CurlingZone: World Curling Federation Considering 8-Ends for Championship Play

The World Curling Federation (Photo by Richard Gray, WCF) is meeting this week with 8-ends being considered for Championship play.

As reported by Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun this week, the WCF Board of Governors are meeting this week to determine whether to recommend the change from 10-ends to 8-ends in International Championships, a move the would see them implement both the 5-rock rule and the shorter 8-ends format that the Grand Slam of Curling tested throughout the years.

Statistically, the change is pretty small with no more than 2% difference over the last 4 seasons between team's chance of winning the games when they score 2 or 3 in the first end of the game.

Order of Merit Games, 2014/15 Season to Current
Men:
Scoring 3 in First End:
... in 8-end games: 916-140, 86.7%
... in 10-end games: 351-62, 85.0%

Scoring 2 in First End:
... in 8-end games: 2490-770, 76.4%
... in 10-end games: 1146-357, 76.2%

Women:
Scoring 3 in First End:
... in 8-end games: 471-77, 85.9%
... in 10-end games: 270-39, 87.4%

Scoring 2 in First End:
... in 8-end games: 1359-486, 73.7%
... in 10-end games: 733-260, 73.8%

As you'll notice from the numbers above, in the men's games you're seeing a small difference in favour of 8-end games but in women's play, teams actually win more games when getting an early lead in 10-end play showing how close the numbers really are.

For more information on the story, check out Terry Jones' article in the Edmonton Sun:

Will the last 10-end game of international curling be Sunday here in Las Vegas? It's a good bet. https://t.co/9UEV2Vdh3v
— Terry Jones (@byterryjones) April 4, 2018

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