April 23, 2025 Nolan Hughes

The 2025 PBA Tour regular season concluded with last week’s PBA Tournament of Champions powered by 1800 Tequila.

The TOC, the final title event of the season that awards competition points to players, provided all the drama worthy of a season finale.

Here’s how the PBA’s signature major championship shaped three postseason fields:

PBA Elite League

Eight manufacturing brand teams seeded for finals based on cumulative points earned by their starting lineup in each singles title event

Motiv had been leading the PBA Elite League: Battle of the Brands presented by Beatbox since EJ Tackett’s U.S. Open win on Feb. 2.

Tackett’s PBA Shark Championship victory on March 19 put Motiv ahead by 9,409 points. His subsequent PBA World Championship title over Storm’s Jason Belmonte seemingly should have put the coveted top seed out of reach.

But, in fact, Storm cut the deficit by almost 3,000 in the PBA World Championship with four players — Belmonte, Jesper Svensson, Kyle Troup and Chris Via — finishing in the top seven of the triple-point major championship.

Belmonte, Troup and Via again placed top-10 in the PBA Players Championship earlier this month, trimming the gap to first place to a mere 1,872 points.

The PBA Elite League’s top seed came down to the final three games of the season after Tackett and Svensson each advanced to the TOC championship round.

Svensson needed to win the TOC, a title that came along with 5,000 points, in order for Storm to surpass Motiv. Tackett still controlled Motiv’s fate; a win in his first match over Jakob Butturff would have created an insurmountable lead and clinched the top seed for Motiv.

Tackett, hunting an unprecedented single-season Triple Crown himself, came up six pins shy against Butturff.

In the title match, Svensson took care of Butturff to secure top billings for the lightning bolts.

More information on the PBA Elite League is available here.

PBA Playoffs

Top 12 players in 2025 PBA Tour competition points qualify

Entering the stepladder finals of the TOC, 10 of 12 PBA Playoffs berths had been clinched by Tackett, Andrew Anderson, Belmonte, Graham Fach, Tim Foy Jr., Via, Ethan Fiore, Anthony Simonsen, Ryan Barnes and Kyle Troup.

Svensson also cemented himself into the playoff picture by earning the top seed and a minimum of 3,000 points.

That left one spot up for grabs. Butturff held the 12th position entering the finals, but Kevin McCune and AJ Johnson had an opportunity to surpass him.

Johnson, who needed to climb the entire ladder, lost in his first match. After Butturff won his first match, McCune needed to finish in at least second place to jump the southpaw.

Butturff personally put an end to McCune’s playoff hopes with a win in the first match of Sunday’s championship round, clinching his own berth in the PBA Playoffs.

More information on the PBA Playoffs is available here.

PBA Tour Finals

Top 12 players in 2024-25 PBA Tour competition points qualify

Fach leapfrogging Tackett in the final round of TOC match play proved to be only drama in terms of the PBA Tour Finals.

By earning the No. 2 seed and netting a minimum of third-place points, Fach secured enough points to pass Via… by 129 points.

If Via had won one more match in a championship round or finished a couple places higher in basically any given event, he would have found the requisite points.

Instead, Fach qualified for both postseason fields along with Tackett, defending champion Simonsen, Belmonte, Troup and Anderson.

Bill O’Neill and Marshall Kent were the only PBA Tour Finals qualifiers who did not advance in the PBA Playoffs.

More information on the PBA Tour Finals is available here.