FÜSSEN – It's the last chance to for teams to perform as the playoffs are poised to begin at the Le Gruyère European Curling Championships.

The women's final Wednesday began with Scotland's Kelly Wood desperate for two victories to have any chance of qualifying for the four-team "Page" playoff system. She got the first win by pounding Austria 12-2, and faces Switzerland's Mirjam Ott tonight.

The Swiss are 7-1, tied with Denmark's Lene Nielsen and Sweden's Anette Norberg. Nielsen plays Finland (1-7) tonight while Norberg meets Germany's Andrea Schöpp, who at 3-5 is on the outside looking in.

Russia's Ludmila Privivkova has a slim chance at a tiebreaker; she takes her 4-4 record up against Italy's 3-5 mark tonight.

In the sole men's draw of the day, the results left three teams clear into the playoffs and many others with a chance of a tiebreaker berth for the fourth spot.

Norway's Thomas Ulsrud defeated Scotland's David Murdoch 7-6 when Murdoch's draw to a near-open house came up short. it was a sudden and devastating setback for the Scots, who dropped to 4-4 and a third-place tie with Sweden (6-5 winners over the Czech Republic) and Germany (7-3 victors over France).

Switzerland, who defeated Finland 7-1, and Denmark, 6-5 winners over Italy, are both at 6-2 and are assured  of the playoffs. Norway has locked up the first playoff berth with a spotless 8-0 record.

With Thursday morning's final men's draw still to play, the playoff scene could be very simple... or very crowded, with no less than five teams in possible, albeit unlikely, contention.

"It's always fun to talk about mass tiebreakers," said Keith Wendorf, Director of Competitions for the World Curling Federation.

"Of course, when you do talk about it, it never seems to actually happen."

Competition continues through to the Championship Finals on December 8, with live television and webstreamed coverage on Eurosport, NRK (Norway), Eurosport.com and CurlTV.com.