Evil, Thy game is Curling

I didn't pay much attention to most of the Olympics this year. But being a true northern Minnesota girl, I *had* to watch at least one game played by the Bemidji Curling team.

So I flip on the tele and watch a match against Canada. So far, so good, eh? Well just watching Curling was not amusement enough. I decided I would make a little game for me called: See if you can figure out how Curling is scored. Sounds simple, right?

Yeeeeeeeeah. So I watch a couple rounds or matches or dohickases (whatever they call them!). I figure out there are like 10 rounds in each game. Each round is pretty much the same...people throw rocks, someone yells which makes some other guys sweep the ice in front of the rocks, and sometimes rocks get hit. There is a target at the other end of the ice with an outer ring and an inner ring. After 2 rounds I'm feeling pretty bright and thinking I've managed to figure out the scoring. Go me!
My theory: you get one point for each rock in the outer ring and two points for each rock in the inner ring. Who ever has the most points wins the rounds and gets a point on the scoreboard.

This theory holds up for 4 rounds. In round 5, everyone has rocks inside the rings, but NOONE gets a point! WTF!!! I surmise that if everyone has an equal number of rocks in the rings/point total, the round is a wash and no points are awarded. Whew. I'm once again feeling pretty smart about the whole "I figured out a whole game's scoring system" deal.

Round 6. More rocks in the rings, but now Canada got two points. TWO POINTS??? You cannot get TWO POINTS according to my scoring system damn it! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Round 7, no points awarded. Round 8, 1 point to Canada. Round 9, 1 point to the US. Round 10, 1 point for Canada.

In the end I was no closer to figuring out the damn scoring system, but I was closer to finishing a bottle of wine. I have since discovered that curling was invented in Scotland. Does Scotland even have ice?? And who invents a GAME that involves sweeping!

Blah. I'm done with curling.