The PBA returns to Portland, Maine, for the annual PBA League competition, which begins Monday and features all of the PBA’s biggest names.

Eight teams of five will prepare to do battle in one of the toughest and loudest venues in all of bowling at Bayside Bowl.

Here are a few key points to get you ready for the PBA League:

Atom Splitters look for fourth PBA League title

The Silver Lake Atom Splitters have won the PBA League three times in the six-year existence of the league. The squad took the Elias Cup in 2014, 2015 and 2018.

The common denominator from those three cup-winning teams? Chris Barnes and manager Mark Baker.

"Bayside Bowl is the perfect atmosphere for this event. The crowd fires up the players, the players fire up the crowd. The energy that goes back and forth is amazing," Baker said in a PBA release. "Can't wait to be in that arena again."

The Atom Splitters won the event in 2014 with Barnes, Bryon Smith, Dom Barrett, Wes Malott and Tommy Jones. They defended their title in 2015 with Barnes, Mika Koivuniemi, Craig Nidiffer, Tom Daugherty and Dick Allen.

Last year, the Atom Splitters squad of Jesper Svensson, AJ Johnson, Allen, Daugherty and Barnes won the cup.

Each team had the ability to protect three players from the previous season and Baker decided to keep Barnes, Svensson and Daugherty. They were able to draft Johnson back onto their team and added DJ Archer through the draft to fill out the roster.

“I’m really looking forward to this year once again,” Barnes said in a PBA release. “The Elias Cup is an event our core looks forward to every year. Jesper looks to be back in form after leading a tournament in San Marino last week and the ‘Rebel’ Tom Daugherty is always rock solid for us. When you add in two guys in DJ (Archer) and AJ Johnson who thrive in the rock star arena that is Bayside Bowl, we have a combination of youth, power and experience that leaves us very excited to coming back to the home of the Elias Cup.”

Prather a player to watch

When you have 40 of the best players in the sport competing in the same league, it’s nearly impossible to predict what will happen.

Every team has more than one superstar with a mix of young players who were selected in the draft. To see the full roster of teams, click here.

One player to keep an eye on will be Kris Prather, who was the No. 1 pick in the PBA League Draft back in April. Prather was selected by the hometown Portland Lumberjacks and joins Ryan Ciminelli, Malott, Kyle Troup and Mitch Hupe on the squad.

After being drafted, Prather went on to win the PBA Playoffs for $100,000 in a similar environment to what he will see in the PBA League. The playoffs took place at Bayside Bowl but expect the playing conditions to be a little more intense in the league.

The format and lane condition

The eight teams will bowl an eight-game seeding round on Monday that will determine the matches for the televised portion of the event.

Once the teams are seeded, the event plays out like a bracket with the top seed facing the No. 8 seed in the first round, No. 2 vs. No. 7, No. 3 vs. No. 6 and No. 4 vs. No. 5.

Each match in the quarterfinals and semifinals consist of two full Baker games. If the teams tie at 1-1, they go to a one-ball sudden death roll-off to break the tie.

In the championship match, the final two teams bowl two matches. The winner of each two-game match will get a point. If both teams win a match, the event goes to a one-ball sudden death tiebreaker.

The lane condition being used will be the 42-foot Mark Roth pattern.

How to watch

The PBA League quarterfinals, semifinals and finals will be broadcast live on FS1 for fans in the United States, while international fans can watch live on FloBowling. The PBA will broadcast the seeding round Monday live for free on its Facebook page.

What the schedule looks like

Here’s the schedule for this event, all times listed are Eastern:

Monday, July 15
10:30 a.m. – Seeding round (live on the PBA’s Facebook page)

Tuesday, July 16
7-11 p.m. – Quarterfinals

Wednesday, July 17
9-11 p.m. – Semifinals

Thursday, July 18
9-11 p.m. – PBA League Elias Cup Finals