It's not often a world champion comes to the Royal City and is overshadowed.

But that's the case from Oct. 7 to 11 at the Royal City Curling Club when the current world champion, Kevin Koe, is joined by the current Olympic champion, Kevin Martin.

Martin is also a former world champion, a four-time Canadian champion and a four-time winner of the Westcoast Classic.

Koe is also a former Westcoast Classic champion, having captured the title in 2007. He lost the final to Martin in 2002.

The two Edmonton rinks are the showcase teams at the 32-rink cashspiel but they will be up against a murderer's row of tough competition.

Last year's defending champion, Bob Ursel, is back to defend his crown while another notable team is 2006 Olympic gold medallist Brad Gushue of Newfoundland, who has teamed up with six-time Canadian champion and four-time world champion Randy Ferbey of Edmonton.

Perhaps the most intriguing team is Jason Gunnlaugson, the hard-throwing Winnipeg curler who announced in April a deal to curl for Russia. Gunnlaugson, along with third Justin Richter and lead Tyler Forrest, will take two Russians as teammates and try to qualify as the Russian representative at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Another former champion, Jeff Stoughton, who won in 2003, will also be in the Royal City.

The local contingent will be ably represented by a trio of former world champions.

Greg McAulay, who won the 2000 world title while based at Royal City, will play as well, with two of his teammates from that squad, Bryan Miki and Brent Pierce, skipping their own teams.

Tyler Klitch is the third for the Miki team and he's looking forward to the weekend.

"Playing with Bryan is great because he offers a lot of insight and he comes up with a lot of different shots," said Klitch. "It's a huge weekend for us because we're trying to reach our goals, such as representing B.C. at the Brier."

Klitch said playing the big boys like Martin and Koe isn't intimidating, but there's no margin for error.

"With the top-10 teams, you can't even miss one shot because they'll take advantage and make you pay," said Klitch, 33, who's been curling for 24 years. "We step up our game to play teams like that."

Other Royal City skips participating are 2009 provincial champion and 2010 runner-up Sean Geall, Andrew Bilesky, Bryan Kedziora, Ken McArdle and Steven Kopf.

Kopf and lead Mark Bradshaw are SFU students, looking forward to playing close to home.

"This is our favourite cashspiel of the year," said Kopf. "We start by playing the defending champion (Ursel) and our goal is to get to the final eight (on Monday)."

Bradshaw said it is a chance to measure how the team has grown and how the curlers compare to champions like Koe and Martin.

"There aren't many sports where after your game, you can ask guys like Martin for advice and they're willing to help you," said Bradshaw.

"The organizers always do a great job, and it's definitely one of my favourite events of the year," said Klitch. "The way the organizers put this on, everything's first-class."

For the second year in a row, the prize purse will be $80,000 with the winner getting $20,000 and the runner-up $12,500.

The cashspiel kicks off with a skins game between Koe and Ursel on Thursday, Oct. 7, at 7 p.m.

There are five draws Friday and Saturday and four on Sunday.

The quarter-finals go Thanksgiving Monday at 8 a.m., with the semifinals at noon and the final at 3 p.m.

Tickets are $15 for a day pass and $30 for a weekend pass. See www.west

coastcurlingclassic.com.