Takkar strutted around town oblivious to the fact that he was dethroned from the top spot in the bowling competition by none other than his right hand woman, Karizma. He shoulda known that something was up when the kids in the neighborhood stopped asking for his autographs. They used to throng around him whenever he left his mansion and he had given them signed jerseys with the number 196 on the back, his bowling score.

That day, his route to the city took him past the bowling alley and when he saw the large announcement board with Karizma's name on top, he stopped dead in his tracks. "No ! There is no way," he groaned and sprinted into the building. Grabbing one of the employees by the shoulder, he shook him and asked. " That is a typo isn't it? I'm still the best bowler aren't I?" When the guy recounted the events of the past few days, Takkar was shocked to the core. 

Without wasting time, he marched up to Harison and confronted him, "Harison, I'm gonna try again. Right now! I'll have the money wired to you before the day ends." Takkar looked around for a spare bowl and he found a green one. "Perfect. I'll use this instead of the cursed blue balls Karizma gave me." Takkar was ready to set a new high score. An unbeatable one of 300.

While one million dollars was a pretty chunk of change, Azathoth had recently made a large sale of stretchy pants in one of his many attempts at money-making. With these riches he decided that it would only make sense to put it all into a high stakes bowling tournament.

I wouldn't mind giving this a try.

Wearing some of the stretchy pants in question he was able to move around perfectly on the bowling floor which was very important in the sport of sports. Doing a few stretches before the big show, he handed over the one million dollars to Harison and waited for the ball to be placed into his hands.

Harison watched the last competitor of the day roll his game and got up to address the crowd.

"Hello bowling fans!  What a fantastic batch of entries this was, well at least some of them were....most actually were pretty bad.  No matter!  We are all here for a friendly competition and for love of this great game are we not?"

Harison paused for some sort of reaction from the crowd. There was none so he continued...

"I am pleased to report we now have entries from every major city across the country, something I could have never dreamed of when this competition started.    Thank you to all who have spread the word and sent telegrams across the country so everyone was aware.  Let's get to today's results!"

Smash started things off with a rather luck-luster performance.   Perhaps he threw the game to make Tammy feel better about herself as he managed to only roll a dismal 86.

Scarfo had the bowling alley on edge as he made a run for the top spot.  He rolled six strikes but a 2 in the second frame cost him a spot on the leaderboard as he finished with a strong 191.

Ravina put up a great showing for New York as she rolled an amazing 9 strikes, including 5 in a row to end the game, finishing with a 188.

ThomasCrown tried to best Ravina atop the New York leaderboard, to no avail though.  He had seven strikes but a 5 in the eighth frame cost him, finishing with a very respectable 182.

Lance started off strong rolling strikes in five of the first six frames.   That second frame though, was a pitiful 2 which may have cost him a spot as the overall leader.    He finished with a 194.

JohhnyNoShoes had an inconsistent performance scattering four strikes throughout.    Perhaps shoes should be worn next time.  He finished with a 126.

Saanvi may have let her nerves get to her as she opened the game with a couple of gutterballs in the first.  She picked things up from there rolling five strikes but it was too big a hole to dig out of.  She finished with a 133.

Asher....I don't know what to say.   His forearm seemed extremely fatigued.  He left 7 open frames and became the first entrant to manage to roll a 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 in different frames.   Asher now has the tough-to-beat record of having the lowest score in the competition.... a 66.

Azathoth became the first Detroit entrant and did pretty good for his first entry.   He finished well with three strikes and 2 nines in the last 5 frames, getting him to a 127 for the round.

Tony_Alacchi rolled pretty good, including five strikes and two spares.   A couple of gutterballs in the tenth frame hurt him though and he ended up with a 136.

Takkar couldn't follow up his tremendous first entry with another unfortunately.  He left far too many open frames even though he opened his round with two strikes in the first two frames.   He finished with a 102.

Harison posted the scoreboards HERE and HERE for all to review and double-check then went over to update the leaderboard.

PHILLY and OVERALL LEADER:  Karizma (239)

VEGAS LEADER: Rain (189)

CHICAGO LEADER:  tebo (185)

LA LEADER:  Gordon_Ramsay (189)

NY LEADER:  Ravina (188)

DETROIT LEADER:  Azathoth (127)

Harison was pleased to see Ten-Pin / Old-Man Toaly made his way to the city for another round of bowling.   He looked very tired, maybe from the commute from his farm on his tractor?  Maybe because he is old?

Toaly managed 5 strikes in his round but those other frames were pretty lackluster.    5 open frames including a 1 and a 2 did not lead to a good score this time around.   He finished with a 99.

Harison posted the SCORECARD and left the bowling alley for now to get some much-needed lunch. 

Harison returned from lunch to see Asher pacing back and forth near the registration table.    Looks like he wanted to give it another go after his poor performance yesterday.

Asher started off his game great, looking to avenge the tournament-low score he posted yesterday.  He rolled 5 strikes and a spare in his first six frames.    Things went downhill from there though where he left the final four frames open including a 3 in the tenth frame, finishing with a solid 169.

Harison posted Asher 's SCORECARD on the wall and waited for the next competitor to come thru the door.    

The little fox had given her luck a few days to recharge after she had not been able to better her score from her earlier game.  But now she nosed her way back into the alley, curious as to whether she might be able to improve on what she had learned.  What business did a fox have here in the bowling alley? Well many were still asking themselves that question too but here she was ready to try her paw at this game again!  She gave a friendly yap to those of her city before she took her place in line.

