It’s fair to say that Team Dobson didn’t exactly get an easy first draw at the 2023 PointsBet Canada Invitational.

The team, which is comprised of Humber Hawks Jake Dobson, Austin Snyder, Noah Garner, Matthew Abrams, and Kevin Genjaga, had stiff opposition when they opened the tournament against the second-ranked team in the world, Team Bottcher.

Facing extremely tough competition, Team Dobson was defeated 7-1 by Team Bottcher in the sudden-death, single-knockout competition.

“Playing at the PointsBet Invitational was an amazing development opportunity for our team,” said Dobson, the skip. “Team Bottcher is a great team – they don’t make many mistakes. That forced us to be on top of our game. While the scoreboard didn’t end up in our favour, it doesn’t totally reflect the battle that went on. We had a few key shots where we were on the wrong side of the millimetre, but we kept the pressure on Bottcher the entire game, forcing them to make some great shots. We had lots of great takeaways and can’t wait to get started with the new OCAA/CCAA season.”

The Hawks team had qualified for the Oakville tournament, which had a prize purse of $350,000, after winning the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association’s national championship in March.

Team Carruthers would go on to win the tournament after defeating Team Dunstone 9-8.