heard MIKA was using an 811a for the Viper tournament
anyone confirm?

Storm/Roto wise the popular candidates (i felt) were:
IQ Tour Pearl (early on cheetah, which got to sideways, so guys started drilling hyroads, berserks, IQ Tours  and Lucids)
After cheetah, the patterns seemed to allow for laneplay to shape very similar no matter the naming convention, so the guys used equipment based on their game and those who made noise all went around the pattern with pieces that fit their individual style.

Storm/Roto.. To me seemed overall Roto matched up well. Berserk, Shatter, Wrecker, and Defiant Soul got lanetime...


Ebo related guys mostly: Arson Low Flare, Vow, and Persevere....
With honorable mention to our good fellow Fagan squeezing in the 912T periodically (whichever ball it is Track has thats an orangish/red color), cause we know he loves the big block pieces to make em stop of the point :-)


Motiv, unsure..

Big B, almost all every pattern was the Meanstreak (seemed to read similar to EBI's Vow and Storm's Marvel Pearl)

If i had to guess, the most used pieces overall looked like


Vow
Arson Low Flare
Meanstreak
Marvel Pearl
Berserk
Persevere
First Blood
Motive (blue/red color ball)
Lucid
Hyroad
Defiant Soul
Wrecker

Somewhat in that order
Cheers

I think the rule was intended to prevent staff guys from having equipment that non staffers didn't have available to them.  I'm assuming all of these balls are available on the truck to everyone bowling the WSOB.

In looking here:  http://www.11thframe.com/page/blog_id_5224_grp_0 this seems to apply to regionals only where there is no truck.

I think the rule is that they can only use balls that are aviailable to all of the Pros.

I have a quick question.  I was under the impression the PBA had a new rule where only equipment available to the public could be used.  I tried to search for this rule, but couldn't find it. 

If someone knows the reason why the WSOB bowlers are using equipment not available to the public, please let me know. 

And if someone has a link to the rule or discussion of the rule, please post that also.

Storm/Roto wise the popular candidates (i felt) were:
IQ Tour Pearl (early on cheetah, which got to sideways, so guys started drilling hyroads, berserks, IQ Tours  and Lucids)
After cheetah, the patterns seemed to allow for laneplay to shape very similar no matter the naming convention, so the guys used equipment based on their game and those who made noise all went around the pattern with pieces that fit their individual style.

Storm/Roto.. To me seemed overall Roto matched up well. Berserk, Shatter, Wrecker, and Defiant Soul got lanetime...


Ebo related guys mostly: Arson Low Flare, Vow, and Persevere....
With honorable mention to our good fellow Fagan squeezing in the 912T periodically (whichever ball it is Track has thats an orangish/red color), cause we know he loves the big block pieces to make em stop of the point :-)


Motiv, unsure..

Big B, almost all every pattern was the Meanstreak (seemed to read similar to EBI's Vow and Storm's Marvel Pearl)

If i had to guess, the most used pieces overall looked like


Vow
Arson Low Flare
Meanstreak
Marvel Pearl
Berserk
Persevere
First Blood
Motive (blue/red color ball)
Lucid
Hyroad
Defiant Soul
Wrecker

Somewhat in that order
Cheers

Just to add to this:

-The Motiv people seemed to be using the new Talon, which is their next oiler.  I saw a few Silver Recons as well on the Cheetah.  I'm sure they were using something more middle of the road in parts as well, but I couldn't tell what it was.  MJH said he saw a lot of a Blue/Red color ball, so I'm going to guess that it was the Venom Strike.

-I absolutely agree that the most used piece was the Vow, and there were several 300s with it as well.  The Arson Low-Flare also produced several 300s on the Cheetah.

-The Meanstreak was used by Brunswick staff later in the set, but they all typically started with the Aura (this is straight from the mouth of the Brunswick ball rep that was in the booth for awhile).  The DV8 guys seemed to mostly use the Nightmare and Marauder Madness (Machuga specifically made both look good).

-Add to the list of balls that were used often: the Frantic and Critical Theory.  Those balls were still all over the place.  Off the top of my head, I remember the Frantic being used by often by Duke, Malott, PDW, and McCune.  McCune was even swinging the lane with it when the Scorpion broke down.  The Critical Theory was also being used often, with Belmonte and Rhino Page being the two who stuck out in my head as using it successfully.  A Storm rep in the booth during the World Championship matchplay said Belmonte had two Critical Theorys with different drills he was going to use for that pattern.

- Just an interesting observation, Fagan really seemed to throw very little Track stuff.  The 912T made an appearance as MJH said.  He also threw an old 505C when he was struggling (this was pointed out by a Ebo ball rep, apparently its still his favorite go-to ball.)  Other than that, Fagan seemed to throw Hammer all the time, including the Arson Low-Flare on the Cheetah and Purple Taboo on the World Championship pattern.

I really wish they would do a limited release of the 505C like they did the Burst.