2018–19 Curling World Cup


The 2018–19 Curling World Cup was the first edition of the Curling World Cup, held between men's, women's, and mixed doubles teams. It had three legs and a Grand Final, taking place in Suzhou, China, Omaha, United States, Jönköping, Sweden, and Beijing, China respectively.

Format

Curling World Cup matches have eight ends, rather than the standard ten ends. Ties after eight ends are decided by a shoot-out, with each team throwing a stone and the one closest to the button winning. A win in eight or fewer ends earns a team 3 points, a shoot-out win 2 points, a shoot-out loss 1 point, and 0 points for a loss in eight or fewer ends.
Each event has eight teams in the men's, women's, and mixed doubles tournament. The teams are split into two groups of four, based on the Curling World Cup rankings, whereby the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th, ranked teams are in one group and the 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th ranked teams in the other. The first place teams in each group plays against each other in the final. In the event of a tie for first place, a shoot-out is used, with the same format used to decide matches tied after eight ends.

Qualification

For the first three legs of the Curling World Cup, the eight spots in the tournament are allocated to each of the hosting member associations, the highest ranked member association in each zone, and two teams chosen by the World Curling Federation. Member associations may choose to send the same teams to all three legs or have different teams.
The following countries qualified for each discipline:
Qualification methodWomenMenMixed doubles
Hosting member association
Hosting member association
Hosting member association
Highest ranked member association in the Americas zone
Highest ranked member association in the European zone
Highest ranked member association in the Pacific-Asia zone
Selected by World Curling Federation
Selected by World Curling Federation

The host, the winners of each leg, the current world champions, a team specifically invited, and the two highest remaining member associations on the Curling World Cup ranking list qualified for the Grand Final. Two separate teams from the same member association may qualify for the Grand Final.
The following countries qualified for each discipline:
Qualification methodWomenMenMixed doubles
Hosting member association
First leg winner
Second leg winner
Third leg winner
Highest ranked remaining
member associations
Highest ranked remaining
member associations
World champions
Invited by World Curling Federation

;Notes
  1. Team Homan is being replaced by a team consisting of Jennifer Jones, Kaitlyn Lawes, Shannon Birchard and Jill Officer due to Homan and her second Joanne Courtney being due to give birth in the summer.
  2. The 2018 World Mixed Doubles Curling Champions, Michèle Jäggi and Sven Michel, were selected to compete due to the short time between the 2019 Championship and the Grand Final.
  3. With Team Edin already qualified for the Grand Final, Switzerland, the highest-ranked country not yet qualified, was invited.
  4. In each discipline, the WCF chose to invite the highest-ranked country not yet qualified.

    Ranking points

Ranking points were assigned in each of the first three legs to determine the final member associations qualified for the Grand Final. Member associations were awarded their points from round robin play as well as 5 points for the runner-up and 10 for the champion.
;Women
CountryFirst LegSecond LegThird LegTotal
2092049
3172545
925842
2512037
961126
96924
612422
601016

;Men
CountryFirst LegSecond LegThird LegTotal
2532553
8202048
725739
1291334
209433
961126
69318
0639

;Mixed doubles
CountryFirst LegSecond LegThird LegTotal
2572355
9221748
12221246
23111145
761023
531119
37313
39012

First Leg

Women

Round robin standings

Final

Sunday, September 17, 12:00

Men

Round robin standings

Final

Sunday, September 17, 16:00

Mixed doubles

Round robin standings

Final

Sunday, September 16, 08:30

Second Leg

Women

Round robin standings

Final

Sunday, December 9, 12:00

Men

Round robin standings

Final

Sunday, December 9, 16:00

Mixed doubles

Round robin standings

Final

Sunday, December 9, 08:30

Third Leg

Women

Round robin standings

Final

Sunday, February 3, 16:00

Men

Round robin standings

Final

Sunday, February 3, 12:00

Mixed doubles

Round robin standings

Final

Sunday, February 3, 08:30

Grand Final

Women

Round robin standings

Final

Sunday, May 12, 16:00

Men

Round robin standings

Final

Sunday, May 12, 09:00

Mixed doubles

Round robin standings

Final

Sunday, May 12, 13:00