A Chameleon oil pattern is a pattern of oil

Oil

An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....

 on the lane used by the Professional Bowlers Association

Professional Bowlers Association

The Professional Bowlers Association is the major sanctioning body for the sport of professional ten-pin bowling in the United States. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the PBA membership consists of almost 4,300 members worldwide...

 in tournament play.

A typical Chameleon pattern is 39 feet long. It forces players to play in a specific zone on the lane because of the way the oil is layered in "strips". The lane conditions dictate where the bowler should play. This is considered a "retro" approach to pattern designing.

Use of a Chameleon pattern results in a large range of scores (low to high), as does the bowlers' approach to the pattern. No one bowling style is most effective on this type of lane, because there can be multiple starting points that dictate how much the ball will spin, and thus how much curvature

Curvature

In mathematics, curvature refers to any of a number of loosely related concepts in different areas of geometry. Intuitively, curvature is the amount by which a geometric object deviates from being flat, or straight in the case of a line, but this is defined in different ways depending on the context...

 its path will have.

This oil pattern is named after the chameleon

Chameleon

Chameleons are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of lizards. They are distinguished by their parrot-like zygodactylous feet, their separately mobile and stereoscopic eyes, their very long, highly modified, and rapidly extrudable tongues, their swaying gait, the possession by many of a...

because like a chameleon, which can change its color repeatedly, so too must a bowler be able to change his style of play.

Tournaments That Used This Pattern

Tournament	Winner
Mixed Doubles Championship - 2009	Norm Duke
Don and Paula Carter Mixed Doubles Championship Women's Series - 2009	Liz Johnson
Chameleon Championship - 2008	Michael Machuga
Chameleon Championship Women's Series - 2008	Michelle Feldman
Go RVing Classic - 2008	Rhino Page
PBA Exempt Doubles Classic - 2008	Danny Wiseman
Lake County Indiana Classic presented by United Way - 2007	Michael Haugen Jr.
Lake County Indiana Classic Women's Series - 2007	Joy Esterson
Go RVing Classic - 2007	Patrick Allen
H&R Block Classic - 2007	Patrick Allen
Lake County Indiana Classic - 2006	Norm Duke
Great Lakes Classic - 2006	Patrick Allen
Keystone State Championship - 2005	Patrick Allen
Greater Omaha Classic - 2005	Michael Machuga
PBA Banquet Open - 2005	Tommy Jones
PBA GEICO Open - 2005	Mika Koivuniemi
PBA Denver Open - 2004	Tommy Jones
PBA Baby Ruth Real Deal Classic - 2004	Mike Scroggins
PBA Greater Philadelphia Open - 2003	Patrick Allen
PBA Greater Kansas City Classic - 2003	Norm Duke

http://www.pba.com/resources/oilpatterns/laneconditions.asp?ID=6&Type=T
http://www.pba.com/resources/oilpatterns/laneconditions.asp?ID=6
http://www.bowl.com/sportbowling/pbaLaneConditions.aspx