Qualification for the 2012

United States Men's Curling Championship The United States Men's Curling Championship is the annual men's national curling championship for the United States. It is run by the United States Curling Association (USCA) and typically held in conjunction with the Women's Championship. The ch ...

took place in two rounds in January at various locations throughout the nation. The number of entrants to the national championships was cut down to eleven teams through a playdown system of regional qualifiers and a challenge round.

Qualification system

As with last year, teams qualified for the men's nationals either by qualifying automatically as one of the top two teams on the World Curling Tour Order of Merit, by qualifying through a regional qualifier, or by qualifying through the challenge round. The two teams that qualified automatically to the championships were chosen based on the Order of Merit upon the conclusion of the

Curl Mesabi Cash Spiel The Curl Mesabi Classic (previously known as the Curl Mesabi Cash Spiel (2007, 2010-2011), Iron Trail Motors Shoot-Out @ Curl Mesabi (2012) and the Super One Shoot-out @ Curl Mesabi (2008)) is an annual bonspiel A bonspiel is a curling tourname ...

. This year, the teams were those skipped by Tyler George and Craig Brown. The other eight spots in the nationals were awarded as follows: five were awarded to the top finishers in the regional qualifiers, and three were awarded to the top finishers in the challenge round. The qualification rounds were all held with the double knockout provision in place. The double knockout provision states that a team is eliminated from qualifying for the nationals if the team has at least two losses in their win-loss record. If there are teams with less than two losses, they will play each other until the number of teams still able to qualify matches the number of qualification spots available.

Regional qualifiers

The qualifiers were held from January 4 to 8 in

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea lev ...

, Seattle, Washington,

Grand Forks, North Dakota Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the state of North Dakota (after Fargo and Bismarck) and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2020 census, the city's population was 59,166. Grand Forks, along with its twin city o ...

, and Laurel, Maryland, given that at least five teams sign up at each qualifier. If there were less than five teams signed up at any site, the qualifier at that site would have been cancelled, and teams could either be moved to an alternate site or cancel their registration. Qualifiers with more than ten teams would have been held in a knockout format, and qualifiers with less than ten teams would have been held in a round robin format. Each qualifier site was awarded one or more qualification spots to the nationals based on the strength of field at each qualifier site. The strength of field of each team was calculated using Order of Merit points, past participation in national championships and world championships, and final ranks at past national championships. In total, five teams qualified from the four regional qualifiers, and eight teams moved from the qualifiers to the challenge round. This year, the teams that qualified from the regional qualifiers were those skipped by

Heath McCormick Heath McCormick (born August 7, 1976) is a Canadian-American curler from Sarnia, Ontario. Career McCormick began curling in 1992 as a junior in Ontario. He competed in the Ontario Junior Curling Championships five times, and won in 1996 playin ...

Wes Johnson Wes Johnson (born June 6, 1961) is an American actor, cartoonist, comedian and voice artist, who has appeared in such films as ''A Dirty Shame'', ''Head of State'', '' The Invasion'', ''For Richer or Poorer'' and '' Hearts in Atlantis''. He h ...

, John Shuster, Owen Sampson, and Blake Morton.

Challenge round

The top eight finishers from the regional qualifiers that did not qualify for the nationals were invited to play in the challenge round, which were held from January 19 to 22 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Two other teams that were not qualified to either the nationals or the challenge round were then invited based on their Order of Merit points. If a team qualifying to the challenge round through a regional qualifier declined its invitation, the spot would have been filled based on the Order of Merit. A maximum of ten teams could play at the challenge round. The number of teams invited from each qualifier were determined using the strength of field system. The challenge round was played in a round robin format. At the conclusion of the round robin, the top three teams were chosen to qualify to the nationals. This year, those teams were those skipped by

Eric Fenson Eric Fenson (born May 6, 1971 in Bemidji, Minnesota) is an American curler. He lives in Bemidji and curls out of the Bemidji Curling Club. He is a former national champion, and skips his own team. Career Fenson began curling at the age of ten. ...

Mike Farbelow Mike Farbelow (born March 30, 1963, in Saint Paul, Minnesota) is an American curler. He lives in Minneapolis. Career Farbelow began curling in 1977. Farbelow made appearances at the United States Men's Curling Championship in 1985, 1998, 2009, ...

