The National Senior League (NSL) is helping seniors stay active and have fun at the same time, with their virtual home bowling alley tournaments. 2017 marks the ninth year of the tournaments, and registration is currently open for the spring season and championships. The 2017 season will kick off on February 13, 2017, so there is still plenty of time to register for the season.
The NSL allows seniors to play locally using either the Nintendo Wii or Microsoft XBOX bowling video game program. There are eight divisions within the leagues and championships, broken down by participants’ abilities. To participate, there should be four virtual bowlers on each team.
Teams are required to “bowl” at least one day each week, between Monday and Thursday, for each of the seven weeks of the competition. At the end of the seven weeks, there can be up to an additional three weeks of virtual bowling for the playoffs.
Each week the total pins are tallied for each team. Out of each division, the top thirty-two teams are selected by the total pin counts over the course of the seven consecutive weeks of play. The “national championships” are a bracket-challenge set up, where two teams challenge each other, and the winner advances to the next round.
New this year is the introduction of an eighth division. The newly created division is for beginner or challenged senior bowlers, who average fewer than 120 pins per game. The NSL decided to add the new division as a means to get more seniors involved, many of whom enjoyed bowling on regular leagues when they were younger. Additionally, beginners and challenged virtual bowlers gain the added benefits of physical activity and exercise, which could potentially help improve their abilities.
How to Register
The NSL makes it easy to sign up your virtual bowling teams. The first step is to sign up your community, enroll as many teams as you like, then enjoy league play for the season, and, it is hoped, the playoffs. A bowler can choose to play on more than one team within their community. However, they do need to bowl separate games for each team.
Each week, teams must bowl at least one match, which is a total of two bowling games, and submit their pin tallies through their bowling coach prior to 9 p.m. EST on Thursday evenings. Scores must be recorded on the official score sheets, which the NSL provides. In addition, each match is awarded up to a total of 5 NSL points. The NSL points are determined by the winning teams for each game and total pin counts.
The 2016 NSL season and championships included almost 1,600 virtual bowlers from almost a hundred different communities throughout the United States! Some communities have even installed their own virtual Wii in-home bowling alleys, which are available from Murrey Bowling. For a free quote for your own virtual bowling alley setup, please feel free to call us at (310) 532-6091 today!
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