I just thought this up when replying to another thread about how long league bowling will last.  The popularity of "brackets" got me thinking, why not put bowlers head to head for their bracket pots rather than scattered throughout the center?  While you're at it, why not do away with teams, since everyone is just there for the brackets anyway, and make it a "singles" league.  Here is how I think it could work...

Let's base this off of 30 lanes, 4 bowlers per lane.  Lineage plus "grand prize" fund = $15 per night ($9 lineage, $6 to prize fund), plus nightly prize fund of $5 equals $20 per night. A system would have to be worked out where you do not bowl with the same people every night - sorry, I didn't get that far with this yet.  This was hard for me to put into a "bracket" in this format, but I did my best.  You can draw your own bracket on a piece of paper and get a better idea maybe of what I'm trying to say.

Anyway, here is the format for game 1;
Lane 1
1. Bob (Bob wins game 1)
2. Jon

3. Dan
4. Tom (Tom wins game 1)

Lane 2
Game 1
1. Rick
2. Mark (Mark wins game 1)

3. Dave (Dave wins game 1)
4. Todd

Format for game 2, based on results of game 1 would be;
Lane 1
Winners bracket
1. Bob (Bob wins game 2)
2. Tom

Losers bracket
3. Jon
4. Dan (Dan wins game 2)

Lane 2
Game 2
Winners bracket
1. Mark (Mark wins game 2)
2. Dave

Losers bracket
3. Rick (Rick wins game 2)
4. Todd

Format for Game 3, based on results of game 2;
Winners bracket
Lane 1 vs Lane 2
1. Bob vs. Mark (Mark wins it all)

1st loss from winners bracket
2. Tom vs. Dave (Dave wins)

1st loss from losers bracket
3. Dan vs. Rick (Dan wins)

All losers bracket
4. Jon vs. Todd (Jon wins)

Given this scenario, you would have the following total of wins;
Bob - 2     Rick - 1
Jon - 1     Mark - 3
Dan - 2     Dave - 2
Tom - 1     Todd - 0

Personally, I think the overall winner should get at least one extra point for winning it all.  These points would accumulate over however many weeks the league runs.  On the final week, you pair up the top 8 points leaders against themselves.  The winner of this battle takes the entire "grand prize" fund (plus that week's "nightly" prize fund) and is declared the winner of the league.

In my scenario, the grand prize would be about $8600 for a 12 week league.  If you only had 16 lanes, 4 bowlers each, the grand prize would be about $4600.  Who wouldn't show up for that kind of cash from a 12 week league?  Not to mention, at stake every week is $40 for winning on your pair.

This league could be scratch, or if handicapped I would suggest something like 90% of 250 since I would assume in this type of league most of your bowlers are going to be very competitive and above 190 in avg.

What do you think?  Like it, Love it, Hate it?

I like bowling with my friends and teammates each week. How can that be done?

There is a summer league (trios) in my house in which it was either $50 or $55 a week and that includes lineage, prize fund, brackets, eliminator and games pots. It had a good turn out last year and you still got to bowl with your friends.
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3 holes of fun!!

To be honest, I didn't design this league to be a social event, as there are already thousands of social leagues that exist today.  I was thinking a league like this would be a good place for pure competition, and maybe even a primer for bowlers who might like to try regionals and what not where the focus is not on the team, but on how well YOU do for yourself.

It appears, as jd mentioned, that I may have overestimated the number of bowlers who take part in bracket bowling.

If not a league, maybe this could be an interesting tournament format...

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9~

When did bowlers lose their balls?