Got these from Mike Austin down in Houston, who I've been working with via mail order for many many years now. Great guy great driller great knowledge source! I hadn't had any upgrades in many years and was making the trip to nationals for the first time so I decided to get these three. Here's my experience in the week:

 

1. Bowled 8 games at the Brunswick Zone in Naperville, regular house shot. They started me off on a "fresh" lane and immediately my P+R (double thumb, pin up) was not even playable. I found I could force it by standing all the way left, getting some loft and pushing it out to about 18 - 20 and at least find the pocket. After 4 games on this lane the oil man started coming around, I was able to move to a lane next to it and lo and behold it actually WAS fresh oil. Started throwing a tight line with the P+R right in the soup and it came charging back and begging for more with a surprisingly angular motion for a ball this strong. It was kind of ridiculous really, the way this ball would start churning in the mids and then hook even more in the back. I'm thinking I may try this ball with rough buff to see if I can play deep on a fresh shot, because I just don't see enough oil outside of tournaments for this ball in box.

 

2. In that same set, I switched back and forth between my Nexus and Versa Max. The Nexus is an absolutely redonkulous skid/flip ball, I've never seen a ball anything like this from Brunswick, or anyone really. Compared to my Awesome Flip at 1000, I had to move my feet 10 boards left, my target 5 boards, and then the ball was getting 3 - 5 boards farther out before the FLIP into the pocket. There's only one other ball I've ever been able to do this with, my BVP Punisher, on toast. It's actually a stronger move than that, on fresh oil. It kind of reminds me of my old Absolute Inferno, until it gets to the back. This left me really tempted to get another and drill it super-weak, but...

 

3. The Versa Max is a great ball as well. Similar length to the Nexus but a totally different look in the midlane and way tamer in the back. Very nice motion to the pocket.

 

4. At nationals, I couldn't even throw the P+R, way too much surface for my game, though after a few games it did start to tame down a little (VERY easy to clean on a spinner, though). I heard the pattern is shorter this year than last, MAYBE on last year's pattern I could have thrown a deep line, but no reason to bother now. In team I threw my Nexus the whole time, and did pretty terrible but it had nothing to do with the ball and more to do with my knee tendinitis and the sticky approaches...bring your slide socks. I was able to stay left of most other people, and their traffic, because even though I had the same out of bounds area the others had  (super super flat!), as long as I didn't sail it out there it was coming back no matter where I started with my feet; other people had to stay very tight in the middle or they were washing out.

 

5. Doubles and singles were games 25 - 48 instead of 1 - 30 on the oil. Started out with the Nexus but it was too much so went down to the Versa Max. I still struggled, again fighting with my knee, but I put together a pretty decent 995 for my last 5 games with a 605 for the last 3, the singles portion (I average anywhere between 190 and 215 depending on the league and house, usually right in the middle of that). I switched to my Punisher in the 2nd game of singles, then in the last game back to the Versa Max, standing all the way left and throwing to about 18. I also have a Dry/R in my bag if it came down to it, but thankfully it didn't. Next year they oil every shift I hear, I'll be able to bring 4 balls assuming I go, just the 3 new ones because I'll never get down to the Punisher.

 

6. I also bowled the 1-2-3 in Baton Rouge the day before Nationals. It was a little drier than actual Nationals, but pretty similar the way it plays. Nothing earth-shattering to report here. 

 

Overall, I'm very happy with this 3 ball set. It does everything I was looking for and more.