H&R Block Tournament of Champions

H&R Block Tournament Of Champions

The PBA Tournament of Champions is one of the four major PBA (Professional Bowlers Association) bowling events. The inaugural event, held by the PBA in 1962, featured all 25 PBA Tour title-holders to date, and was won by PBA Hall of Famer Joe Joseph. In 1965, the tournament featured all champions since the 1962 event, before officially becoming an annual event in 1966 (at that time featuring the most recent 48 tour champions). From 1965 to 1993, Firestone Tire sponsored the Tournament of Champions. From 1965 until 1994, the tournament was contested at Riviera Lanes (now AMF Riviera Lanes) in Fairlawn, Ohio near the long-time Firestone World Headquarters in Akron, Ohio. In a notable opening match at the 1967 Tournament of Champions finals, Jack Biondolillo rolled the first-ever nationally televised 300 game. Oddly, Biondolillo would only tally a 188 score in his next match (a victory), before being eliminated in his third match with a 172 score.

Since 1994, the Tournament of Champions (or "TOC") has had a variety of sponsors, including General Tire, Brunswick, Dexter and most recently H&R Block. From 2002 to 2007, the Tournament of Champions was contested in an arena setting at Mohegan Sun Arena, in Uncasville, Connecticut. The event was moved to Las Vegas, NV for the 2007-08 season, and has been contested there ever since.

The TOC is the only PBA major that is an "invitational" event. Prior to 2007-08, a bowler qualified for the Tournament of Champions by being one of the 32 most recent title winners on the regular PBA Tour. The list was expanded in 2008 to include some past winners of the TOC itself, even if they were no longer in the Top 32 most recent PBA winners. The 2009-10 TOC saw its first-ever female competitor, as a spot in the 2010 tournament was given to Kelly Kulick, winner of the inaugural PBA Women's World Championship in 2009. Kulick made sports history on January 24, 2010 as she defeated Mika Koivuniemi and Chris Barnes to become the first woman to win a title against men on the PBA Tour.

The TOC is the only PBA major that all-time titles leader Walter Ray Williams Jr. has never won.

The 2010-11 Tournament of Champions took place January 16–22, 2011, and featured a $1 million purse and $250,000 first prize, making it the richest PBA tournament ever. The tournament had an all-new format that included a "Champions Field" and an "Elite Field." The Champions Field (maximum of 180 bowlers) included any past PBA champions with four or fewer titles, plus titleists on the PBA Regional Tour, PBA Women's Series tour, PBA Senior Tour and PBA Senior Regional Tour who were PBA members at the time of the titles. The Top 90 finishers after 14 qualifying games advanced to bowl against the Elite Field. The Elite Field included all 2010-11 exempt PBA players, any PBA Hall of Famer, any player listed in 2008 as one of the "50 Greatest PBA Players of the Last 50 Years," any PBA player with five or more PBA Tour titles or at least one PBA major title, plus the winners of the 2010 USBC Senior Masters, 2010 PBA Senior U.S. Open, 2010 Regional Players Invitational and 2010 Regional Players Championship. All entrants had to be full-fledged PBA members as of October 1, 2010.

Those who earned entry into the Elite Field bowled 20 games of qualifying to determine the Top 53, who along with the defending champion all cashed a minimum of $2,500. After 16 more games in the Cashers' Round, the Top 24 (based on 36 total games) made the round-robin match play. The Top 4 match play qualifiers then made the live televised finals. Payouts for the TV finals were $250,000 for first, $100,000 for second, $50,000 for third and $40,000 for fourth. (See also: PBA Bowling Tour: 2010-11 season.) This format was retained for the 2011-12 season, but was dropped for 2012-13.

For the 2012-13 season, the ToC returned to a more exclusive format. The starting field for the March 2013 event will consist of the 48 most recent PBA Tour champions who hold a Touring 1 or Touring 2 status (meaning all bowled in at least 60 percent of the Tour's events last season). Extra spots for the most recent non-statused champions are added if the total of Touring 1/2 players entered does not reach 48. If a Touring 1/2 player not currently on the list wins a title in one of the 2012-13 events leading up to the ToC, the player "on the bubble" (#48 spot) gets removed from the list and the new titlist is added into the #1 position. Also, any previous winner of the ToC, regardless of Touring status, can enter the event, meaning the starting field will likely have more than 48 participants.