The 2018/2019 season has begun. With embarrassment.
The start of the curling season is often catered for by the CSC Cup, formerly the Žilka Cup. Optik Žilka is a sadly lost sponsor, who regularly gave prizes of 50.000,- CZK to this competition until he received a rather clumsy letter from the management of the association, which forced him to end his long-standing cooperation. It was this year's anniversary edition of the CSC Cup, number 25, but the significant anniversary was probably matched only by a 25% increase in the entry fee. Inflation, I guess. The format of joint participation of men's and women's teams still persists, which is obviously unfair to the women's teams. It makes them sponsors for the good prize money of the male participants - no women's team has made the semi-finals in the last four years. The Federation has dealt jocularly with the observance of the guarantee of four matches for each entrant, and with 19 teams participating in a four-team group, has allowed the two non-advancing teams to play a "prize match for nothing" against each other again, with the competition's rules of play frankly informing of this favour. The so-called LSD drop is seemingly taken from the WCT tournaments (one trial drop and the other on the sharp). However, this is usually replaced in later rounds by the LSD discard at the end of the match played and the figure is carried over to the next match. The time limit of 105 minutes per match is utter nonsense, with a five minute break included in the limit. This clearly indicates to the teams up front that they are playing to seven ends (sometimes only six), for reasons completely unknown. Also, merely finishing a played end is unusual in our terms and allows for time calculations. Most of the above circumstances accompany open tournaments of amateur level played in Switzerland or Germany. In relation to the perfectly and precisely laid out penalties for clothing and the other six binding rules that must be respected, this contradiction in the concept of tournament guidelines looks comical. The game schedule was received by the participants five days late compared to the date stated in the binding guidelines, without apology. For amusement, just read the second paragraph of clause 1.1 of the CSC Cup 2018 Game Regulations "A match may end in a victory for either team or a draw. For a win, a team will be awarded two points, for a draw one point.". This means that everyone can rest easy. No one can lose, only a win or a draw is available.