is a series of Japanese women-only bowling tournaments, developed solely for television. Entry into these tournaments is limited to selected members of the Japan Professional Bowling Association (JPBA), and amateurs who have qualified via open auditions. The show airs throughout Japan on BS NTV.
The "P" in P★League has five meanings: "Pretty", "Power", "Passion", "Performance" and "Perfect".
History
During the 1970s, bowling was very popular among the Japanese. Japan had as many as 3,697 bowling establishments during the 1970s, with more than 120,000 bowling lanes installed.What happened to the biggest bowling centers in the world?
By the late 1990s, the number had shrunk to only 600. In 2008, there were 1,100 bowling establishments and 25.1 million people bowled in Japan: about one in five Japanese.
In the 1970s, the JPBA produced a series of televised bowling tournaments, such as Ladies Challenge Bowl (レディズ・チャレンジボウル 1969–1975) and The Star Bowling (ザ・スターボウリング 1978–1998), in the attempt to further push the sport's appeal, as well as showcase the women who competed in the JPBA. Big names such as Ritsuko Nakayama and Kayoko Suda competed in these tournaments. The formula worked - as the show's concept is used in many other Japanese bowling promotions on television, leading up to the present day.
Nakayama, along with the JPBA, created P-League in 2006 in an attempt to revive bowling's popularity on television once enjoyed in the 1970s.
Broadcast history The P-League's television show premiered on BS NTV on April 2, 2006, initially airing on Sunday nights at 7:30 p.m. JST. After Tournament 18 ended on March 29, 2009, the show was moved to the 5:30 p.m. timeslot beginning April 5, where it remained until the final episode of Tournament 36 aired on March 25, 2012. The show was then moved to Friday nights at 10:30 p.m., and it began airing in that time slot on April 6. On October 4, 2013, the show was moved one hour later to 11:30 p.m. After two years in that timeslot, the show was moved to 10:00 p.m. on October 4, 2015, where it remains to this day.
Participants The women who compete in P-League have either been chosen by the JPBA, or qualified through a try-out. The bowlers who compete in P-League are among the best women bowlers in the world. Most of the competitors hold an average of 190 or better, and several have bowled 300 games and 800 series.
Tournament details The television show consists of a series of tournament matches. An entire tournament is bowled and filmed in one day. However, when aired on television, the television coverage can span nine weeks because of the 30-minute time slot. Each tournament is bowled in a single-elimination bracket format.
Current format Tournaments 14 and later The current format consists of a field of eighteen bowlers, being six groups of three bowlers (A through F) filled by lottery. In Round 1, the highest scorer in each group advances to a semi-final ABC or DEF match. The highest scorer in each ABC/DEF match advances to the finals. To keep the three-bowler format in the finals, the bowler who had the highest score among the remaining four bowlers from the ABC/DEF matches also bowls in the finals as the "wild card". The winner of the final match is the champion, with the remaining bowlers getting second and third place based on score.
Starting with Tournament 20, bowlers with a lower score in the first round may be banned from the following tournament.
Starting with Tournament 35, only members of the JPBA are allowed to participate. Members of the Japan Bowling Congress (JBC) and its National Team were allowed to compete in Tournaments 2 through 34.
Starting with Tournament 43, P-League is now grouping three consecutive tournaments (43, 44, 45) as a season, with a season-ending, three-bowler final match to be held after the third tournament's final match.
Tie-breaking processes If bowlers tie in a match, a one-ball roll-off is used to decide the winner. The highest scorer of the roll-off wins the match. If the bowlers remain tied, the process repeats until there is a winner. (This process is also used when the lowest score in a first round match is a tie. The loser of the tie-breaker will be banned from the next tournament. See the "Banned" section.) If two bowlers are tied in the running for the Wild Card entry, the entry is given to the bowler who had the higher game score in the last non-tied frame. This is also called the "countback method". If bowlers are tied in the season-opening qualifying round, ties will broken by number of strikes, then by when the earliest strike occurred, then by a roll-off. Tournament bracket
Seasons Starting with T43, P-League has implemented a seasonal system in conjunction with its regular tournament system. The seasons are designed to be in-line with the Japanese television seasons, which traditionally are broken into four three-month periods (winter, spring, summer, and autumn.) The first season, called S1 from hereon will group T43, T44 and T45 together.
In the first tournament of each season, 24 current P-League members will participate in a six-ball roll-off. The top 18 bowlers will bowl in the first tournament. The low six bowlers will be cut from the tournament, and will be used later on as fillers for the second tournament after the six low scorers are banned. The banned bowlers will then return for the third tournament of the season to fill in for the banned bowlers from the second tournament.
In addition, a point system has been created, starting with S1. The points are broken down as such: In the A-F matches, the winner will receive 3 points, the second high score will receive 1 point, and the lowest score will receive zero points, as well as a ban from the following* tournament. In the ABC and DEF matches, the winner will receive 3 points, the second high score will receive 1 point, and the low score will receive zero points. In the final match, the tournament champion will receive 5 points, the second high score will receive 3 points, and the low score will receive 1 point. * In the third tournament of a season, a lowest score will not be banned for the next tournament due to the start of a new season.
