Sweden will be the home of the world’s best bowlers until Sunday as they compete for a PBA title at the 2018 Storm Lucky Larsen Masters at Baltiska Bowlinghallen in Malmo, Sweden.

Among those entered in the star-studded event, which will have Sunday's finals broadcast live on FloBowling, are the top six bowlers on the current PBA Tour points list – Andrew Anderson, Jason Belmonte, Anthony Simonsen, Marshall Kent, EJ Tackett and Bill O’Neill.

Belmonte is the event’s defending champion in an event that played pretty tough when it debuted in 2017. This year, the lane pattern has been opened up a little bit and scoring should be higher.

Here’s what to look for at the Storm Lucky Larsen Masters, which is named after famed Swedish bowler Martin Larsen:

Belmonte back on the lanes to defend his title

We haven’t seen Belmonte on the lanes at the past two events that award a PBA title, but he will be back for the Lucky Larsen Masters as the reigning champion.

Belmonte, who skipped the PBA Xtra Frame Gene Carter’s Pro Shop Classic and the PBA Xtra Frame Kenn-Feld Group Classic, defeated Cameron Weier, 245-180, in the championship match last year to win the title.

The two-handed Australian tends to be a fan favorite just about everywhere he goes, but he’s especially well liked in Sweden. Belmonte lived in Sweden for a time and has competed extensively on the European Bowling Tour in the past.

Not your typical tournament format

The Lucky Larsen Masters, which is part of the World Bowling Tour and European Bowling Tour, will award a PBA title, but the event is based on a European tournament format that may be unfamiliar to fans in the United States.

Qualifying at the tournament actually began back on Aug. 25 with the last day of qualifying coming on Sept. 8. The qualifying consists of 33 squads of six-game qualifying blocks. Players can re-enter if they want to try to post a higher score.

After the 33 squads have concluded, a cut is made to the top 46 bowlers with the highest qualifying six-game totals. There are other ways bowlers can qualify for the finals as well, including through bowling early, certain divisions based on age or having a big game.

There are also byes available. The top eight players in qualifying get two byes and players in positions nine through 33 get one bye. Eventually, on Sept. 9, the field will be narrowed down to the top four for the stepladder finals.

In all, a total of 60 players will advance through qualifying and if you want to dig deeper into the format, click here.

The pattern is a little easier than last year

The lane pattern last year was extremely difficult and proved to be low scoring. This year, the pattern is similar but has been opened up just a little bit to increase the scoring pace. The pattern is 39 feet with 26.405 mL of oil, and the graph can be found here.

At last year’s event, it took a qualifying total of just 1,280 for six games (a 213.33 average) to make the cut into the finals, which is low by European format standards.

“This year, we basically took the pattern, made it a foot longer and opened it up a pinch,” Larsen said. “If things go like I’m hoping, it’s going to be a little bit higher scoring this year than last year but it’s not a wall.”

In the early stages of qualifying squads, there have already been a handful of 1,400 qualifying sets. Last year, there were none.

What the schedule looks like

The Storm Lucky Larsen Masters began Aug. 25 with early bird qualifying squads aimed mainly at local and regional bowlers. However, things really heat up in the final three days of qualifying as most of the big stars battle to make the cut.

Here’s a look at the upcoming schedule starting Thursday until the event concludes on Sunday (all times converted from Central European Time to Eastern Daylight Time):

Thursday, Sept. 6

3 a.m. – Squad 22 qualifying (six games)

7 a.m. – Squad 23 qualifying (six games)

11 a.m. – Squad 24 qualifying (six games)

3 p.m. – Squad 25 qualifying (six games)

Friday, Sept. 7

3 a.m. – Squad 26 qualifying (six games)

7 a.m. – Squad 27 qualifying (six games)

11 a.m. – Squad 28 qualifying (six games)

3 p.m. – Squad 29 qualifying (six games)

Saturday, Sept. 8

2 a.m. – Squad 30 qualifying (six games)

6 a.m. – Squad 31 qualifying (six games)

10 a.m. – Squad 32 qualifying (six games)

2 p.m. – Squad 33 qualifying (six games)

Sunday, Sept. 9

1:30 a.m. – Finals Step 1

4 a.m. – Finals Step 2

7 a.m. – Finals Step 3

Noon – Stepladder finals