With the 2018 Winter Olympics just 13 months away, curling fans will get an advance look at many of the teams that will be chasing gold in South Korea when the 2017 World Financial Group Continental Cup gets underway Thursday at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

You can watch the event live on TSN and TSN GO.

Curling’s version of the Ryder Cup -  featuring traditional games, a skins competition as well as mixed doubles - has six teams from North America playing six rivals from the rest of the world over four days of competition, with Team North America looking to extend its win streak to five straight years.

Team North America, featuring Coach Rick Lang of Thunder Bay, Ont., and Captain Debbie McCormick of Rio, Wisc., features two hold-overs from the 2016 squad that prevailed by just a single point in Las Vegas — the closest finish in the event’s 12-year history.

Team Kevin Koe from Calgary — the reigning Tim Hortons Brier and world men’s champions — and Team Jennifer Jones from Winnipeg will be looking to lead a relatively inexperienced home team; Jones will be playing in her eighth WFG Continental Cup, and seeking her seventh victory.

Rounding out Team North America will be Team Chelsea Carey of Calgary, Team Reid Carruthers of Winnipeg and the two U.S. entries, skipped by Heath McCormick and Jamie Sinclair respectively.

The mixed doubles competition in Las Vegas will see many of the world’s best players go head to head in advance of the discipline making its debut as a full medal sport at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.

A total of 60 points will be available from the three disciplines being contested in Las Vegas, meaning the side that earns more than 30 points will be declared the champion.

For the first six mixed doubles matches, one point will be awarded for each victory, one-half point if tied; those figures will double for the final three mixed doubles matches. There will be 18 team games (nine men’s and nine women’s) played, each worth one point for a win and a half-point for a tie. All games are eight ends and there are no extra ends.  There will also be six skins games, with each game worth a total of five points to the winner.

The winning side receives $52,000 Cdn, while the losing side gets $26,000. The side that generates the highest points total from the six Skins games will receive an additional $13,000.