2018–19 Curling World Cup – First Leg

Curling World Cup matches have eight ends, rather than the standard ten ends. Ties after eight ends will be 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 will earn a team 3 points, a shoot-out win 2 points, a shoot-out less 1 point, and 0 points for a loss in eight or fewer ends.[2]

Each event will have eight teams in the men's, women's, and mixed doubles tournament. The teams will be split into two groups of four, based on the Curling World Cup rankings, whereby the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th, ranked teams will be in one group and the 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th ranked teams in the other. The first place teams in each group will play against each other in the final. In the event of a tie for first place, a shoot-out will be used, with the same format used to decide matches tied after eight ends.[2]

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 (the Americas, European, and Pacific-Asia), 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.[3]

The following countries qualified for each discipline:[3]

Qualification method	Women	Men	Mixed doubles
Hosting member association	China	China	China
United States	United States	United States
Sweden	Sweden	Sweden
Highest ranked member association in the Americas zone	Canada	Canada	Canada
Highest ranked member association in the European zone	Scotland	Switzerland	Switzerland
Highest ranked member association in the Pacific-Asia zone	South Korea	Japan	South Korea
Selected by World Curling Federation	Japan	Norway	Russia
Russia	Scotland	Norway

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