One of the most highly anticipated events of the season gets underway this week when the PBA and PWBA tours join forces for a good cause.

The Storm PBA/PWBA Striking Against Breast Cancer Mixed Doubles will feature the best from both tours when qualifying gets underway Friday live on FloBowling.

Here are a few key points to get you ready for the PBA/PWBA Mixed Doubles:

Tackett, Johnson back to defend title

Two of the best players on their respective tours joined forces last year to win the mixed doubles title as EJ Tackett and Liz Johnson hoisted the trophy.

The tournament came down to the final frame of the final game of match play as Johnson and Tackett defeated Diandra Asbaty and Jason Belmonte, 420-406, in the position round to take the victory. Belmonte could have doubled in the final frame to give his team the title but left a 10 pin on his first shot.

Tackett and Johnson finished the 20 games of qualifying and match play with 8,797 to take first, while Belmonte and Asbaty were second with 8,763. Danielle McEwan and Chris Via finished third with 8,694.

Johnson said after the event it felt like winning a major.

“It’s taken me 17 years to win here,” Johnson said in a PBA release. “People say ‘You’ve won everything,’ but this is a major title to me. I’m so proud. This is my favorite tournament of the year.”

This event is stacked with stars

Although there are a few big names not competing this week, the roster is chock full of superstar teams.

In fact, there are so many powerhouse teams that it’s hard to mention all of them. The complete roster can be found here.

A few of the notable teams that stand out include: Liz Johnson/EJ Tackett, Missy Parkin/Sean Rash, Danielle McEwan/Anthony Simonsen, Jordan Richard/Andrew Anderson, Shannon Pluhowsky/Tommy Jones, Diandra Asbaty/Marshall Kent and so many others.

A few of the big names missing from the roster include Bill O’Neill and Jason Belmonte, while the Pan American Games going on at the same time pulled a few people away as well.

Jakob Butturff, Nick Pate, Shannon O’Keefe, Stefanie Johnson, Clara Guerrero and Maria Jose Rodriguez are just a few of the names competing at the Pan American Games and will miss the mixed doubles.

Beauties vs. Beasts kicks things off

The top five men and five women from last year’s qualifying will help kick off the festivities this week in the special Beauties vs. Beasts competition on Thursday at 4 p.m. Central.

Representing the Beauties will be McCarthy, Parkin, Pluhowsky, Verity Crawley and Asbaty. They will take on Tackett, Jones, Darren Tang, AJ Johnson and Brad Miller, who replaces Butturff.

The five-game special Baker match has some high stakes as the winning team will earn $5,000. The losers will receive $1,000.

The format and lane condition

There are four qualifying squads spread out over two days with Squads A and B competing on Friday and Squads C and D on Saturday.

Qualifying consists of seven games with the top 25 percent of teams advancing into the semifinals. With a full field of 160 teams currently signed up, the top 40 teams after seven games will advance to Sunday.

The advancers will bowl five games on Sunday morning in the semifinals to determine the eight teams that will bowl in the round robin match play finals.

There’s no stepladder finals at this event. The winner will be the team with the highest pinfall plus bonus pins combining qualifying, semifinals and match play finals. The event concludes with the position round in match play.

The lane condition will be 42 feet with a total volume of oil of 26.715 mL using Kegel Ice oil. The past two years the pattern has been 39 feet.

How to watch

The PBA/PWBA Mixed Doubles will be broadcast live exclusively on FloBowling. Coverage begins with the Beauties vs. Beasts on Thursday afternoon and concludes with round robin match play on Sunday.

What the schedule looks like

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

Thursday, July 25
4 p.m. - Beauties vs. Beasts (special event)

Friday, July 26
8 a.m. - Squad A Qualifying (seven games)
2 p.m. - Squad B Qualifying (seven games)

Saturday, July 27
8 a.m. - Squad C Qualifying (seven games)
2 p.m. - Squad D Qualifying (seven games)

Sunday, July 28
8:30 a.m. - Semifinals (five games of qualifying)
12:30 p.m. - Finals (eight games of round robin match play)