, and Todd Birr.

Regional qualifiers

All four qualifiers were held at their respective locations from January 4 to 8. A total of 39 teams registered to participate in the regional qualifiers. Of these teams, three teams qualified directly to the nationals without participation in the qualifying rounds. The rink skipped by Pete Fenson did not have to participate in the qualifiers due to their participation on behalf of the United States at the

2012 USA-Brazil Challenge The 2012 USA-Brazil Challenge was to be a curling challenge taking place from January 27 to 29 at the Bemidji Curling Club in Bemidji, Minnesota. The challenge round would have determined which nation would qualify to the last Americas Zone spot a ...

. Two teams, skipped by Tyler George and Craig Brown, qualified directly to the nationals by virtue of their Order of Merit rankings. If Fenson was one of the top two ranked Order of Merit teams, there would only have been one other team qualifying directly to the nationals via Order of Merit, but Fenson was not one of the top two ranked Order of Merit teams, so the top two ranked teams qualified directly to the nationals.

Participating teams

The following is a list of all teams registered to participate in the regional qualifiers. The teams skipped by Pete Fenson, Craig Brown, and Tyler George qualified automatically, and as such did not need to participate in the qualifying rounds.

Laurel qualifier

The Laurel qualifier was held at the

Potomac Curling Club The Potomac Curling Club is a curling club started in 1961Thin ...

in Laurel, Maryland. It was held in a round robin format. At the conclusion of the round robin, the top team qualified directly to the Nationals, and the second-ranked team qualified to the challenge round. The team skipped by

qualified directly to the Nationals, and the team skipped by

Derek Surka Derek is a masculine given name. It is the English language short form of ''Diederik'', the Low Franconian form of the name Theodoric. Theodoric is an old Germanic name with an original meaning of "people- ruler". Common variants of the name a ...

qualified to the challenge round.

Standings

''Final round-robin standings'' ''Standings after tiebreakers''

Round-robin results

=Draw 1

= ''Thursday, January 5, 2:00 pm''

=Draw 2

= ''Thursday, January 5, 7:00 pm''

=Draw 3

= ''Friday, January 6, 9:00 am''

=Draw 4

= ''Friday, January 6, 2:00 pm''

=Draw 5

= ''Friday, January 6, 7:00 pm''

=Draw 6

= ''Saturday, January 7, 9:00 am''

=Draw 7

= ''Saturday, January 7, 2:00 pm''

=Draw 8

= ''Saturday, January 7, 7:00 pm''

=Draw 9

= ''Saturday, January 7, 9:00 am''

Tiebreakers

=Round 1

= ''Sunday, January 8, 2:00 pm''

=Round 2

= ''Sunday, January 8, 7:00 pm''

Seattle qualifier

The Seattle qualifier was held at the Granite Curling Club in Seattle, Washington. It was held in a round robin format. At the conclusion of the round robin, the top team qualified directly to the Nationals, and the second-ranked team qualified to the challenge round. The team skipped by

qualified directly to the Nationals, while the team skipped by

Sean Beighton Sean Beighton (born November 22, 1988) is an American curler from Seattle, Washington. Career During his years of junior eligibility, Beighton was active as a skip. He won the national junior championship in 2010, which gave him the opportunity ...

qualified to the challenge round.

Standings

''Final round-robin standings'' ''Standings after tiebreakers''

Round-robin results

=Draw 1

= ''Thursday, January 5, 7:00 pm''

=Draw 2

= ''Friday, January 6, 1:00 pm''

=Draw 3

= ''Friday, January 6, 7:00 pm''

=Draw 4

= ''Saturday, January 7, 9:00 am''

=Draw 5

= ''Saturday, January 7, 2:00 pm''

Tiebreaker

The "tiebreaker" was played in accordance with the double knockout provision. Wes Johnson and Sean Beighton were the top two teams in the pool, and even though Johnson was undefeated, a deciding game needed to be held between Johnson and Beighton. Beighton had one loss (from losing to Johnson), and Johnson had none. If Beighton had won the tiebreaker, he and Johnson would have had one loss apiece, and would have needed to decide which team would advance to the nationals by playing another tiebreaker, which would have given one team two losses, therefore eliminating that team from the top spot. Johnson won this tiebreaker, so Beighton, with two losses, took second place. ''Saturday, January 7, 7:00 pm''

