format which will be run on a trial basis this season :
Championship format: Modified triple knockout with 16 teams
Playoff round: Page 4:
- Page 1 vs 2 = Winners of sections A & B
- Page 3 vs 4 = Winners of section C
Qualification:
- Team Quebec (minimum of 3 returning team members from the previous season)
- Winner of the provincial circuit final
- CTRS points #1
- CTRS points #2
- CTRS points #3
- Provincial circuit points (1$/point) #1
- Provincial circuit points (1$/point) #2
- Provincial circuit points(1$/point) #3
- Winner of the regional qualification tournament*
- Winner of the regional qualification tournament*
- Winner of the regional qualification tournament*
- Winner of the regional qualification tournament*
- Winner of the regional qualification tournament*
- Winner of the regional qualification tournament*
- Tankard qualifier (Last chance)
- Tankard qualifier (Last chance)
In the event that one or more of the entries are not claimed (team Quebec, regional qualifier, etc.) an additional provincial circuit spot ($1/point) will be added.
If a team qualifies by both CTRS points and by the Quebec circuit points, the team must take the CTRS spot.
*REGIONAL QUALIFICATION : The regional qualification tournaments will allow for 6 tournaments to be organized throughout the province in the fall, within the regions who request to host an event. The following criteria applies for all regional qualification tournaments:
- A minimum of 4 teams must participate in order for the event to be recognized;
- All participating teams must be registered for the Hardline Tankard before playing in the tournament;
- There will not be any registration fees for these events aside from the provincial championship fee;
- Curling Quebec rules will apply (legal broom pads). The official tournament rules will be sent to the host regions/clubs at the beginning of the season.
- The following teams are not eligible to participate:
- Team Quebec from the previous season,
- The winner of last year’s provincial circuit final,
- Teams who qualified for provincials by CTRS points last year,
- A team who has already qualified for the provincial championship by winning a regional qualification tournament earlier in the year
- The top 3 teams from last year’s Colts provincial championship may play in the regional qualification tournaments without paying a registration fee. In the event that one of these teams wins the tournament (and the entry to men’s provincials) they must pay the Tankard registration fee before the registration deadline (December 1);
- The top 3 teams from last year’s provincial Club championship (only teams containing no players who have participated in Elite series national championships) may play in the regional qualification tournaments without paying a registration fee. In the event that one of these teams wins the tournament (and the entry to men’s provincials) they must pay the Tankard registration fee before the registration deadline (December 1);
- There are no restrictions regarding the origins of a team. For example, if Sept-Iles curling club decides to host an event, nothing could stop a team from Val-d’Or from participating in the tournament;
- Host clubs may run other events (juniors, women’s, seniors, etc.) simultaneously;
- In the event that more than 6 regions are interested in hosting a regional qualification tournament, a random draw will determine the host regions. After the 2022-23 season, regions who did not host an event in the previous year will be given the priority;
- In the event that less than 6 regions are interested in hosting a regional qualification tournament, any region may host a maximum of 3 events in one season.
Timeline:
Registration deadline for the Hardline Tankard: December 1, 2022
Circuit final: December 1-4, 2022
2 regional qualification tournaments: October 7-9, 2022
2 regional qualification tournaments: November 4-6, 2022
2 regional qualification tournaments: November 18-20, 2022
Tankard qualifier (Last chance): December 15-18, 2022
Note to all regional associations:
If your region would like to host one (or several) qualification tournaments this season, please complete this online form. The deadline to submit a request is September 1st, 2022.
