The WSL has confirmed and explained all the details of the already discussed new CT format that will begin to be used in 2019 from its first stage on the Gold Coast of Australia in April.

Instead of having a long losers' round, with 12 heats, there will be a short one, with four heats of three surfers. Two will advance and the worst will lose, meaning that after round 2 there will be four surfers out. Then those who advance will be re-seeded by ranking and all the heats will be head-to-head and life or death until the champion is decided.

For the ladies it will be similar but with half the number of competitors: Round 2 will be two series of three women, two will lose, four will advance and from round three onwards there will only be head-to-head elimination series.

The new feature introduced today was that the series can be overlapped, as is done in the Pipe Masters, meaning that there are always two series in the water happening at the same time, one with higher priority than the other.

The following two drawings demonstrate the new format: