Our scratch league is playing on a 42' flat heavy volume pattern.
All 8 of us started playing between 2nd and 3rd arrow out to the ten
Everyone shot decent scores for the first game as the lanes were opening up.

Early in the second game, half of us moved left the other half right.
My teammate called what we did to the lanes a "reverse block"
The inside became very snappy and unpredictable and the outside became very slick.

Basically, took a tough pattern and made it worse.

By the end of the second game, no one was getting solid pocket hits.
Lots of splits and corners were left in the third game.

For me, I went the grind it out route, and played straight and tried to just stay clean.

Curious as to how others attack this kind of situation. Please don't take this as a "ohhh boo hoo I didn't shoot 250, so the lanes suck" post. I'm honestly trying to build my lane knowledge.

We will be bowling on this same pattern for 11 weeks.
Last week (first week) we opened the shot and as long as you kept the break point inside the far tracer, there was a good bite and predictable path for a solid hit.

This topic from 2013 when I had the same question about a reverse block could help:
http://www.ballreviews.com/miscellaneous/playing-a-true-reverse-block-t293163.0.html;msg2383391#msg2383391

On a true reverse block, depending on the length, either play a board or 2 right of the friction (don't pull it!) Or get waaaaay left and play fall back. I just bowled a 5 game sweeper on Route 66, which is 45 feet, and I started out with my Dream On, balled down to a Night Hawk, and honestly should have balled down to a Boost, if I had thought to bring it. Keep the hook to the right of you, however you have to.

wow. no one realizes this topic comes up right when storm re-releases a video of the big bad cry baby "HOF" randy discussing the same topic on facebook?

if you bowl a league, a regular league, you will never be subjected to a "hard shot", centers have to keep scores up and alive.

even the "sport shot" leagues in my area, they play nothing like real world. patterns can and will be manipulated to preserve the almighty high scores justifying the ball companies putting out stronger equipment. c300 ---- the new swerve, the core is BS, learn physics and COE.... does not add up, no offense to league bowlers who know next to nothing who will buy this crap.

I would rather bowl on a sport shot with decent  volume, some head oil and clean backends than a blown up house shot. Ten league bowlers throwing oil soaking high performance balls all over the lane can make a house shot  pretty difficult fast.

OP, you really have to adjust based on where others are playing the lanes. If bowlers throwing sandpaper start inside of you, if you move right into the area that they have burned, you will not get much difference in your ball reaction. You have to make bigger moves, trying to stay on the remaining oil up front. This is hard to do until you get used to it, but it works.

I can score as high on some sport patterns, especially the long ones as I can on a house shot.  The problem with house shots is that when the heads go you still have a 10 to 10 puddle in the midlane area.  This forces us to move in and play a lot of out angle to find the friction.  Not a big problem for high rev guys, but us tweeners really lose carry.  The flat patterns can causes the same problem if guys move in with dull stuff right away, but more and more even the local scratch bowlers are learning better ways to attack long flat patterns.  You can really develop a nice track on long patterns if everyone attacks it the right way. 

One thing that has always been true no matter what the pattern, is that I don't want to be 4 or 5 boards right of very many guys.  Transition is always going to be in except on real short patterns, and that is always tough moving into the burned out heads of other guys.     

Bob,
   I think that advice depends on the format. If you are in a tournament format, or even a league format where you move lanes after every game, playing right of 4-5 people may be no issue at all. The movement of pairs will keep your shot fresher. It also depends, I think, on the type of equipment you need to throw to be right of those players. If you can do it throwing a lower end ball, or a ball with very little surface, you may not have to move much and the burn the others are creating won't come into play. If you have to throw a higher end ball, or one with a lot of surface, then you scenario comes into play. It's all relative and there are lots of factors that play into finding a good shot. As a more speed dominant bowler, you learn to adjust to playing right of everyone and understand your moves are either ball down quickly and stay where you are or make large moves left when the time comes.