Any recommendations for Hero replacement.  Its been my go to ball on tournament patterns for 2 years.  Been looking at the Melee midnight blue. 

According to the Brunswick site; the Hero was labeled an all purpose ball and the Melee is labeled as a flip ball.  The Hero was unique in the sense that for a pearl; it wasnt overly angular on the backend.  The Hero was at a lower price point while yet stronger than balls like a Beast, Rhino, or Electrify.  It almost rolls more like a hybrid in that the Hero is cleaner through the fronts than a solid but not as angular as a lot of pearls. While the Melee would be considered a step up from the Hero; you could probably get away with doing a pin down layout to take some of the angularity out of it to make it more comparable since Brunswick doesnt really have a true replacement in their lineup.  Columbia is releasing the new Eruption that has core numbers similar to the Hero and widely considered to be one of the best cores ever produced from Columbia (Resurgence Core).  There isnt too many other balls released at the moment that are pearls with low RG cores in the lower to mid performance category.  Call me crazy; but you could do something like a Hyped Hybrid.  While the RG is a little higher, the hybrid cover would cancel it out and give you a similar look as the Hero.   

Stellar pin down? 

I, too, thought the Hero pearl was awesome.  I drilled my Stellar pin up, so it's stronger late on the lane, but pin down should definitely be very close in my estimation.

The Stellar and Melee Midnight Blue are both earlier than the Hero.  The length of the Hero is most closely exemplified by lower differential balls with cleaner covers as previously mentioned.  I currently use the Obsession Tour Pearl in that spot.  In order of potential strength I would look at the Web Pearl, Obsession Tour Pearl, or the New Eruption.

I think the aforementioned Eruption would be a very good option. The original Eruption was very rolly, controllable, highly versatile, and did not overreact to friction. The low RG allowed it to rev up very quickly but the pearl coverstock kept it from checking up too early on most conditions. I'm assuming that the new one will be more of the same.