from the qualifiers to the challenge round. This year, the teams that qualified from the regional qualifiers were those skipped by Heath McCormick, Wes Johnson, 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, Mike Farbelow, 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. 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 in Laurel, Maryland. It was