Me: Left Handed, 16 mph, roughly 325 rpms, routinely average 226-230 in multiple houses, usually play a little deeper than most lefties I meet.
I went to a pro-shop demo day this week and threw a lot of new equipment from multiple companies. I was really looking forward to throwing the new byte, and Marvel-S. They did about what I thought they would. I saw a Reign on sitting on the table that no one was using so I grabbed it.
I still have the original Reign but don't throw it very often. When I first got it, it was a good ball that was easy to find the pocket with, but not exactly a carry monster. A touch too fast resulted in a 7-pin; a touch to slow resulted in a 6-pin. I liked the ball because it was SO easy for me to keep in play even on a flatter pattern.
The Reign On is a much stronger ball with a similar look at the breakpoint.
The biggest differences were the absolute LACK of speed sensitivity and the crazy carry. The ball had a great shape that hit flush from multiple angles but when it was thrown too fast, it picked up and check-marked to the right and hit high flush. (I'm a Lefty) When I got slow, the energy seem to bleed a little and smoothed out the break perfectly to hit flush again. I would really have to try to over throw this ball to get it past the pocket. The hitting power was excellent. The amount of mid-lane read, combined with the great energy retention resulted not only in terrific carry but a ball motion that was both predictable and confidence inspiring. I had that "can't miss" feeling that I haven't had in a ball in a long time. If I was remotely close to my mark and had released the ball remotely close to how I wanted to, the Reign On would split the 8-9.
After the original Reign, I wasn't going out of my way to check out the rest of the Reign series. I stumbled over this one and it was, in my honest opinion, the best over-all ball out of the group. I know of at least three guys, (small league, 55 bowlers), that placed orders for this ball that night that were originally planning on getting something from the next performance level up. They loved it and none of them throw the ball similar to one another.
Power and Predictability. This ball is a gem.
