The United States Men's Curling Championship is the annual men's national curling championship for the United States. It is run by the United States Curling Association and typically held in conjunction with the Women's Championship. The champion is eligible to represent the United States at the World Men's Curling Championships if they also rank in the top 75 teams over the last two seasons in the World Curling Tour Order of Merit or have earned 40 points in the Order of Merit year-to-date rankings.[1]
Qualification
Ten teams play in each championship. Two spots are awarded to participants in the High Performance Program (HPP), a National program that supports Top United States curlers, and is intended to prepare them for Olympic level play. Two additional spots are given to the two highest ranked United States teams on the Curling order of Merit (that aren't already qualified via the HPP). The remaining six positions are determined by the Challenge Round, open to all United States curlers, where the final six teams from this triple elimination tournament get spots in the National tournament.[2]
Format
The current format begins with a complete nine game round robin where each of the ten teams to play every other team. At the end of the round robin the top four teams qualify for the playoffs; if there is a tie for fourth place then a tiebreaker game is played. The playoffs are conducted in the page playoff format, a common playoff format in curling. In a page playoff the 1 seed and 2 seed play with the winner advancing straight to the championship game. The 3 seed and 4 seed teams play and the winner of that match plays the loser of the 1 vs 2 game. The winner of this third game advances to the championship to face the winner of the 1 vs 2 game.[3]
Past champions
The location and champion of every men's national championship since it began in 1957:[4]
^ This column shows the results of the team representing the United States at the World Curling Championships. Based on the rules implemented by the United States Curling Association for the 2013–14 season, the United States team at the World Curling Championships is not necessarily the team that won the national championship.
The Ann Brown Sportsmanship Award has been presented annually since 2007 to one male and one female athlete at the National Championships who are judged to best embody the USCA Spirit of Curling as voted on by their peers. The award is given in memory of Ann Brown, who was the first female president of the United States Curling Association and was the second female inductee into the USCA Hall of Fame.[6]
John Shuster
Wisconsin
Washington
North Dakota
Michigan
Colorado
Illinois
Massachusetts
New York