In a bit of a conundrum, everyone..

While keeping up to date on USBC membership, I actually took the entire year off. Now, I'm planning on getting back into everything, and am updating the balls in my bag.

I'm wanting to throw in a Warrior Elite, Scandal, and Warrior to go with the BWRL that I have in my bag, and possibly go AHFS or GameBreaker MVP for the benchmark.

However, with Bowl Expo coming up in the next 3 weeks, should I hedge my bets on what would be demoed there, or pull the trigger for what I know would work? Money isn't the object here, as the money I saved for taking the year off would go towards the purchase. However, time is a factor, as I would have to get these before Bowl Expo.

So if you were in this situation, what would you do? You know that the gear there is really good stuff and would essentially be NIB but a year out of date, so would you pull the trigger on what you know would work for you, or hedge your bets on the unknown to be demoed, wait the extra 3 - 5 weeks, and risk your shop not having the supply anymore because the balls are being pulled out of distribution?

BL.

Have to agree with Star on the Scandal. That's a safe bet. Problem with Bowl Expo is that you never really know if the latest and greatest is going to be good or bad, and that takes time. How many times have we all heard what's wrong with a ball only after the next one comes out? The Scandal has been very well received. I have one, and it will never be out of my bag from now on. All styles, all rev rates, everyone has liked that ball. Warrior Elite, also majority well received.

Get the Scandal for now, and wait to see what else they'll release after the Expo.

If you're in no hurry and/or waiting until the fall leagues start up then seeing what comes out at Bowl Expo wouldn't hurt anything. Like Joeyd said if nothing catches your eye then anything your considering will more than likely still be available for a bit longer, just order them up then. They actually might be cheaper or on closeout at that point too.

The Scandal is a really good ball.  Also, I definitely like the Paradox for volume.  But if you can hold off until Expo, it won't hurt.  You never know what may come out.

from what I hear, some really good pieces coming out of EBI at bowl expo
some of the pros are really excited about a few of them already during testing

This was what I was thinking would happen..

And with some of the new videos coming out of Japan, there may be a pearl Scandal on the way, which would put it in competition with the Warrior for my bag. That's why I'm skittish on pulling the trigger for getting everything now.

Now I'm thinking Joey and Thomas have the right idea.. pull the trigger on the Scandal and possibly the Warrior Elite, and see what gets announced/demoed at Bowl Expo; I'm still on the fence, though.

BL.

Quote from: bradl on June 07, 2016, 02:39:17 PM

Now I'm thinking Joey and Thomas have the right idea.. pull the trigger on the Scandal and possibly the Warrior Elite, and see what gets announced/demoed at Bowl Expo; I'm still on the fence, though.

BL.

Why bother with getting 2 heavy oil balls right before the expo though?
The Scandal is enough!

Like I mentioned above, I took the entire year off, meaning I passed on getting these when they first came out. I would have jumped on the Warrior Elite immediately but it would have sat in my bag doing absolutely nothing from when I picked it up to now. The Scandal would have done the same.

The reason why I'm looking at both is because of ball shape and movement through the pattern. The Scandal is a beast; no argument there. The Warrior Elite is as well, but cleaner through the heads and mids. And this isn't even getting into the symmetric vs. asymmetric argument.

If done right, they can compliment eachother while both being heavy oil balls. That would leave the door open on the pearls, which would leave me the Warrior and ......

It's the "......" that I'm thinking will be coming up at Bowl Expo. The Warrior's release date was 7/7/15, which a year is a pretty long life cycle for a ball nowadays, meaning that there's probably something coming up for replacing it. And as well as the Scandal has been received, something tells me that there will be a ball out to compliment it, which is what I'm thinking Bowl Expo will show. That's why I'm wondering about pulling the trigger now, or waiting.

BL.

I see a few balls for each brand on the approved list now. I'm intrigued by a few of the names. It seems like it could be a mid-performance and high-performance for each brand

Columbia: Side Swipe and Swerve GT
Hammer: Dark Legend Solid and Rebel, Amazing Scandal (I think this is overseas)
Ebonite: Gamebreaker 2 Phenom and Warrior Supreme
Track: Heat Xtreme and Cyborg

Edit: All the balls are up on their respective websites now. Wow is all I can say, I'm impressed with what EBI is doing

Amazing Scandal is definitely an overseas piece:


Pearl version of the Scandal. This is what I was thinking was going to happen, putting me on the fence with the Warrior. Both look to be giving similar performance, which is saying a lot for the Scandal with it being symmetric.

As far as the Warrior Supreme goes, it looks to be complimenting the entire Warrior line, as it basically is complete: Pearl with the Warrior, Hybrid with the Warrior Elite, and Solid with the Warrior Supreme. For me, it will come down to preference. With the Scandal being a solid, I may pass on the Warrior Supreme.

But I do have to say that the purple in that Supreme looks nice (Video of it being thrown is up on Ebonite's YouTube channel). I reminds me of a deeper purple that was in the Nu-Line Excalibur.

I think I'll wait one more week and see what we can see before pulling the trigger.

BL.