Registered: Dec 2005
Location: St. Thomas, North Dakota
Posts: 2613

Lest we all have been distracted by Men's and Women's Nationals in Seattle, check out the World Junior standings in Korea. Both USA teams have reached the halfway point of the round robin in playoff position. Extremely well done so far.

Props to the players, of course. Keep up the great work. Props to some others as well. Bev Schroeder has done excellent work with the very young Junior Girls team. Mark Lazar is coaching a team with far more experience in the Junior Men's, but with a Fenson, a Stopera and a Violette on the team, he could face some different challenges and Lazar seems to be doing just great. Props also to Dave Jensen for guiding the still-evolving Junior program and lining up good coaching on a very tight budget.

Ben Tucker (USA USA USA!!!)

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Registered: Dec 2014
Location:
Posts: 206

Solid start with a few bumps.

US Junior Men took down Canada, that's not an easy feat... Solid.

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Registered: Dec 2005
Location: St. Thomas, North Dakota
Posts: 2613

As an interesting aside:

World Juniors' title sponsor is VoIP Defender. Defender is an important computer program from Atom Amp'd. Atom has long been a supporter of our USCA by providing IT guidence. Atom's CEO is our own Dan Field.

Older players will remember Geekman Dan. He took a ton of photos at various Nationals and Olympic Trials before the pro, Rich Harmer, assumed that role. Geekman Dan and Rick Patzke did some of the original webcasts when very few of us knew what a webcast was. They didn't have video...just audio...tough job to do well...been there, done that.

Atom has a significant presence in Korea. I'm glad to see Geekman Dan doing well. I'm almost ready to forgive him for losing the party pictures of me at the Grand Forks Nationals years ago (won by Larway). Almost ready to forgive him. Not yet...almost.

Ben Tucker

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Registered: Jan 2016
Location:
Posts: 33

Noticed that the front ends of the Canadian teams (both women and men) do not seem to be taking back-to-hog or tee-to-hog times, do not seem to be using stop watches at all. The skips and vices are taking hog-to-hog times, but that appears to be about it.

Can anybody explain that? I thought that back-to-hog (or tee-to-hog) times were pretty standard for competitive teams these days.

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Registered: Oct 2016
Location: Auckland
Posts: 13

Impressive game the US guys played v Canada. Nice that World Curling TV is webstreaming it (shameless plug!)

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Registered: Mar 2016
Location: Bay City, Michigan
Posts: 58

Yikes. Tough two losses for the US ladies to Russia and Korea.

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Registered: Dec 2005
Location: St. Thomas, North Dakota
Posts: 2613

Both genders remain in playoff contention. The guys' remaining schedule looks favorable. The gals' remaining schedule looks brutal.

Juniors being played on the other side of the globe makes it hard for me to catch any of Kiwi's commentary on the webstream. What would be wrong about mandating all World Championships be played in my Central Time Zone? Isn't this all about Tuck? If not, it should be. Olympics on the far side of the globe? Waking up to watch at 3am? Again? Please, people. Clear this stuff with me first.

Ben Tucker

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Registered: May 2014
Location:
Posts: 143

the quality of the webstream at the world juniors has been outstanding, btw. The HD cameras, the mics, the commentators, everything. it's amazing that WCF is able to put on such a high-quality show for a junior event.

btw, I would NOT want to be a teenage girl with HD cameras and high quality mics tracking my every move during a loss like the one Team USA suffered last night to Scotland. My heart went out to those girls who at times looked like they just wanted to be someplace else

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Registered: Sep 2011
Location:
Posts: 6002

Men are right where I thought they would be. I predicted Canada v.s us for gold . Korea is a lot stronger than I thought but I'm still sticking to my pick.

Women are in really tough. With Canada and Sweden their las 2 games andeen if they win both it still might not be enough. And at this point not only are they fight to stay in playoff contention they are fighting to stay safe. They could very well be relegated. What a blow that would be

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Registered: Mar 2016
Location: Bay City, Michigan
Posts: 58

According to the commentators last night, the girls are unfortunately out of playoff contention. It just doesn't seem to be their best week. Might they really be relegated? I considered them safe upon 3 wins.

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Registered: Sep 2011
Location:
Posts: 6002

quote:

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Originally posted by curlinglove
According to the commentators last night, the girls are unfortunately out of playoff contention. It just doesn't seem to be their best week. Might they really be relegated? I considered them safe upon 3 wins.

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Registered: Dec 2005
Location: St. Thomas, North Dakota
Posts: 2613

Misty shouldn't be allowed to talk her picks until she gives me props for my Sinclair/Shuster Daily Double. Fair is fair and, if I pat myself on the back much more, I could pull a muscle.

Ben Tucker, Prognosticator in Chief

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Registered: Mar 2009
Location: Cleveland, OH
Posts: 140

Teams must finish in 7th place or higher to qualify directly to 2018 Junior Worlds (since Scotland is hosting), and there's a good chance it will take 4 wins to be 7th. If the US loses to both Sweden and Canada, then relegation is definitely possible, but not guaranteed.

The US women are currently in 6th place with 3 wins, 1/2 game in front of Russia (lost), 1 game in front of Japan (beat) and 2 games in front of Turkey (lost) and Hungary (beat). US has Sweden and Canada left; Russia has to Turkey, Scotland and Korea; Japan has Turkey and Hungary; Hungary has Switzerland and Japan; and Turkey still has to play Russia and Japan.

Good news: There are lots of possible scenarios but the US controls their own fate; win out and avoid relegation.

I could be wrong, but it appears that there are scenarios where the US could actually tie for a playoff spot, too.

