The Brier is here! So let's get at those pool docs then! But first a note about...
THE HEARTS AND BRIER TOURNAMENTS HAVE STAYED THE SAME. Yes, this year's tournaments are the same as last year! No championship round, it has been replaced with a Page Playoff style Qualifier and Seeding round. Still got the two Pools, A and B. All hopefully explained on the entry form, or scroll down, see "How has it Changed?" and "Pool Format!" below! (Note again: Same as last year!!)
PLAYOFF BONUS POINTS! Good time to remind everyone of this! In the playoffs, your Qualifier and Seeding match picks are interchangeable! So if you pick the two winners in either order, you get your full points! And 1/2 points for placing a team in either Qualifier or Seeding match. (But Qualifier picks score for Qualifier games only, and Seeding match picks score for Seeding match games only.) Your Page Playoff picks, however, are NOT interchangeable. You must place a team in their exact playoff for full or half points! But you still get 1/4 points for placing a team in the wrong playoff! And you must place a team in the exact Semifinal or Final match to get any points. And score full points for picking the winner, or half points just for placing a team in the correct match. There! I hope that's clear as mud! That's how you are being awarded points!
OK OK, let's get at those Pool documents!
Official Final Standings Yes! The Brier is done! And so are we! Click to see how we all did, all official and hand-verified!
Who Did We Pick to Win the Brier? Who did all of us pick to win it all? Here it is, at a glance! FYI!
The Master Spreadsheet... This is the master sheet, it has everybody's picks, and you can do your own updates and projections! Once everyone's entered of course! (320K Excel spreadsheet)
The Master Spreadsheet in HTML Format! Web page format for easy viewing. It doesn't look perfect but you can see how everyone's doing and who they picked. It's 375K bytes!
The ZIPPED Express All the pool docs, in one compact zip file! At just 135K bytes it's your best download value!
The Pool Entry Form! (80K Excel spreadsheet) It's all ready! Deadline for entries is Friday, March 3rd at 6:00 P.M., the start of the Round Robin Draws! The usual Entry Form with drop-down everything almost! Full of instructions and team ranking information! Download the form, make your picks, then save to your computer and email to me. Or print it off, and hand it in to me, or send a pic of it in email or text! Whatever works!
Instructions for using the Excel Pool Entry Form
To fill out the interactive entry form below and send it to me, you MUST save your picks on your computer. Then email the file you saved to me as an attachment. That's the only way I will get your picks! Thanks!
The Pool Entry Form in Web Page Format! Not interactive, but all the info and links are there, and it's not Microsoft so anybody can use it. (size: 140K bytes)
Curling Pool Rules and Instructions (60K Word doc) Here's where you find the rules for all curling pools! The master rules document.
Pool Rules and Instructions - Web Page Format (size: 35K bytes) - Same as above, except looks good in your browser! Plus it's not Word so anybody can look at it.
Visualizing The Page Playoff System This diagram shows how the Page Playoff system works, nice and simple! Created by k9crazy!
Curling Pools Rules and Help... in a Zip File! ... The above Rules and Help documents, in a 60K zip file. Grab em all!
How has it changed?
How have the Hearts and Brier tournaments changed from previous years? Again, they are the same as in 2022! Which means:
1. Like the Hearts, no Wild Card "Play-in" game, just 3 Wild Card teams, and they all play, and the Round Robin draw starts Friday Evening, March 3rd. I think the play-in game sucked anyway. Go all the way there and play one game. Woop de doo!
2. There are 18 participating teams in two Pools of 9 teams, Pool A and Pool B. Again this is the same as last year!
3. Here's the difference. These last couple years, only the top 3 teams in the standings in each Pool A and Pool B advance! Bottom 6 in each pool are OUT.
4. First playoff round, a "Page Qualifier" round. The 3rd place A team plays the 2nd place B team. Two games. Winner advances, losers are OUT.
5. Second playoff round, a "Page Seeding" round. One qualifier winner plays the first place A team, the other plays the first place B team. Winners advance to the final round, the 1-2 Page playoff; the losers advance too, to the 3-4 Page playoff.
6. The "Page Playoff" round. The teams above play a standard Page Playoff. Winner of 1-2 goes straight to the final; loser meets the winner of the 3-4 playoff in the semifinal. Semifinal winner goes to the final; losers of semifinal and 3-4 playoff are OUT. And that's it!
POOL FORMAT! So of course our format changes from last year. And is just like our Hearts pool earlier this year. It's more of a normal format, except the extra Qualifier and Seeding rounds. You will have to:
1. Pick the winners of the selected Round Robin games (no change here);
2. Pick the top 3 teams in each of Pool A and Pool B who you think will advance to the Playoff Round;
3. Put the 2nd and 3rd place teams from each Pool in the Page Qualifier games, and pick the winners;
4. Put the winners of the Qualifier games into the Page Seeding games, to play the 1st place teams from each Pool, and pick the winners;
5. Now put winners from the Seeding games into the Final Page Playoff, winners in the 1-2 playoff, and losers in the 3-4 playoff, and pick the winners;
6. Do the same with the Semifinal and Final games. And finally,
7. Apply rank points to ALL your selections (same as before). That's it!
POOL ENTRY FEE! Once again, since there's only 2 curling pools this spring, we will continue with the new higher entry fee. As suggested by some of you. The Hearts and Brier pools entry fees are $5.00! Yes it's higher. But don't forget, the prizes will be that much higher too! And 2 pools for $10 as opposed to the previous 4 pools for $8. Only heard good feedback last year (that I remember), so, let's do it again!
NOTE! I won't actually see pretty much any of you in person. So we'll have to be creative about how to pay entry fees. Still due at the start of the pool! Give or take a day or two. E-transfer, snail mail, or a nice distanced outdoor visit! Oh yeah! Or of course if you have a pool credit, from previous winnings, you're covered!
TIME CHANGE! Just like every year! The Brier Championship Weekend is our time change weekend. We Spring Forward to Daylight Savings Time. So Sunday's games are one hour earlier! Egads! But hey... another sign that spring has arrived! Almost!
OK enough talk! Let's get at that entry form! Instructions galore on page 2 of the form!
Curling Canada's 2023 Brier Event Site You can find completed draw scores here! And the all-important official tournament standings! Temporarily at least! (See Wiki link below)
2021 Brier Last Stone Draw Standings This is what is used to break ties in the standings, where "who beat who" is all tied. (Seems to be a lot of these docs! Try changing LSD19 to 18 in your browser! Another doc!)
Wikipedia's 2023 Brier Pool A and B Standings HERE is where you will find the final Pool A and B standings! What Curling Canada SHOULD have permanently, but don't.
TSN's Curling Home Page They have up-to-date news! But note, they don't seem to get the standings absolutely correct, in the case of tied records! Noticed that with the Hearts this year. A little slack! (Vic gets them right on TV!)
2022-2023 CTRS TEAM RANKINGS See how all the teams are ranked! This is where you get the rankings on the entry form. Plus a description of how they come up with it. Check it out!
Just some curling stuff for a laugh!
Vic Rauter - National Treasure
Bikini Curling! Ha ha ha curling is so sexy... (38 seconds)
What the... who says yoga and curling don't mix? (Not responsible for the "related videos", don't look at them!!)
Kaitlyn Lawes Quadruple Takeout Wow!
That’s all I’ve got for now. Enjoy the Brier!
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