Many advanced players like to use rather tame or control drillings for tournaments. Not only because the lane conditions tend to be more severe (flat patterns), they also avoid over-reactions. A favorite I have seen every often (for high trackers) is the pin under the bridge, CG stacked or slightly swung out (like AngloBowler mentions). This is a pretty weak setup without a wild break point reaction, but leaves the player with much room for adjustments and control, especially through the course of the tournament with changing lanes and little room for error. Once things start getting serious, you have no room for experiments - so a predictable ball is a very valuable asset to reduce error sources as far as possible, and to learn most about the changing lane in the course of playing. I think that many hobby bowlers underestimate the potential of this long-term view.
On the other side, on a THS you can play almost anything, anywhere. When your line changes, you can normally simply move deeper and exploit the dry bumber area close to the gutter or at the burnt track. That's not really demanding, just needs a keen eye on when to start moving, and a THS allows a lot of lines to the pocket so that there's also not much demand on lane intelligence before serious playing starts.
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DizzyFugu - Reporting from Germany
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