Grand Forks qualifier

The Grand Forks qualifier was held at the Grand Forks Curling Club in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It will be held in a triple knockout format. Two teams qualified directly to the Nationals, and four teams qualified to the challenge round. The team skipped by John Shuster qualified directly to the Nationals by winning the A Event, and the team skipped by Owen Sampson qualified directly to the Nationals by winning the B Event. Teams skipped by

Peter Stolt Peter Stolt (born August 15, 1978) is an American curler from Plymouth, Minnesota. Stolt competes with his wife Maureen Stolt in mixed doubles competition. Together they have won the United States Mixed Doubles Curling Championship once (in 2 ...

Ryan Berg Ryan may refer to: People and fictional characters *Ryan (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) *Ryan (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) Places Australia * Division of Ryan, an electo ...

, and Todd Birr qualified to the challenge round.

Knockout brackets

=A event

= The qualifier in the A event will be qualified to participate in the Nationals.

=B event

= The qualifier in the B event will be qualified to participate in the Nationals.

=C event

= All qualifiers in the C event will qualify to participate in the challenge round.

Knockout results

=Draw 1

= ''Thursday, January 5, 7:00 pm''

=Draw 2

= ''Friday, January 6, 9:00 am''

=Draw 3

= ''Friday, January 6, 2:00 pm''

=Draw 4

= ''Friday, January 6, 7:00 pm''

=Draw 5

= ''Saturday, January 7, 9:00 am''

=Draw 6

= ''Saturday, January 7, 2:00 pm''

=Draw 7

= ''Saturday, January 7, 7:00 pm''

=Draw 8

= ''Sunday, January 8, 9:00 am''

=Draw 9

= ''Sunday, January 8, 2:00 pm''

Green Bay qualifier

The Green Bay qualifier was held at the Green Bay Curling Club in Green Bay, Wisconsin. It was held in a round robin format. At the conclusion of the round robin, one team qualified directly to the Nationals, and two teams qualified to the challenge round. The team skipped by Blake Morton qualified directly to the Nationals, while the teams skipped by John Benton and

qualified to the challenge round.

Standings

''Final round-robin standings'' ''Standings after tiebreakers''

Round-robin results

=Draw 1

= ''Thursday, January 5, 2:00 pm''

=Draw 2

= ''Thursday, January 5, 7:00 pm''

=Draw 3

= ''Friday, January 6, 2:00 pm''

=Draw 4

= ''Friday, January 6, 8:00 pm''

=Draw 5

= ''Saturday, January 7, 11:00 am''

Tiebreakers

=Round 1

= ''Saturday, January 7, 4:00 pm''

=Round 2

= ''Saturday, January 7, 9:00 pm''

Challenge round

The challenge round was held from January 19 to 22 at the Eau Claire Curling Club in

Eau Claire Eau Claire (French for "clear water", ''pl.'' ''eaux claires'') is the name of a number of locations and features in North America. The name is pronounced as if it were spelled "O'Clare". Place names (Canada) Communities *Eau Claire, Calgary, a n ...

, Wisconsin. A maximum of ten teams could compete in the challenge round, and three teams advanced to the nationals. A maximum of eight teams from the qualifiers could compete in the challenge round, while a minimum of two teams were chosen based on their Order of Merit. The teams skipped by

, and Todd Birr advanced to the nationals.

Teams

The teams are listed as follows:

;Notes # Beighton declined his berth to the challenge round.

Round-robin standings

''Final round-robin standings''

Round-robin results

Draw 1

''Thursday, January 19, 2:00 pm''

Draw 2

''Thursday, January 19, 7:00 pm''

Draw 3

''Friday, January 20, 9:00 am''

Draw 4

''Friday, January 20, 2:00 pm''

Draw 5

''Friday, January 20, 7:00 pm''

Draw 6

''Saturday, January 21, 9:00 am''

Draw 7

''Saturday, January 21, 2:00 pm''

Draw 8

''Saturday, January 21, 7:00 pm''

Draw 9

''Sunday, January 22, 9:00 am''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2012 United States Men's Curling Championship - Qualification 2012 in curling United States National Curling Championships Qualification for curling competitions