The 13th Columbia 300 Vienna Open is the 14th tournament on the 2015 European Bowling Tour and the last of just three EBT "gold" events this season, the second-highest of the four EBT tournament categories.

The VO 2015 will be held from Sept. 28 - Oct. 4 at Plus Bowling, a 32-laner in Vienna, Austria. Players will compete for total prize fund of 73.130 Euro - 62.900 € in Singles and 10.230 € in Doubles.

For the 13th consecutive year, Bowlingdigital.com will provide onsite coverage of the 13th Columbia 300 Vienna Open commencing Thursday, Oct. 1, all the way through to the stepladder finals on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 4. All qualifying squads on Oct. 2 & 3 and Sunday's finals are being broadcast live on Bowlingdigital's YouTube channel.

The singles champion will take home the 7.000 € top prize, the first runner-up earns 5.000 € and the third and fourth-place finishers get 3.500 € and 2.500 €, respectively. 64 players will cash in Singles, which has a last-to-cash payout of €. The doubles tournaments will pay a 1.600 € first prize and a 20-place prize list (300 € last-to-cash).

Thanks to tournament sponsor Columbia 300, the VO 2015 awards several extra prizes. Every squad winner will receive a free re-entry for the 2016 Track Dream-Bowl Palace Open in Munich, Germany. Each winner of Squads 1-6 who was wearing a Columbia 300 shirt and bowled with a C300 bowling ball earns $200.

The doubles squad winners in the first six squads will be awarded two bowling balls, one per player, from the official set of tournament balls. The player who shoots the first 300 game in the tournament with a C300 ball while wearing a C300 logo on his shirt gets a $300 bonus.

While the tournament format remained almost unchanged, the number of qualifying squads was reduced to 16 - two each from Monday, Sept. 28 through Thursday, Oct. 1 and four each on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 2 & 3 - with 60 individual spots or 30 doubles spots, respectively, available in each squad.

240 players from 25 countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Catalonia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Netherlands, South Africa, Russia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Sweden, United States and the host country Austria) have registered for the 13th edition of the event.

Squads 1, 2, 8, 10, 11, 14 & 15 are full. Bowlers who would like to sign up on the waiting list must fill out an online entry form and hope for a vacancy.

Please note: There are always individual spots available even in fully booked squads as players may not have found a doubles partner yet. Players looking for an empty spot as well as players looking for a doubles partner must show up 90 minutes prior to a squad at the registration desk or contact tournament director Thomas Gross at [email protected].

The VO 2015 offers three "Special Packages" for players who intend to bowl more than one entry, the Monday/Tuesday "Squad & Ball Special" (two entries plus official tournament ball for 300 €), the Thursday/Friday/Saturday "Once a Day Special" (three entries, one per day, and two meals for 400 €) and the Friday/Saturday "Early & Late Special" (three entries and two meals for 380 €).

All tournament details can be found here:
2015 Vienna Open Brochure
Online Registration
Tournament Information
Schedule
Prize Fund
Special Awards
9-pin no tap

Qualifying is traditionally a doubles tournament with separate prize money. Each team must roll at least one six-game block. Unlimited re-entries - with the same partner or with different partners - are allowed. However, each player can cash only once with the SAME partner.

Qualifying will kick off Monday, September 28, and runs through Saturday, October 3, with the final Squad 16 slated for 8 p.m. CEST. Qualifying concludes with the ultimate one-game Desperado Squad at 11.30 p.m.

Women receive eight pins handicap each game (maximum is 300), an equality handicap provided to women in all EBT events.

Total 64 players will qualify for the Vienna Open finals on Sunday, Oct. 4:

• the top 52 players from the overall qualifying standings (squads 1-16)
• the highest-positioned player from each of the first eight squads, who is not among the top 52 (total 8 players)
• and the top 4 players of the Desperado Squad.

The top 8 qualifying leaders receive a first-round bye. The other 56 players bowl six games scratch. The top 22 join the top 8 qualifiers in Round Two.

Those 30 players bowl another six games scratch after which the field is trimmed to the top 18, who carry the pinfall forward into Round Three. After another six-game block the top 4 players with the highest 12-game total advance to the stepladder finals.

The No. 4 seed meets the No. 3 in the opening match and the winner takes on the No. 2 seed for the right to bowl the top seed for the title, the 7.000 Euro top prize and 150 European Bowling Tour ranking points (men and women in separate rankings).

The 2015 European Bowling Tour currently consists of 16 tournaments in 12 countries featuring three "Platinum" events, three "Gold", three "Silver" and seven "Satellite" events. All 16 tournaments together offer total prize fund of 850.000 Euro.

The top 50 men and the top 50 women in each event receive ranking points. Those points will be tabulated throughout the season to determine the top 12 men and top 12 women, who will compete in the 9th EBT Masters July 25, 2016 at Rose'n Bowl in Serravalle, San Marino following the 12th San Marino Open.

 

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