Mattamy Athletic Centre, Toronto
Watch the semifinals and final live on the BBC and website and app on Sunday, 12 April.
Every four years, curling faces the challenge of converting the heightened interest generated by the Winter Olympics into a sustained, regular audience. The newest approach to address this is Rock League, the inaugural professional curling league.
The first edition of this competition begins in Toronto on Monday, featuring six mixed-gender international franchises competing in a distinctive format. Emphasizing entertainment, the semifinals and finals will be broadcast live on the BBC and the website and app next Sunday.
How will it work?
There are six franchises participating: two from Canada, two from Europe, one from Asia, and one from the United States. Each team consists of five men and five women on their roster.
The teams will compete across three disciplines simultaneously: men's four, women's four, and mixed doubles. The franchise that wins at least two of these contests will claim the overall victory.
This format will continue for the first five days, with each franchise facing the others. Following this, there will be a mixed fours day where each team fields two squads.
The top four franchises after these rounds will advance to the semifinals on 12 April, with the winners progressing to the championship match later that day.
"It's another exciting opportunity to show off our sport," Team GB skip Bruce Mouat told Scotland. "It's a new look, with shorter matches and time clocks so there will be a lot more quick-thinking and it will be faster."
Which Scots are involved?
Seven Scottish players will participate, including five who competed at the Winter Olympics in Cortina and two others who took part in the recent World Championship. Additionally, 2022 Olympic gold medallist Eve Muirhead will serve as a general manager.
Mouat leads Northern Shield as skip and is joined by his Olympic mixed doubles partner Jen Dodds and Robin Brydone.
Muirhead teams up with Hammy McMillan in the European franchise Alpine Curling Club.
"I think we've five Olympic medals between us from this recent Games, which is pretty incredible,"Muirhead, who was Team GB's chef de mission, stated.
Grant Hardie is part of the American franchise Frontier Curling Club, while Ross Whyte joins the Canadian team Maple United.
Notably, Bobby Lammie is a member of the Asian franchise Typhoon Curling Club, where he will play alongside his girlfriend Seol Ye-eun.
"That could be an interesting dynamic,"Lammie told Scotland.
"I'm looking forward to it, but hopefully we don't fall out."
He added,
"The main challenge for us, in the Asian franchise, is going to be the language barrier because there's Chinese players, Japanese, Korean, as well as New Zealand, and Sweden. But that's part of the fun."
What else makes it different?
Beyond the unique team compositions and pairings, other elements distinguish this league.
As Mouat mentioned, matches will be shorter with fewer ends and will utilize shot clocks to accelerate play. Spectators will be positioned closer to the ice than ever before.
"The appeal is to get curling out there,"Whyte told Scotland.
"People will hopefully tune in for something different and see this isn't just another event.
The fans will get up and close and personal and it gives them the opportunity to see what it looks like from where we are and I'm sure there'll be a bit of interaction between the fans and the players as they go."
While the Toronto event serves as an introductory showcase, it has already been announced that Rock League will return for a five-week season next year.
The upcoming season will be held across the United States and Canada over four consecutive weeks starting 7 January, culminating in the Championship event in early April.
