The GSOC Invitational, previously known as the Tour Challenge until 2026, is a bonspiel, or curling tournament, which is one of the Grand Slam of Curling events. It was first introduced into the Grand Slam lineup starting in the 2015–16 curling season.[1]
Until 2026, the event featured a men's and women's draw, and was split into two tiers of 16 teams each, Tier 1 and Tier 2.[2] The top 16 teams on the World Curling Federation team ranking qualify for the Tier 1 event, while the next top 16 teams qualify for the Tier 2 event. The winning team at the Tier 2 event qualifies for another Grand Slam, the Canadian Open.[2] For the 2025 edition of the Tour Challenge, the Tier 2 event was replaced with a GSOC Jr. U25 Tour Challenge Event, to showcase the future of the sport and support the transition of teams from juniors to men's/women's play.[3] From 2022 to 2023, the format consisted of four pools, where each team played all four of their games against the four teams of another pool. The top 8 teams overall made the playoffs. In 2023, tiebreakers were dropped.[2] In 2024, the event became a triple knockout event[4] for the first time. In 2025, the Tier 1 event, as well as the U25 event, returned to the pool format, with each team playing the three other teams in their pool. The Tier 1 event also includes a cross over game.
Starting in 2026, the qualification process was different with the Tier 1 and 2 events being disbanded, and there only being one men's and women's event with 16 teams each. 12 open invites being sent out, with the four remaining spots chosen through the newly created GSOC Satellite Event series. The winners of four select tour events received the final invitations to the Invitational. In the event that the winning team was already qualified, the next highest finishing team at the event was invited until the spot was filled.[5]
Bruce Mouat
Rachel Homan
Takumi Maeda, Hiroki Maeda, Uryu Kamikawa, Gakuto Tokoro
Serena Gray-Withers, Catherine Clifford, Lindsey Burgess, Zoe Cinnamon
