2021 Tim Hortons Brier
The 2021 Tim Hortons Brier, Canada's national men's curling championship, was held from March 5 to 14 at the Markin MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alberta.
In the final, Team Alberta, skipped by Brendan Bottcher defeated Team Wild Card 2, skipped by Kevin Koe in an all-Alberta final, and a re-match of the 2019 Brier final. It was Bottcher's first Brier championship after losing the previous three finals. The first six ends of the final were evenly matched with Koe leading 1–0 heading into the seventh end. In the seventh, Koe's first rock picked, and he missed a double on his second shot, allowing Bottcher a draw for three, to go up 3–1. The two teams exchanged singles in the 8th and 9th ends, and in the 10th end, with just 30 seconds left on their time clock, Koe conceded with one rock left, as his team had no possibilities to score two points to tie the game. As champions, Bottcher and his team went on to represent Canada at the 2021 World Men's Curling Championship, where they finished in sixth place.
The event was originally scheduled to be held in Kelowna, British Columbia. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, it was announced that most Curling Canada championships still being held in the 2020–21 [curling season] would be moved to a centralized "bubble" at Canada Olympic Park. All events will be held behind closed doors with no spectators admitted. In addition, due to COVID-19 restrictions and logistics, many provincial playdowns have been cancelled, with teams being selected by their respective member association instead.
When Ontario played Newfoundland and Labrador in Draw 11, it marked the first time that two openly LGBTQ skips played against each other at the Brier.
Teams
Source:CTRS ranking
As of the 2019–20 season, where at least three out of four players remained on the same team for the 2020–21 season.| Member Association | Rank | Points | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | 483.766 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | 445.311 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | 395.747 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | 347.977 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Wild card selectionIn previous years, a wild card game was played between the top two teams on the Canadian Team Ranking System standings who did not win their provincial championship; the winner of this game was usually granted the final spot in the tournament. However, with many provinces cancelling their provincial championships due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, thus not allowing many teams to compete for a chance to play at the Brier, Curling Canada opted to include three wild card teams instead of the usual one. These teams directly qualified and did not participate in a play-in game.For selection, teams must have 3 of 4 returning players from the previous season.
Round-robin standings''Final round-robin standings''Round-robin resultsAll draw times are listed in Mountain Standard Time.Draw 1''Friday, March 5, 6:30 pm''Draw 2''Saturday, March 6, 8:30 am''Draw 3''Saturday, March 6, 1:30 pm''Draw 4''Saturday, March 6, 6:30 pm''Draw 5''Sunday, March 7, 8:30 am''Draw 6''Sunday, March 7, 1:30 pm''Draw 7''Sunday, March 7, 6:30 pm''Draw 8''Monday, March 8, 1:30 pm''Draw 9''Monday, March 8, 6:30 pm''Draw 10''Tuesday, March 9, 8:30 am''Draw 11''Tuesday, March 9, 1:30 pm''Draw 12''Tuesday, March 9, 6:30 pm''Draw 13''Wednesday, March 10, 8:30 am''Draw 14''Wednesday, March 10, 1:30 pm''Draw 15''Wednesday, March 10, 6:30 pm''Draw 16''Thursday, March 11, 8:30 am''Draw 17''Thursday, March 11, 1:30 pm''Draw 18''Thursday, March 11, 6:30 pm''Championship pool standingsThe top four teams from each pool advance to the championship pool. All wins and losses earned in the round robin were carried forward into the championship pool.''Final Championship Pool Standings'' Championship pool resultsDraw 19''Friday, March 12, 12:30 pm''Draw 20''Friday, March 12, 6:30 pm''Draw 21''Saturday, March 13, 12:30 pm''Draw 22''Saturday, March 13, 6:30 pm''PlayoffsTo offset for the extra pool stage games played due to the additional Wild Card teams admitted to the tournament, the playoffs reverted to the former system consisting of only a semi-final and final, with only top three teams qualifying. The "page playoff" 1-2 game and the "quarter-final" 3-4 game were not played.Semifinal''Sunday, March 14, 12:30 pm''Final''Sunday, March 14, 6:30 pm''StatisticsTop 5 player percentages''After Championship Pool; minimum 6 games''Perfect gamesRound robin and championship pool only; minimum 10 shots thrown
AwardsThe awards and all-star teams were as follows:;All-Star Teams First Team
Provincial and territorial playdownsDue to the COVID-19 pandemic, many provincial playdowns were cancelled, with member associations electing to send their 2020 champions to the Brier.
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