I was planning to do a frame-by-frame, but I'll skip that. I'm sure you guys are all torn up about that decision.
This was my first time. I basically had three good games, a couple of OK games and the rest were dumpster fires. In other words, just what I expected. For those who read my "bowled on the USBC shot" post of a couple of weeks ago, our practice shot was amazingly similar to what we saw in the team event.
I knew things were getting off on the wrong foot when I opened my bags in the scale room and one of the eight balls I brought (Lane #1 Agent Orange) had a circumferential crack all the way around. It apparently happened on the ride down, because I'd checked everything Friday night and it was fine. This led to a somewhat amusing exchange between me and Scale Guy:
Scale Guy: "Sir, you can't use that."
Me: "Yeah, no kidding."
Scale Guy: "You want to take that back to your car and come back?"
Me: "Do you have a garbage can?"
Scale Guy: "Yeah."
Me: "Then I have a better plan than walking back to the car."
Scale Guy: "Yeah, let me take care of that for ya."
My best look in team was using a Time Bomb at 1000. I probably could have used it for the entire set, to be honest. I had to start with a Pink Panther at 500 but got to the Time Bomb around the 5th frame of the first game and should have stayed with it. Instead, I started trying to shell down in the second game in order to push through the heads but that made things too jumpy downlane. I should have just taken even more hand out of the ball.
Playing out from the start is definitely the way to go, unless you don't have much speed. Taking hand out of the ball is also a necessity no matter what line you decide to play. I didn't really try to turn the ball until the last game of minors (more on that in a second).
We had seven teams there, one classified and six regular division. I think we averaged about 520 per set per person. The best series we had came from our classified team (a lefty shooting 620-something). He was the only one on his side that night.
In minors, it was bad. Our first pair hadn't been broken down properly, and that's where I had my worst set by far. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing all minors on fresh oil next year. We moved pairs for singles and got a much nicer shot. I had my single-worst game of the week in the middle of singles, but framed it with two decent games.
Following up on what other have said, you must, must, MUST shoot straight at as many spares as you can. I only left five splits in nine games and picked up two of them. I left five 10-pins and made four of them. That's in line with what I'd usually do in league. Where I had trouble was (a) stringing strikes and (b) missing easy spares, particularly the left side stuff.
The best look I had all week? Plastic in the third game of singles. Things had broken down so badly in the track area that my choices were to either go straight up outside it, around the 5 board (which I could do, but it was too touchy), or move everything in and throw plastic. I asked the other guys on my pair if they cared, and they didn't, so I went with it. This was the only time of the week I had to actually hit the ball. Next year, I won't be able to do it with fresh oil in for minors. But I didn't have a single open that game, so it worked for me.
I wish I could have done better, and supported my teammates/doubles partner more, but we were all kind of around the same numbers for the week. I was impressed by the folks working the tournament. Every USBC worker I encountered was friendly and helpful. Most of the booth workers were as well (not all, but most). The arena setup and location also made everything easy.
I'll try to answer in more specifics if anyone has questions.
Jess
