Curling season is here — will Canada finally end its major-title drought?

This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports' daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what's happening in sports by subscribing here.

Though the pros have been competing in smaller bonspiels for a couple of months now, the 2023-24 curling season really gets going this week with the first stop on the Grand Slam circuit — the Tour Challenge in Niagara Falls, Ont.

The Grand Slam of Curling is a series of tournaments for the world's best men's and women's teams, with more than $2 million in total prize money up for grabs this season across five events. The tour culminates with the Players' Championship in Toronto in April, reserved for the top 12 men's and women's rinks. The Champions Cup, which previously closed the Grand Slam slate, was dropped from the schedule for this season.

The Tour Challenge is the largest Slam, with 64 teams (32 women's, 32 men's) competing for a combined $400,000 in prize money. There are two separate 16-team tournaments for each gender: Tier 1 is for the best teams and Tier 2 for less-established squads.

The top skips in the Tier 1 women's event include Canadians Kerri Einarson, who won her record-tying fourth consecutive Scotties Tournament of Hearts title last season; Jennifer Jones, owner of a record-tying six Scotties crowns along with a pair of world titles and an Olympic gold; and Rachel Homan, a three-time Scotties winner and a former world champ. The international stars include Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni, who captured her fourth straight world championship last season; and Sweden's Anna Hasselborg, a 2018 Olympic women's gold medallist.

WATCH | Reid Carruthers joins CBC Sports' That Curling Show:

The Tier 1 men's skips include Canadians Brad Gushue, who captured