The first-ever Rock League title belongs to Shield Curling Club.
The Canadian-based team beat Typhoon Curling Club 2-1 on Sunday at Toronto’s Mattamy Athletic Centre to secure the first title in the start-up professional curling league’s history.
And it all came down to the final shot.
While Shield captain Brad Jacobs made relatively quick work of Typhoon’s Niklas Edin in an 8-6 decision, the mixed doubles and women’s contests remained tight.
SHIELD CURLING CLUB ARE YOUR FIRST-EVER ROCK LEAGUE CHAMPIONS! <a href=”https://t.co/PbXehEnS5S”>pic.twitter.com/PbXehEnS5S</a>
In the latter, Anna Hasselborg had a simple shot with hammer to secure the 7-5 victory. But just seconds before, the former ended in a 7-7 tie, leading to a championship-deciding draw-to-the-button tiebreaker.
Jacobs, still with a meaningless rock to the throw, looked up at the videoboard. All eyes were on the mixed doubles, the lone sheet on the east side of the mid-ice bar.
Typhoon’s Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi went first, catching the top of the four-foot but opening the door for Shield’s Benoit Schwarz-van Berkel. The Swiss curler walked right through, delivering the Rock League-winning shot.
Championship Sunday marked the seventh and final day of the adventurous first Rock League season, which kept curlers’ heads on a swivel throughout and included plenty of breaks from tradition, from new rules to new formats a sheetside bar full of fans in banana costumes, executives and curlers alike.
Athletes seemed to embrace it all throughout the week, with competitiveness ramped up despite a long, intense Olympic season that preceded Rock League.
Not everything was a smashing success — attendance was low throughout the week, including some 500 fans for the final — but it was clear organizers were willing to tinker. Through four days, there were three versions of an in-arena video scoreboard, which gradually improved until becoming set on Thursday.
Come Sunday, everyone was locked in for the playoffs — and they delivered with three matches that all came down to the wire.
In the end, though, only one team could emerge victorious. And it was Shield which set to celebrate into the night.
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