I received the Arch Rival for bowling in an anyball summer league on Sunday nights last summer, a league which I really struggled in.  I made some bad decisions on equipment (shoes, bad thumb slug) towards the beginning of the summer that have set me back for the 1st half of the season.  I felt like I couldn't really give an opinion about a ball because I was throwing it so bad.  Now that those issues are resolved, I feel I can give a better opinion about a bowling ball because I'm finally throwing it good again.

This Arch Rival has a 1:30 label layout, which is a drill that I use on a new ball to understand what it's about.  It allows me to throw this ball pretty much anywhere on the lane to understand what it does well and what it struggles with.  I left the surface of this ball OOB.  With the Arch Rival, it definitely likes to cover alot of territory, but it doesn't really get over/under.  I think this ball is much better playing the track or inside angles.  I can play out around the gutter with this ball with speed and a flat hand or when there's carrydown, but that's not what it excels at.  I definitely think if I were to drill a second one (and I might), that it'll have a layout on it for playing deep inside.

I thrown this ball on 3 league shots.  The first is a center that has put out a "China" shot that's very over/under with a ton of friction to the outside part of the lane.  The Arch Rival owns this shot because it blends out the over/under very well.  It also complements my Gamebreaker very well because it's cleaner thru the front with more backend.  The second league shot was at another center where the lanes played very tight and to the outside part of the lane.  Again, the Arch Rival worked very well from out because of the carrydown and I was the only person on the pair that could get the ball to hook and drive thru the pins that night.   The 3rd shot was at a center with brand new BW Anvilanes with what appeared to be a heavier oil shot than we've been seeing previoiusly in this league earlier in the season.  I started with the Gamebreaker from out and when it broke down I moved in a switched to the Arch.  The shot from in was better than it was with the Gamebreaker, but it was pushing long and finishing late and I carried alot of mixers.  In hindsight, I probably just needed to look a little further right and I would've been OK.  That's not the ball's fault, it's mine.

So in summary, this Arch Rival is a good benchmark ball for med-light to med-heavy oil conditions.  It blends out over/under very well and appears to be designed to play more in the track and inside angles unless you throw it really hard or have serious carrydown.  I'll put up a full review once I've thrown it on some tougher conditions.