About AXS |
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Back in the Fall of 2013, the Tournament Players Series made it's debut at Old Mountain Lanes. The format began as a three game series for qualifying with match play to follow based on top 8. In the debut event, current Tournament Director won in thrilling fashion, defeating TPS Founder Rich Goetz in a triple tenth frame. That event started what has become a major tournament series in the Rhode Island area. The first year saw 16 events, with some double point majors and a season ending championship. Entries grew slightly over the year, but the series struggled to gain momentum, finishing the season with about 200 entries.
In year two, Bryan Rhodes took over as Tournament Director and continued what had been started in the first season. Adding new patterns to the schedule, TPS struggled once again out of the gate. In January of 2015, AXS was born out of the need for a tournament with a better format and more structure. AXS, or Amateur Experience Series would take what TPS was, modify the rules, add sanctioning and SMART, and pay better prizes to the winners. The season ended with 419 entries, just doubling up the season before.
By year three, AXS had grown in Wakefield, but the owner was looking to expand and offer more tournament bowling to the bowlers in his other center. So in the 2015-16 season, AXS had a split season, with northern and southern divisions. Event wise, this was the biggest season, but not everything is measured by how many events you have. Bowlers were supporting the events, but not in large numbers. Something had to change in year four, and the director knew how to grab the attention of the bowlers. Season three saw another increase in participation with 697 entries.
The 2016-17 season would prove to be a huge success. A new sponsor, 900 Global, along with Strike F/X Pro Shop, Custom Pro-Fit and Narragansett Beer were all brought in to help increase entries. Match play was tweaked slightly to provide a better experience, brackets were added and live streaming for all event finals all helped to push AXS forward. Robert Toth kicked the season off by adding money to the prize funds or the first two events of the year, and that propelled the series to new heights. In the regular season events, our lowest entries for the year was 49 as we averaged 71 entries per event, and had 1065 for the season.
The 2017-18 season built upon the success of the previous season by adding some tweaks to some events once again, as well as the addition of the new Over/Under 40 Doubles format, as well as the introduction of Ladies only events. The addition of the Brands of Ebonite propelled the season entries to 1694 for the entire year. If there was a downside to the season it was that the series started to move away from the original intention, which was to get lower average bowlers to come out and bowl. This season started a trend that would extend for 18 months, where no bowler with handicap won an event.
Season Six saw that trend of scratch bowlers continue, and the series started to see a slight decline in entries as we finished the year with 1251 entries. The addition of a Non-Champs and Champs Event was welcomed and came at a perfect time. AXS experimented with the format in these two events, and saw a positive change there. After looking at numbers from the past, a decision was made to once again tweak the format, and this time, it would prove to be extremely successful.
In year seven, we started the format that continues to this day. Starting in those last two events of 2017-18, all regular season events would only use Challenge patterns . Scratch events would go on to use only Sport patterns. Only one event per year would use a Recreational pattern, and that would be the Mixed Doubles event. By doing this, a rerate of bowlers averages for regular season events would help to streamline everyone to a more fair starting point. Did it work? Yes. In 22 of 23 events, we saw a scratch bowler taking on a handicap bowler, with it pretty much splitting right down the middle as to who won. In addition, most of those matches came down to the last frame to determine the winner. So after 18 months of scratch bowlers dominating, a level playing field was in place. This format will continue into the future, as it makes AXS the most competitive Handicapped bowling events in the Northeast.
If you haven't bowled an event yet, what are you waiting for? Come on out and bowl! Enter. Bowl. Win.
In year two, Bryan Rhodes took over as Tournament Director and continued what had been started in the first season. Adding new patterns to the schedule, TPS struggled once again out of the gate. In January of 2015, AXS was born out of the need for a tournament with a better format and more structure. AXS, or Amateur Experience Series would take what TPS was, modify the rules, add sanctioning and SMART, and pay better prizes to the winners. The season ended with 419 entries, just doubling up the season before.
By year three, AXS had grown in Wakefield, but the owner was looking to expand and offer more tournament bowling to the bowlers in his other center. So in the 2015-16 season, AXS had a split season, with northern and southern divisions. Event wise, this was the biggest season, but not everything is measured by how many events you have. Bowlers were supporting the events, but not in large numbers. Something had to change in year four, and the director knew how to grab the attention of the bowlers. Season three saw another increase in participation with 697 entries.
The 2016-17 season would prove to be a huge success. A new sponsor, 900 Global, along with Strike F/X Pro Shop, Custom Pro-Fit and Narragansett Beer were all brought in to help increase entries. Match play was tweaked slightly to provide a better experience, brackets were added and live streaming for all event finals all helped to push AXS forward. Robert Toth kicked the season off by adding money to the prize funds or the first two events of the year, and that propelled the series to new heights. In the regular season events, our lowest entries for the year was 49 as we averaged 71 entries per event, and had 1065 for the season.
The 2017-18 season built upon the success of the previous season by adding some tweaks to some events once again, as well as the addition of the new Over/Under 40 Doubles format, as well as the introduction of Ladies only events. The addition of the Brands of Ebonite propelled the season entries to 1694 for the entire year. If there was a downside to the season it was that the series started to move away from the original intention, which was to get lower average bowlers to come out and bowl. This season started a trend that would extend for 18 months, where no bowler with handicap won an event.
Season Six saw that trend of scratch bowlers continue, and the series started to see a slight decline in entries as we finished the year with 1251 entries. The addition of a Non-Champs and Champs Event was welcomed and came at a perfect time. AXS experimented with the format in these two events, and saw a positive change there. After looking at numbers from the past, a decision was made to once again tweak the format, and this time, it would prove to be extremely successful.
In year seven, we started the format that continues to this day. Starting in those last two events of 2017-18, all regular season events would only use Challenge patterns . Scratch events would go on to use only Sport patterns. Only one event per year would use a Recreational pattern, and that would be the Mixed Doubles event. By doing this, a rerate of bowlers averages for regular season events would help to streamline everyone to a more fair starting point. Did it work? Yes. In 22 of 23 events, we saw a scratch bowler taking on a handicap bowler, with it pretty much splitting right down the middle as to who won. In addition, most of those matches came down to the last frame to determine the winner. So after 18 months of scratch bowlers dominating, a level playing field was in place. This format will continue into the future, as it makes AXS the most competitive Handicapped bowling events in the Northeast.
If you haven't bowled an event yet, what are you waiting for? Come on out and bowl! Enter. Bowl. Win.
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CURRENT SEASONMERCHANDISE |
HISTORY |
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AXS Tournament Series, 2022