The points during the three tournaments of a season are added up, and the top three scorers will bowl in a season-ending championship. The winner of the match will be crowned "Season Queen."
Prize Money All prize money is paid to the bowlers in Japanese yen (¥). Prize money is currently: 1st Place - ¥300,000. Second and third place are no longer paid due to the new seasonal setup. In the seasonal final: "Season Queen" - ¥1,000,000 (100万円), 2nd Place - ¥300,000 (30万円) and 3rd Place - ¥100,000 (10万円).
Perfect Prize Starting with Tournament 35, the prize money is ¥3.0 million (300万円), regardless of when the 300 game is rolled.
Previous formats Tournament 1 Twelve bowlers competed. Four of the bowlers had an automatic berth to Round 2. In Round 1, the eight remaining bowlers competed in four head-to-head matches, with the winner in each match moving up to the Round 2. The winners of the four head-to-head matches in Round 2 moved up to the semi-final round. The two winners of the semi-finals moved up to the final match, while the two losers moved into the consolation match. The winner of the final match placed first, while the loser placed second, and the winner of the consolation match placed third.
Tournament 2
The field was changed from twelve to sixteen, consisting of two groups (A and B) of eight bowlers. In Round 1, each group competed in four head-to-head matches, with the winners moving up to Round 2. The two groups of two Round 2 match winners moved up to the semi-final round. The two winners of the semi-finals moved up to the final match, while the two losers moved into the consolation match. The winner of the final match placed first, while the loser placed second, and the winner of the consolation match placed third.
Tournament 3
The field was reduced to fourteen bowlers, being two groups (A and B) of seven bowlers, with one bowler in each group given a bye into Round 2, while the remaining six bowlers in each group competed in three head-to-head matches, with those winners moving on to Round 2. The two groups of two Round 2 match winners moved up to the semi-final round. The two winners of the semi-finals moved up to the final match, while the two losers moved into the consolation match. The winner of the final match placed first, while the loser placed second, and the winner of the consolation match placed third.
Tournaments 4 through 12
The field was again increased to sixteen bowlers. Four groups (A through D) of four bowlers were created. In Round 1, the two highest scorers in each group advanced to Round 2. In Round 2, two groups (AB and CD) were created, and the two highest scorers in each group advanced to the semi-final round. The four remaining bowlers are split into two head-to-head matches, with the winners advancing to the final match, while the two losers moved to the consolation match. The winner of the final match placed first, while the loser placed second, and the winner of the consolation match placed third.
Tournament 13 In Tournament 13, the field was re-sized to fifteen bowlers. Five groups of three bowlers (A through E) were created. In Round 1, the highest scorer in each group advanced to the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, the five winners were split into two matches of three. For the sixth bowler, a wild card bowler was determined by the bowler who had the highest score among the losers in Round 1. The two highest scorers in each match moved up to the final match. The 1st through 4th places were determined by the order of the scores.
Venue and filming conditions
Currently, all the tournaments are filmed at the 68-lane Tamachi Hilane (田町ハイレーン) bowling center, located in Minato City, Tokyo, with the exception of T44, which was filmed at Tomikoshi Takashimadaira Bowl, located in Itabashi, Tokyo.
A temporary filming studio enclosure is constructed around three pairs of lanes (lanes 57 through 62 at Tamachi, and 27 through 32 at Tomikoshi), complete with additional lighting and a pink-themed decor. On the outer pairs of lanes, the first half of those lanes past the foul line is turned into seating areas for the live viewing audience, which can number over one hundred spectators. Lanes 59 and 60 at Tamachi (29 and 30 at Tomikoshi) are bowled on as the tournament "TV pair." As of T43, P-League features a new larger digital scoreboard above the far end of the pair. Many other parts of the establishment are turned into dressing rooms and interviewing areas.
While the matches are being filmed, most of the remaining competitors sit in the "settee area" to the left of the tournament pair, along with the viewing audience, watch the matches. In earlier tournaments, when a member of the Japan National Team bowled, her JNT teammates in the settee area would yell "saa iccho" (さーいっちょ) for encouragement just before the bowler made her delivery. The television commentators are situated in the settee area to the right of the tournament pair. Usually, the commentators cannot be heard by the people in the studio during the match. But, on occasion a commentator will yell with enthusiasm, stirring up laughter among the bowlers. Ryo Itsuno once yelled, "Nandedayō?" (何でだよう？ or "Why?") while working on Round 25, Match E when Yūko Nakatani left a soft 10-pin in a crucial must-strike situation. Other phrases popular with Itsuno include "YOSHA! SUTORAIKŪ!" (よっしゃぁ～!ストラッイクー!) or "JUST POCKET!" (ジャストポケット!) after a strike, and "GOOD JOB!" or "EXCELLENT!" after a great spare conversion.
The scores are tracked by the computer scoring system on the TV pair, and occasionally need to be corrected by the bowlers themselves.
Competitors in the upcoming matches practice outside of the studio, using the remaining available lanes.