CAN, 5-2 - Lose to SCO and US, 5-4
SUI, 4-2 - Lose to HUN or SWE and KOR, 5-4
KOR, 4-3 - Beat SUI and lose to RUS, 5-4
USA, 3-4 - Beat SWE and CAN, 5-4
RUS, 2-4 - Beat TUR, SCO and KOR, 5-4

That'd make a 5-way tie for 3rd place. Heck, it's possible for the US to be in a 3-way or 4-way tie for third, too.

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Registered: Sep 2011
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quote:

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Originally posted by MCC_PE
Teams must finish in 7th place or higher to qualify directly to 2018 Junior Worlds (since Scotland is hosting), and there's a good chance it will take 4 wins to be 7th. If the US loses to both Sweden and Canada, then relegation is definitely possible, but not guaranteed.

The US women are currently in 6th place with 3 wins, 1/2 game in front of Russia (lost), 1 game in front of Japan (beat) and 2 games in front of Turkey (lost) and Hungary (beat). US has Sweden and Canada left; Russia has to Turkey, Scotland and Korea; Japan has Turkey and Hungary; Hungary has Switzerland and Japan; and Turkey still has to play Russia and Japan.

Good news: There are lots of possible scenarios but the US controls their own fate; win out and avoid relegation.

I could be wrong, but it appears that there are scenarios where the US could actually tie for a playoff spot, too.

CAN, 5-2 - Lose to SCO and US, 5-4
SUI, 4-2 - Lose to HUN or SWE and KOR, 5-4
KOR, 4-3 - Beat SUI and lose to RUS, 5-4
USA, 3-4 - Beat SWE and CAN, 5-4
RUS, 2-4 - Beat TUR, SCO and KOR, 5-4

That'd make a 5-way tie for 3rd place. Heck, it's possible for the US to be in a 3-way or 4-way tie for third, too.

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Registered: Mar 2016
Location: Bay City, Michigan
Posts: 58

I see that there is a possibility for the girls. I might have misheard the commentators. Playoffs and medal seeming very likely for the boys. Let's go USA.

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Registered: Oct 2004
Location: Twin Snowbanks
Posts: 2068

Canada women in must win to avoid tiebreakers. USA must def CDA to create the logjam. Korea and Japan have come on strong. Last RR game is a critical one.

__________________
Lots of major youth (<21) events. Nice for Murdoch... and us :-D.

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Registered: Mar 2009
Location:
Posts: 695

Great game by the US girls today, they need to take that momentum into the game against Canada. Could be a logjam at 5-4 or it could be a clear top 4.

Stopera and the US boys lose to Sweden in 11. The Swedish skip can shoot, he cleared the high and low guard as well as the shot in the 4 foot with his first shot in the 11th to secure the win. Stopera threw heavy against two earlier to go down 3. Nice effort to tie it up in the 10th and they really had a great setup in the 11th. Win the last and face a tiebreaker at worst.

Go USA!

__________________
"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire"-Winston Churchill

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Registered: Mar 2016
Location: Bay City, Michigan
Posts: 58

With Russia at 4-4, the US girs are tied for 6th. Japan at 8th is 3-5 and has last round robin game against Hungary. Russia has last round robin game against Korea. Say Japan wins against Hungary, they too finish 4-5 in the case that US loses to Canada. Russia loses, and there is a three way tie at 4-5 to determine 6th, 7th, and 8th. I am not sure how wcf handles that tie, but I think the girls might playoff to avoid relegation (the hard way.) While if they win against Canada, they can be considered safe from relegation.

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Registered: Feb 2013
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Posts: 812

Not a very good draw when Norway is already done playing while 5 other teams still have 2 games to go.

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Registered: Mar 2009
Location: Cleveland, OH
Posts: 140

According to http://www.worldcurling.org/downloa...xGc3NlRapVUq5UV , if there's a 3-way tie for 7th place between USA, RUS and JPN and because they're all 1-1 in common games (USA beat JPN, JPN beat RUS, RUS beat USA), then the team with the best DSC will avoid relegation. The other two teams will play with the loser being relegated.

Current DSC scores are as follows, with each team having one game left to play (in parentheses):
RUS (vs KOR) - 63.86cm
USA (vs CAN) - 70.13cm
JPN (vs HUN) - 91.62cm

If it's a 3-way tie and comes down to DSC, then USA has to better RUS's DSC by at least 100cm in order to have a chance of leapfrogging into first, and more if either RUS's draw is over 116.3cm. JPN is stuck in a tiebreak game no matter what.

Still many possible outcomes, especially with DSC still in the air, but USA and RUS avoid relegation (and possibly get into playoff tiebreakers) with win, or with JPN loss. JPN avoids relegation with win and RUS loss; gets into a tiebreak with win and both USA and RUS loss.

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Registered: Mar 2016
Location: Bay City, Michigan
Posts: 58

Thank you for that info, MCC_PE.

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Registered: Dec 2005
Location:
Posts: 10

quote:

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Originally posted by dbsdbs
Not a very good draw when Norway is already done playing while 5 other teams still have 2 games to go.

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Registered: Mar 2009
Location:
Posts: 695

Curling Zone has Norway and Sweden playing twice, they both have an extra game.

__________________
"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire"-Winston Churchill

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Registered: Mar 2009
Location: Cleveland, OH
Posts: 140

US Women in a tiebreak game to avoid relegation.

US Men through to Page 1v2 as second seed.

Go USA!

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Registered: Sep 2011
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well, for the men everything ended perfectly for them. they beat china and scotland beat canada which means the men play in the 1 v.s 2 game.

however everything ended in the worse way for the women. russia won , they lost and japan won. this means the united states must play japan in a tiebreaker with the loser being relegated. they beat japan easily in the round robin but that means nothing here. a lot of pressure on both teams to stay safe.

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