A JG Perspective....

                So next week is the Junior Gold Championships. Usually I myself would be getting prepared for the upcoming week, buuuuuut I digress….. anyway, I wanted to give a little opinion on the format changes. Ill explain the differences in format kind of round by round then give my thoughts on whether I like it or dislike it. 

                First of all, 4 different divisions? I thought this was supposed to be a tournament for the elite in the nation. I just don’t see what the point of this is. Now you have 4 divisions to spread the money instead of two. I also heard they took away average requirements… so now this is just turning into an open tournament. Im sure soon enough they’ll take out qualifiers as well. It takes away from the “prestige” of making it to the big stage.

                Now, as for qualifying, it seems similar, except they took out one game from each block. Again, whats the point of taking it down from 6 to 5 games for each block? Its another game that bowlers don’t have to bowl and another game where bowlers DON’T have to face adversity.

                Now they cut to one in seven, which seems fine to me. It is about the same ratio as last year. But instead of 12 more games for 16, its five for 64. At first this seemed kind of weird, but it is less games for more people. Then another five games to determine top 16. I am a little indifferent about this part, but instead of have 12 games for everyone after the first cut, its only 5. Less time for people who are behind to make a run at the top.

                Then it will be double elimination match play until there is a winner. This is where im a little confused. Last year before you bowled 16 games of match play, you already bowled 30 games. In this format, you’ve bowled 25 to determine a top 16. That’s five less games that bowlers face adversity. I thought we were talking about Team USA here. As we all know, end of blocks can be make it or break it. 

                If we look at a 16 player double elimination match play bracket, at the bare minimum, a player need only bowl TWELVE more games, which makes only 37 GAMES bowled to win the LARGEST YOUTH TOURNAMENT OF THE YEAR. That’s 9 LESS games than the year before. I highly doubt anyone will be undefeated through the bracket, but if someone gets hot, its certainly a possibility. Also, with last year, you had to bowl EVERYONE in the top 16. This year, you only bowl about half that. So one could potentially get an “easier” side of the bracket than another player.

                Finally, the team spots. Unlike the past years, they’ll give out 2 automatic spots after 25 games (equivilant to the top 2 after semis last year.) and 2 more automatic to the winner and runner up of the bracket.  Then of course they will select two from the final 16. We could run into situation where someone will make Team USA and then be stomped in the first two rounds of the bracket.  I think that’s a bad idea to give automatic spots before even completing all the bowling. Two players will only have to bowl 25 games to make Junior Team USA

                Overall I am not happy with the changes. I don’t think elimination is the right format for something as important as Junior Team USA. And with all the money at stake, the wrong matchups could spell disaster for someone who bowls well all week then is matched up against two bowlers who get hot. Does elimination create more dramatics? Of course, but so does Team USA spots coming down to the last game of a 45 game week.

                I personally feel that North Pointe had to do with a lot of these changes. Especially the shortening of blocks. If I remember correctly, last year in Vegas, I remember noting that North Pointe was a very short format for tournament with that much money on the line.

                On a side note, if last years positions were put into this format, I would’ve been automatically selected for team… go figure.

                As always, thanks for reading. Exciting things are happening for the Torched Lane and we are honored to have fellow bowlers take part in our experiences. And I would like to extend a “good luck” and “bowl well” to my teammates Marshall Kent, Jacob Kent, Mason Petrin, Dominic Partipilo, Leea Haworth and my friends Tyler Cruz, Tanner Spacey, Payden Stumpf, Courtney Couch and many others that are not coming to me, at this years Junior Gold tournament. Perhaps with this format, youll need more luck among other things….