#PowerRankings W0

#BetweenTheSheets: Updated Rankings Reminder

Debut of the 2019/20 season Power Rankings and #TwineTime podcast

The 2019/2020 curling season has technically started rock heads. Action has hit the ice across the pond in Japan the past few weeks. But the season will officially cut the opening ceremony ribbon next weekend when many top men's and women's teams take the ice at events in Manitoba and Switzerland.

Consider this blog post your friendly reminder on a few changes to your regularly scheduled curling program, brought to you by the TwineTime blog.

Last season the blog introduced a new proposed ranking system. The system was used throughout the season to make for a more transparent and objective Power Rankings. Teams were rewarded for successful results. Teams were rewarded for consistent results. Teams were rewarded for smart scheduling. Now we enter Year II of the proposed system and there will be some important changes to understand heading into the new season.

But the blog also has some additional exciting news to share. TwineTime is now a PODCAST!

More info on where to find the podcast, a reminder on how the new rankings system works and the debut of our first #PowerRankings of the season can be found in this Week 0 blog post.

Welcome back rock heads

#RankingsReminder

As you may recall last season this blog introduced a new rankings formula for the World Curling Tour. Rather than the strength of field multiplier and complex formulas, the blog simplified the system but assigning categories to each tour event rather than the tour event point system decided later based on team registration. For a full recap, check out last year's blog post HERE.

Now we enter Year II of the pilot program. This is when we truly see how the new system works and what impact it could have on the rankings. What we will see this year is teams lose points accumulated one year ago and gain points earned this season. So if a team won a spiel last year, enters the same spiel this year and fails to #DefendTheIce, they would actually lose points. In theory we should see more movement on the rankings mountain.

Lets use a real-life example to simplify. The season has already started with events taking place in what is called Week 0. Lets look at a few teams who competed in Hokkaido.

Last season Japan's Team Nakajima was the runner-up in Hokkaido, earning them 150 points because this event was classified as a #Tour250. Nakajima started this season with 1840 points. This year the team failed to reach the playoff round in Hokkaido, going 2-2 in the round robin. As a result they lose the 150 points earned a year ago and only collect 10 points (5 points per RR win). The overall ranking point total for Nakajima now is 1700.

On the flip side China's Team Jiang did not compete in this event last season but did compete (and win) the event this season. As a result they see a 100% gain in the ranking point total. They began the year carrying over the 645 points earned last season and add 250 for the tournament win, increasing their new ranking total to 985.

As you can see the main importance of this proposed system is simple: Scheduling, Scheduling, Scheduling. If you can maximize your team schedule against #Tour250 or #Tour500 or #Tour1000 events against the previous season when you did compete and did well or did not compete (or did compete but did not perform well) you can in theory eliminate bad results last season with plus gains this season and move up the rankings. Of course you still need the most important factor: Results, Results, Results.

Take a look at Japan's Team Fujisawa. Last season Fujisawa did not compete on tour until Week 6. This season the team has already played in Hokkaido and at the debuting ADVICS Cup event. They were the runner-up in Hokkaido and became the inaugural ADVICS Cup champion. Both events are #Tour250 events so Fujisawa added 150 points and 250 points in the past two weeks to their ranking total. Since they did not compete in the same week last year, these results are all gains. Fujisawa moved from 2420 at last season's year-end to 2820, now sitting #8 on the rankings mountain.

As an aside, the blog is also feeling very humbled heading into the new season. The Junior Slam Series has adopted the #TwineTime system into their newly revamped Junior Team Ranking System (JTRS). For more information on the JTRS read the release HERE.

For those unfamiliar, the Junior Slam Series offers U15, U18, U21 and mixed doubles junior curling slam events. This will be the fourth season of the series with events taking place across the country, from the prairies to the maritimes. Those competing really are the #NextGen faces of the sport. Teams competing include #TwineTimeFam member Rylan Kleiter and his team from Saskatchewan, Team Tyler Smith from P.E.I, Team Justine Comeau from New Brunswick and both junior men and women teams from China. For a full list of slam series events across all age groups, visit HERE.

#PowerRankings

With two events taking place under Week 0, a few teams were able to add to their point totals and make early moves on the mountain (we see you Team Fujisawa). But with many of the top teams yet to start their seasons, our Top 5 from last season remain untouched.

WOMEN

1. Team Homan - 7820 (LS: 1)
2. Team Einarson - 7200 (2)
3. Team Hasselborg - 6870 (3)
4. Team Tirinzoni - 6245 (4)
5. Team Kovaleva - 4075 (5)

Hon. Mention: Team Jones, Team Carey, Team Fujisawa, Team Scheidegger, Team Yoshimura


MEN

1. Team Bottcher - 7628 (LS: 1)
2. Team Koe - 6630 (2)
3. Team Edin - 5372 (3)
4. Team Mouat - 5347 (4)
5. Team Epping - 5233 (5)

Hon. Mention: Team Paterson, Team De Cruz, Team Jacobs, Team Gushue, Team Howard

Little movement this week at the Top 10 level. But we could see some changes after next weekend when the men compete at The Icebreaker and in Baden while the women also hit the ice at The Icebreaker.

#TwineTime Podcast

And now the BIG news rock heads. The #TwineTime blog is hitting the airwaves with the launching of the TwineTime Podcast. The podcast will not be a regular feature for the blog however. The podcast will be exclusively used to release interviews throughout the season. When we welcome a new member to the #TwineTimeFam, the interview will now be available via podcast rather than embedded into this blog space.

Many of you have been asking for this for a few seasons now and this summer the blog finally established a podcast site to make it happen. And while we all await the next member of the fam, past fam interviews will be added to the podcast archive. Miss the interview with Saskatchewan's young dual-sport stud Rylan Kleiter? Well it is now available via podcast for your listening pleasure. Each month a new interview will be added, whether a NEW addition to the fam or a nice throwback from season's past. Download the interviews. Tell your curling friends. Have a long drive or flight coming up? TwineTime has you covered as you go #BetweenTheSheets with the hottest athletes on tour.

#StayTuned

Next week the blog will return to its regularly scheduled season program with the 2019/20 Season Predictions blog post at the beginning of the week and the #TourLifePredictions preview blog post to get you excited for weekend action in Basel, Switzerland and Morris, Manitoba.

And ICYMI, the blog did not take the entire summer off. There were a few posts sliding out of the hack during those sunny months. The 2020 Men of Curling calendar picks were revealed. Who made the cut? Who lands in which month? And who is your favourite curling stud to see inside?

Plus the blog tackled the off-the-ice controversy of the new curling documentary with an appropriately titled post called "Dear White People". This post continues the theme from last season asking for the sport (all aspects of the sport) to find their social conscious moving forward.

We bbbbaaaacckkkkk!!