Interesting topic, while I know what Particle balls are, never really thought I had owned one so I was reading more or less just to see what everyone was saying.
So I read a few of the older articles and posts and it struck me that I had seen these types of reactions in myself about one ball in particular, my El Nino 2000. When I bought it way back when ( think it was the second ball I ever purchased) it used to drive me nuts. I had purchased it on " hook rating" ( yeah I didn't know much back then) and was never really impressed with it. It never reacted the way I expected it to, my old Blood Red Beast " hooked" more and I just chalked it up to being a bad ball ( or me not knowing how to throw it) and putting it in the closet.
Fast Forward to a few weeks ago and I decided what the heck, I'll pull it out and give it a try ( I think the thing literally has like 10 games on it). So I roll it down the lane and it hooks more than I remembered ( my release has changed since coming back) but I noticed something I hadn't payed much attention to before, the dang thing rolled up really early, was smooth and hit like a truck. My Eraser on the same condition would snap so hard on the dry I couldn't control it, or it would hit the wet and just skid to far and never recover.
Amazing what age and knowledge will show you. Now I kind of want to have my pitches changed to my new ones and throw this thing ( have a hard time getting out of my old balls, always did, new pitches are so much better).