First, a quick bit about myself:  This year I'll be attending my first Open Championships in Reno and I want to be prepared entering.  I'm a 225+ tournament bowler capable of repeating shots and adjusting.  I'm not worried as much about the pattern etc as I'm quite used to bowling on flat patterns and have a good and open mindset as far as what I need to do on the lanes.  I bowl a very difficult PBAX league over every summer and  I have a solid game capable of adjusting and playing in as well as direct.  I feel comfortable knowing I'll have a good arsenal of 4+ a spare (I throw straight at all non-sleeper spares) and can read ball motion well....though we're still waiting on the pattern to be released.

My question is more what to expect regarding the overall experience.....and how I should mentally prepare for the intro / march out and overall experience etc.....and how a capable bowler should approach such an event.

I do know my group IS going to invest in the showcase lanes session and bowl the Bowlers Journal.  I will also have some other talent on my pair.

Nerves have never really been an issue with me (nor has performing in front of a lot of people.....in reality I somewhat thrive when the pressure is on and welcome it).....but I want to get a general gauge of "what I'm getting into".

To all bowlers: What is YOUR personal mental prep?  What is an accurate breakdown of the order of events and "atmosphere"?  Is it simply the same thing I do in the PBAX league, just on a different scale?

I admit I did not take time to read through everything. Have your equipment double checked just to make sure they are legal. If they are close may want to take a little out to be safe. I know a pro shop guy that had a ball or two of his own right on the legal line based off his scale. According to the scales their each ball was over. As far as mental game that is hard to tell yeah what to do. Biggest thing is try to relax as much as possible. I went to 4 or 5 of them. Each time walking out hit me the same. It is such a rush walking down for team event. Enjoy it as well. The group that I went with we all would try to joke around with each other just to help us all relax. The ones that had been there a few times would talk to those that were there for the first time to tell them what to expect walking out. Good luck and have fun!

I agree with milo.
Was in attendance at the Stadium when a lady forgot to take off her shoe cover and ended up with serious injuries from it.

GTGT,
     I will echo some of the comments made earlier. Go over to the Stadium the day before you bowl, if possilbe. Check out bowl.com or Riggs blog to see if any "big" names will be bowling around you. You can go and check out how they are playing the lanes. I always like to do 2 things, check out the squad I am bowling the day before. I think it helps me get a feel for what the lanes will be like for me. As you know, temparature/humidity can effect how the oil transitions and this way I think I get a feel for how my squad will go the next day (with the A/C in the stadium, probably not a big deal, but it is just something I have always done). And I want to bowl one event prior to bowling the OC. Usually it was the BTM (even finished 2nd one year - little figjam, lol). I did this because I didn't have any sport shot leagues and it helped me focus on hitting a smaller area. Last year, I used the Bowler's Journal so I could get a feel for the D/S shot (and it was helpful as I took a few things I did on those lanes and used it in the OC).
 
With all that being said, I think one thing has become even bigger the last 2 years. You need your 5 man team to work together. Ideally you will want all 10 people on the pair to work together. Otherwise, you will wind up hurting one or more of your team members. I have found this out the hard way the last 2 years. We go in with a plan, but some of the guys like to move in and slow-hook the lanes. While I am more down and in with more revs and speed. When they decided to move in and abandon the plan, I wound up being one of the ones impacted. They pushed oil out into my line and I went from hitting the pocket, to leaving washouts and 2-8-10's. When I tried to move in, I hit the boards they had dried up and wound up going through the face leaving all kinds of splits. And if I moved in further, my ball speed made it difficult to make the turn so while I could hit the pocket, I left a number of weak and solid 10's. So this made the last 2 years my 2 worst years ever at the OC.

txbowler,
     I think this works for Linds Lakers, and I know Riggs' team have some sort of similar arrangement (at least for brackets), because there is a reasonable expectation that everyone will do well. Now, some are going to do better than others, but everyone should cash and the teams should finish near the top. I think you would run into problems if you had one or two players who may not reach the same level as everyone else (for the last 2 years that was me, lol). As you say, winning $4000 and only getting $400 is hard to deal with. But if the team wins $4000, the companion team wins $1000, the individuals win $4000 in singles and doubles brings in another $3000, then all of a sudden the pot goes to $12000 and your share is $1200. Still not the $4000 but much better than just $400. And then throw in brackets that would get split as well. It works when everyone contributes. But it will get very hard to keep this arrangement up if you are carrying one or two people every year. You will get rid of them and find someone else who will do better. This can create some hard feelings. Most of our group has been bowling together for 10+ years, so it's hard to try to change the dynamic into something like that.