Thirtyclean,
It is always tough if you have to cross with a team that isn't your own. That's why most of the teams trying to do well come with a group of 10, so they have all 10 guys committed to the plan.
As far as doing what you need to do to score well. I do disagree with that somewhat, in team anyway. In team event, everyone should be doing what they need to so for the team to score well. If it means one person has to play a line that isn't their A game, or even their B game and sacrifice a few pins of individual score in order for the team as a whole to do better, then they should be willing to do that. In that event, you make money off of the team score, not individual scores. So if one guy shoots 750, but his line causes the rest of his teammates to shoot 550 you still wind up minus 50. Where as if he plays a line that favors his teammates more, he may only shout 680, but if his teammates now shoot 600 each, you go from minus 0 to plus 80. That means a lot of money in his and his teammates pockets at the end of the tournament. And I doubt that person would lose much in the way of bracket money as well, as 680 is still a great score to put up.
And you may not have thought you were moving oil around, but you were. When a ball rolls down the lane, it effects the oil. Most of the time, it is the oil being sucked off the lane and into today's new coverstocks. But with Ice, it doesn't absorb as quick as the old oil did, so the lanes don't breakdown as quick. But the oil still has to go somewhere when the ball rolls down the lane. You can try this at home. Take a small mirror and put some water on it. The mirror would be today's synthetic lanes, and the water the oil. If you have one roll a marble through the water and watch what happens. Some of the water moves down with the marble, but it will also spread out to the sides more. That is what the oil is doing on the lane. It is much more dramitic with the mirror/water experiment than what happens on a lane. But everytime a shot is thrown down a lane, the oil is effected, it moves, it disappears. And at the USBC Open, especially the last 2 years, if people move inside too quick, ahead of others on their team, oil is pushed out into the other's lines that can have negative consequences for those trying to play straighter. Add the fact that you have a classified team crossing with you and oil will be pushed everywhere on the lanes.
