States SHIELD EXPANDS TO 12

After starting with just two state teams in 2016, the Croquet Network States Shield will officially have 12 teams for the 2019 edition. Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina have joined the event and will form the Southeast Quad district. Their Quad Qualifier will be first out of the gate in 2019 and will be hosted by South Carolina and the Tega Cay Croquet Club in Tega Cay, South Carolina, June 7-9, 2019.

That moves the States Shield to three Quad qualifiers with four teams each. Each quad will have will have one winner advance to the States Shield Championship to be held August 16-18. One second place team from the Quads will be awarded a wildcard spot in the Championship to round out the four-team championship.

Each Quad is relatively straight forward. It is essentially a single-elimination bracket with the four teams matched up in two tests in the first round. The two winners advance to play for the Quad title and a bid to the Championship.

The other two Quads include the Midwest with Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin; and the Central with Colorado, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Wisconsin is the defending Shield Champion after taking a 6-4 win over Oklahoma in the 2018 Championship.

​2019 STATES SHIELD SCHEDULE
06/07-06/09: Southeast Quad, Tega Cay, South Carolina
06/21-06/23: Central Quad, Tulsa, Oklahoma
07/05-07/07: Midwest Quad, Joliet, Illinois
08/16-08/18: States Shield Championship, TBA

The Croquet Network States Shield is a sanctioned USCA event and all singles games count in the WCF world rankings. However, the event is not a USCA managed event.