The Players' Championship, currently known as the AMJ Players' Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the final event of the

Grand Slam of Curling The Grand Slam of Curling (formerly branded as the Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling for sponsorship reasons) is a series of curling bonspiels that were formerly part of the annual World Curling Tour. Grand Slam events offer a purse of at least Ca ...

tour, and is formerly the championship of the

World Curling Tour The World Curling Tour (WCT) is a group of curling bonspiels featuring the best male, female, and Doubles curling, mixed doubles curlers in the world. History The World Curling Tour was founded by former World Champion Ed Lukowich, with later ass ...

season. From 2016 to 2019, it was the penultimate slam of the curling season, and the last of the four "majors". The event was one of the original Grand Slam events when they were instituted in the 2001–02 season for men and for the 2005–06 season for women.

History

The event began as the "VO Cup" before the Grand Slam era in 1993, as part of the very first World Curling Tour season. The event was known as the VO Cup for two seasons before title sponsor Seagram's Distillery pulled out. With no sponsor, the 1995 event was saved at the last minute, and continued the next season thanks to a TV deal with TSN. A women's event was introduced in 2006. From 2007 to 2009, it was a qualifying tournament for the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials, and had barred foreign teams from entering (unlike the other Slams). Scotland's Eve Muirhead became the first non-Canadian skip to win the event in 2013, while Sweden's

Niklas Edin Johan Niklas Edin (born 6 July 1985) is a Swedish curler. He holds several sport distinctions. He is the first and the only skip in World Curling Federation (WCF) history to win three Olympic medals – gold (2022), silver (2018), and bronze ( ...

became the first non Canadian skip to win the men's event in 2017. To date, Edmonton's Kevin Martin has won the most Players' Championships with 8. On the women's side,

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

Jennifer Jones Jennifer Jones (born Phylis Lee Isley; March 2, 1919 – December 17, 2009), also known as Jennifer Jones Simon, was an American actress and mental-health advocate. Over the course of her career that spanned more than five decades, she was nomin ...

(and her long-time second,

Jill Officer Jill Officer (born June 2, 1975) is a Canadian curler from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Officer played second for the teams skipped by Jennifer Jones from 2003 to 2018 and while they were juniors. The team won a gold medal while representing Canada at t ...

) have won the most championships with 6. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, both the 2020 Players' Championship and the

2020 Champions Cup The 2020 Champions Cup (curling), Humpty's Champions Cup was scheduled to be held from April 29 to May 3, at the Olds Sportsplex in Olds, Alberta, Olds, Alberta. On March 12, 2020, the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The teams ...

were cancelled.

Qualification

The top 12 teams on the men's and women's WCT year-to-date rankings respectively qualify for the event. Teams that decline their invitations are replaced by the next highest ranked team.

Format

Since 2023, and from 2014 to 2021, the event featured 12 teams split into two pools of six which compete in a round robin, with the top six teams advancing to a single game elimination playoff. In 2021, the number of teams earning playoff berths was reduced from eight. The 2022 event was a triple knockout.

Past champions

Men

Women

References

External links

* {{Grand Slam of Curling Players' Championship Men's Grand Slam (curling) events Women's Grand Slam (curling) events Annual sporting events in Canada