Saanvi went back to the bowling centre to see what her scores were on the list. She saw Harison telling she was nervous when she played.

"What the hell, I was not nervous at all". 

She said out loud. People around her were wondering what she was talking about and politely laughed at her.

Saanvi tried to explain.

"I was not nervous when I played. They gave me a bowling ball which was not heavy enough. Halfway I asked for a heavier one and the clerc had the nerves to ask me if I knew for sure. I grabbed the bowl he was ready to give to Asher and finished my round. As you can see the last scores were way better."

The people still smiled at her but started to turn around and walked away.

"You dont believe me right? I can proof it. I will make another round today".

Smash was confident in his bowling abilities from all his practice as a young Gangster but has struggled to put the skills to use so far.

Refusing to admit his age maybe hindering him he laid down another briefcase and prepared for another game. 

After hearing Azathot try to flex how he was so good at bowling, Mona couldn't help but walk herself down to the bowling center with a fresh stack of cash.

"I'd like to show Azathot who the real pro bowler is, thanks." 

Rain was just bored and said the hell with it give it another shot.  It was fun. Picked up her  high performance balls and headed to the bowling alley. 

Scarfo had been nervously awaiting his scores, his leg tapping away as games kept on around him. If he had any nails left he'd be biting those too. His mind was in a trance, zoned out to the flow of noise and activity, just waiting, hoping.

After Harison posted his scorecard on the wall he quickly made his way over, nudging an old man and his walking apparatus as he flew by. His finger traced down the page, then seeing his tally he popped an emphatic looping overhand hook through the air in celebration. With a cough and a straightening of his tie, he made his way back over to his trusty bank.

"You know the drill."

With his helpers set to task once more, Scarfo removed his jacket and rolled back his sleeves.

After the latest competitor finished his game, Harison got up to update the crowd on the latest developments.   There had been several entries recently and Harison felt obligated to catch everyone up on the action as they surely can't all have the time to spend hours hanging around the bowling alley all day.

Merah managed four strikes in a rather inconsistent performance, finishing with a 118.

Saanvi shook off the nerves she seemed to battle last time and impressively only left three frames open.   The nervousness may have played a role in the pair of gutterballs in the sixth frame that may have cost her a much higher score.  She finished with a 152, a personal best.

Mona started off slow with a pair of gutterballs in the first frame but managed to get things going pretty quickly from there.   She racked up six strikes on her way to finishing with a 143.

Smash rolled an amazing eight strikes but a pair gutterballs in the seventh frame killed his chances of a spot on top of the leaderboard.  He finished with a personal best 191.

Asher managed five strikes including three to end his game but six open frames including a pair of gutterballs in the third frame caused him to finish with a 85, which amazingly was not a personal low.

Rain decided to enter again in a bold move as she was already on top of the Vegas leaderboard.  Perhaps she was going for a spot on top of the overall leaderboard?   If so, I like it.   Regardless, the entry paid off as she bested her previously high score to make her spot on top of the Vegas leaderboard even more secure.   She rolled seven strikes including 3 to open the game and finished with a superb score of 201.

Harison posted the SCORECARD for all to review and then made his way over to update the leaderboard.   

PHILLY and OVERALL LEADER:  Karizma (239)

VEGAS LEADER: Rain (201)

CHICAGO LEADER:  tebo (185)

LA LEADER:  Gordon_Ramsay (189)

NY LEADER:  Ravina (188)

DETROIT LEADER:  Mona (143)

As Papua eyed the bowling alley, something in his innards stirred. It is definitely not the 10 tacos he had for breakfast, surely not, those delicious things never gave him any trouble so far. But as he saw Mona graciously approach, prepared her angle and well ungraciously plunk the ball in the gutter he laughed. Oh boy this was fun and he approached harison to inquire about how to enter the competition.

1 Million you say??? damn sir, you know money doesn't get exorted that easily!!!

But what the heck, my lineage is know to happily throw money to good cause *cough* gamble like fuck *cough*, so count me in!!!

Let's see if i can manage to beat tebo, i think his score is pretty good, but better things are possible always right

Ready now to take this to the next level he quickly pushed over another million dollars to Harison and conjures all of his remaining powers to become THE bowling ball. He was so round, so powerful, and his three holes were easier to get into than ever before; with this newfound skill he would be able to perfectly and deftly maneuver the bowling hall and knock down every pin each time... or so he imagined.

I'm ready...

His voice a bit muffled, he spun his way towards the pins. Success, here we come.

SilverKnight felt the courage to go for a third round of bowling after a week of giving his arm a rest. He made a phone call and had his accountant wire $1m to Harison.

Saanvi was very happy with her new high score and of course also because she had beaten her friend Asher.
The bowling ball she had taken from him was still safely in her bag.

She saw on the competition schedule that Asher had signed up again and since Saanvi was not afraid of a challenge, she decided to join in again.

But she thought it might be smart to ask the Chicago leader for advice. tebo had managed 183 points and Saanvi best score was 152. Perhaps tebo had tips on how to improve her score.

She had seen tebo at her meetings in The Loop, but had never spoken to him. But that didn't matter. 

"Hello tebo, shall we do some training together for our next bowling championship match? Maybe one of us can get a higher score and put Chicago higher in the rankings?"

Tebo of course wanted this too and together they went into the bowling centre.

After the training, they said goodbye with a firm handshake and Saanvi went into her match full of confidence.

Seeing Azathot pull up to the bowling alley Mona realized she had no choice but to show him how bad he was at bowling.

"I'd like to go again, if you'd be so kind."

She smiled as she got the money ready.