The final two Grand Slam of Curling events of any season are interesting, particularly in an Olympic season. The first of these is the Players’ Championship.

The event features teams from the men’s worlds, who flew directly to Toronto from Las Vegas. There are teams from the women’s worlds from a few weeks ago. There are teams from domestic championships that haven’t competed in weeks or months. There are Olympic teams that haven’t played since late February.

And most of the Canadian teams—both men and women—are making roster changes or entirely splitting up after the season, which for some will be in a matter of days. Some of those athletes are taking next season off, or retiring altogether. Others are pivoting from four-player curling to focus exclusively on the mixed doubles discipline.

It’s kind of crazy.

One team destined to stick together is Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa.

After adding Olympic silver in Beijing—following a fine semifinal performance—to the bronze they scored in 2018, the foursome have seen their already impressive public notoriety in their home country skyrocket to new heights.

For the first time, Fujisawa’s games at the Players’ are being televised in Japan—by TV Asahi—with color commentary provided by 2018 Olympian Tsuyoshi “Yama” Yamaguchi.

As we’ve previously written, the Japanese people love their televised curling.

The first televised match took place today at 12 noon ET—1:00 a.m. Saturday in Japan—and saw Fujisawa defeat Laura Walker’s Edmonton crew 8-5.

There’s even a remote TV crew trailing the team around the Mattamy Athletic Centre (formerly hockey’s famed Maple Leaf Gardens) in Toronto.

Fujisawa next plays a B-final Saturday at 12 Noon ET against Thunder Bay’s Krista McCarville—playing a rare Slam event—with the winner advancing to the quarterfinals.

Rachel Homan’s Ottawa foursome—recent winners of the Ontario provincial women’s championship—are also in a B-final, and await the loser of world champion Silvana Tirinzoni (SUI) and Olympic champion Eve Muirhead (SCO/GBR).

The third women’s B-final will feature Germany’s Daniela Jentsch facing the loser of an all-Manitoba battle between world bronze medalist Kerri Einarson and Tracy Fleury.

Only two women’s teams had been eliminated as of this story’s publication date and time: USA’s Tabitha Peterson and Korea’s Un Chi Gim. Plenty of others were in trouble in the C-side, including Walker, Saskatchewan’s Chelsea Carey, Sweden’s Isabella Wraana, Manitoba’s Mackenzie Zacharias and Jennifer Jones (who are teaming up next year) and Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg. The latter two were scheduled to face off early Friday morning.

On the men’s side, Thursday night A-side qualifying sees Sweden’s Niklas Edin battle Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher and the Olympic finalist bruce Mouat foursome (Scotland/GBR) take on Edmonton’s Kevin Koe.

Men’s B-side play sees Newfoundland & Labrador’s Brad Gushue and Scotland’s Ross Whyte awaiting opponents, while an all-Winnipeg battle will see Mike McEwen and Jason Gunnlaugson lock horns once again. The B-side draw gets underway Friday at 4:00 p.m. local time.

In the C-side, the following squads are still alive: Brad Jacobs (Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.), John Epping (Toronto), Marco Hoesli (Switzerland), Matt Dunstone (Regina), Joel Retornaz (Italy) and Glenn Howard of Ontario. Saskatchewan’s Colton Flasch and Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller have been eliminated.