World Curling Federation (WCF) World Team Rankings

Following a request from the Member Associations and Athlete Commission, in 2019 the World Curling Federation took the role of producing the World Curling Federation World Team Ranking Lists.

The WCF World Team Rankings creates an organized and comparable ranking of teams around the world, utlizing a strength of field value from events, comprised of the teams entered to play, as well as several other competitive factors.

The WCF World Team Rankings is used by Curling Canada to form the basis of points earned in the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) and used by many National Federations after part of their qualifying for World Championship and Olympic qualification events.

These rankings include the results from events from across the Worlds including World and National Championships, Grand Slams and World Curling Tour events and other registered international and national events.

You can see the list of events at which you can earn points listed in this section of the website. If you are an event organiser and you want your event to be included then you need to meet the following conditions required for a proper audit of results:

• Be part of a recognised series of Curling Events or be supported by your National Curling Body who are members of the WCF
• Publish a full list of entrants to your competition, including ALL players registered on teams, including lineup changes to registered teams.
• Publish end-by-end score results of your competition to the Internet through the duration of the event with final standings confirmed within 24 hours of the completion of the event
• In general, the event should
• have a minimum of eight teams competing in the event
• be double knockout, triple knockout or round robin pool formats with the simple conditions that the Five Rock Free Guard Zone Rule must be used and games must be 8 or 10 ends in length. Special event formats like Skins and Match-Play will be considered on a case by case basis. Rules variations will be considered on a case by case basis.
• If you wish you event to be included please submit details to Gerry Geurts (gerry@curlingzone.com) by 15 October in the season in which the event is being played.

If you are already registered on the World Curling Tour they will automatically register you on the WCF World Team Ranking List, you do not need to register twice.

This list is different to the World Curling Tour’s Ranking List as that only includes World Curling Tour events, the WCF World Team Ranking List includes a much wider range of events. To be included on
the World Curling Tour an event needs to meet their conditions and if you are interested in your event being on the World Curling Tour please contact them directly (https://worldcurlingtour.org/page/manuals).

The WCF is committed to ensuring the list remains fit for purpose and meets the needs of the athletes and Member Associations. It is currently reviewing the way points are awarded and will consult on changes to implemented following the Beijing Winter Olympic Games in 2022.

The World Team Ranking List is managed on behalf of the World Curling Federation by CurlingZone. Basic event live scoring and team registration services are available to events at no cost as part of the World Team Ranking list inclusion.

Team Registration
All teams are registered automatically for the World Team Ranking when they compete in an eligible event. However to ensure that your proper line-up is registered, please register your team through the centralized system created by CurlingZone.com.
Click here to launch the Team Registration Form

Teams will receive points in sanctioned events as follows (Click here fo Base Values Calculations)

• Men's and Women's teams must have 3 of the 4 registered players on the ice at all times to collect points. "At all times" means all ends, all games in each event. Should a team be down to 2 registered players, they may play 2 of 3 to remain legal and collect points.
• This point value will then be subject to the Strength of Field Multiplier (SFM). The SFM will be assigned to each event based on the quality of the participating teams. The SFM will be calculated using the World Team Ranking the week of the event. This ranking will be final as of Monday following the event.
• All events using the World Team Ranking to qualify or seed teams shall consider the rankings as of Midnight of the final day of competition during the week as official.
• Due Diligence: Events register their events for sanctioning in good faith with the World Team Ranking List. Should an event actually not deliver the minimum criteria required, the event will be removed from the list and the points will be taken away (teams will be advised when this occurs).
• In order to balance competitive opportunities, women’s teams are eligible to play in men’s events, though events can be no more than 25% in order to maintain status. If there are enough teams to run full women’s sections, we should consider a dedicated event instead.
• Registered teams may challenge the allocation of points to any team from a specific event no later than seven (7) full days after the completion of the event in question. For example, an event that ends on a Sunday, a challenge must be received by midnight EST the following Sunday. Challenges should be submitted by e-mail to Gerry Geurts (gerry@curlingzone.com) within that time frame. Challenges will be reviewed, and a decision will be made within fourteen (14) days of the end of the event in question.
• Team Changes - Due to the nature of testing out line-ups, teams have until October 31st of the current season to finalize their line-up to earn points for the season. Should a team make a line-up change that will affect the opening season points or points earned during the season, changes will be made retroactively to reflect the new line-up.
• At the start of the season (from the 2020/21 season) the following rules will be applied to line up changes
• A team that retains 3 of 4 players will carry at minimum 100% of its points to next season.

This way every team can change one player without penalty regardless if the new player has played in mixed doubles, 4 player team, come from Juniors, was an alternate only or has not played at all the previous season.  It keeps it simple and it solves the concerns of players taking a year off for injury or pregnancy or any other reason. Teams can always make one free change for the following season. Should the new player bring more points than the player they’re replacing, the difference will be included in the ranking.

• A team who retains less than 3 players would be considered a new team

Each player of a new team would contribute 25% each to the newly formed 4-player team.
If the newly formed team is a 5-person team, each player would contribute 20% to its new team.

• Teams who register a 5-player team for 2020-2021

Teams who played as a 4-player unit in 2019-2020 that becomes a 5-player team for 2020- 2021 will retain all their points.
Teams will need a minimum of 4 out of the 5 original players to be eligible for points at all events.
Each player will carry forward 20% of the team points should they move to another team the following season.
The team will need to retain 4 of the 5 players in order to carry 100% of its points to the following season

• Teams that lose a player for an extended period of time

If for any reason a team loses a player for an ‘’extended period of time’’; the team may submit a request, in writing, to the WCF, in order to replace that player. The WCF will decide if the request is valid and in fairness with the integrity of the game. The WCF decision will be deemed final.