For years, Sweden was a hotbed of international bowling activity, hosting the Swedish Super Six Tour and bringing the best players in the world to the Scandinavian country. But in 2011, the Super Six Tour closed up shop after 12 years, leaving a void in a country passionate about bowling.

So, when Swedish superstar Martin Larsen got a call from a pair of bowling proprietors in Sweden wanting to start a tournament that would bring the big international stars back, he knew it would be good for the sport of bowling in his country.

The proprietors were so excited about Larsen’s involvement, they even named the tournament after him when the Storm Lucky Larsen Masters debuted in 2017. Now, in its second year, the tournament is poised to have more entries than last year and will be broadcast live on FloBowling starting Thursday.

Larsen said talk started about bringing back a major tournament to Sweden in 2016, which was a banner year for Swedish athletes in international events. Larsen was leading World Bowling’s world rankings, Jesper Svensson won three PBA titles including the PBA Tournament of Champions, Jenny Wegner won the QubicaAMF World Cup and Cajsa Wegner won the European Champions Cup.

“There were a lot of really good things happening for Sweden in bowling,” Larsen said. “I got a call from two guys who run bowling centers, and they said they really want to do something about this good flow and media attention we have for Sweden. They wanted to have a big tournament here to give all the kids a chance to see the best not only on TV and online.”

The result was a partnership that has seen the Lucky Larsen Masters be successful immediately. In its first year, it awarded a PBA title as part of the World Bowling Tour when Australia’s Jason Belmonte won the event.

“We decided if we wanted to have the best guys here, we had to step it up right away,” Larsen said. “We were able to get Storm as a sponsor. The two other big tournaments we have in Europe are sponsored by Brunswick, so Storm was really happy to become involved. Without them, we wouldn’t have any chance to get up to where we are already in year two.”

Ultimately, Larsen said his dream would be for Sweden to host a regular stop on the PBA Tour that features a format similar to the ones used in the United States. The Lucky Larsen Masters features a traditional European format that allows multiple re-entries and just six-game totals decide who qualifies for the finals.

“My dream is to have a stop here where we can actually do the same thing we do at a lot of big tournaments in the States, where we have a day of practice and then a bunch of games that all count,” Larsen said. “That’s what I really want to do. But we have two problems. We need more sponsors, and we need bigger bowling centers. The center we are in now is 22 lanes. That’s kind of big to be in Sweden, but that’s not really enough to have a tournament like the big ones we bowl in the States.”

In the meantime, Larsen said he’s just happy having his friends and fellow bowling peers traveling to his home country to enjoy the culture and competition.

“It’s for sure an amazing feeling to have as many friends and competitors coming over and wanting to bowl,” Larsen said. “I’ve been traveling the world for almost 20 years, and I know what’s important to bowlers. I’m trying to take some of that knowledge with me to make it easy and enjoyable for the guys, even outside the lanes.”

And the results show that Larsen has been successful as top-level bowling is now back and thriving in Sweden for the first time in years.