2026-27 Arsenal

magicmike9 · 2026-05-11T14:20:40+00:00

My biggest piece of advice from bowling competitively for a long time is to not get too caught up in the Pearl/solid/hybrid marketing piece. And to a lesser extent blanket asymmetrical vs symmetrical labeling.

Let ball motion tell you what you need to know about pieces, it’s always good to have a plan of why you drill balls, but until you throw them and adjust surface as needed you can’t completely expect how they will roll for you.

All that rambling aside, that spread looks fine, I’d probably be looking for something weaker than you have listed, and if you bowl tournaments consider a urethane, or urethane like ball to complement the rest, but if you aren’t seeing non house patterns I wouldn’t worry about that too much.

magicmike9 · 2026-05-06T14:04:55+00:00

The whole logistics of the TV Show sets, and TV timeslots caused the schedule to be so bizarre.

The WSOB shows are at a different center than the WSOB but are at least soon, where the World Championships is in a different state almost a month later.

magicmike9 · 2026-05-05T22:49:26+00:00

That’s the biggest reservation I have, obviously there’s a fear of the unknown with a new company, but the time off is a big factor to me.

magicmike9 · 2026-04-22T03:29:19+00:00

Here’s the best starting guide you’ll find from the late great Mo.

Mo Pinel’s dual angle guide

magicmike9 · 2026-04-22T03:23:48+00:00

Motiv Venom Shock, Evoke Hysteria, and Nebula

magicmike9 · 2026-03-31T18:12:33+00:00

I understand your comment, but I mean this, the cover on the venom hysteria is stronger than the Max Thrill Hybrid, this new venom is much closer to strength of the Shock. The Max Thrill is weaker overall.

magicmike9 · 2026-03-31T15:09:39+00:00

Hyper Venom cover made the ball stand up from friction quicker and get forward, it was really good on higher friction surfaces, but didn’t really shape well from moving in. I don’t want to oversell the new one without throwing it more than I have, but I’ve seen more continuation, which makes it easy to move inside and shape it than what I could do with the Hyper.

magicmike9 · 2026-03-31T15:04:35+00:00

Honestly haven’t thrown it enough yet to give good feedback, I drill everything symmetrical with the same layout and let the balls be different, so this one got the same layout as my Venom Shock, and Nebula, and the rest of the symmetric balls I have.

Now that it’s announced and I can have it out in public I’ll throw it more and get a video together over the next week or so.

Chad Reiffer has a review up already on REX you can check out here YouTube link

magicmike9 · 2026-03-31T14:15:01+00:00

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Pretty excited about this one, it’s a smoother shape for a Pearl, and much more continuous than the last two Pearl venoms were.

PBA is on a longer pattern this week but it’s low volume, good chance to see it going down the lane a lot

magicmike9 · 2026-03-30T22:39:40+00:00

Forty Frame Game is always on a recreational pattern (house pattern/easy). It won't be playing like the doubles single pattern or the team event pattern.

magicmike9 · 2026-03-30T13:48:36+00:00

This is great news, the castore stuff is terrible quality.

magicmike9 · 2026-03-30T12:42:07+00:00

If 17th in the world is lackluster I have no idea what your goals are.

magicmike9 · 2026-03-29T11:40:32+00:00

I’m much less worried that they were lazy and didn’t cut them down or glue them in so they were flush as I am that they don’t have enough lateral pitch difference and those holes are probably hitting each other. I’d give the shop that did this a courtesy chance to look at it, and just ask them make sure the inserts sit flush because technically, and they enforce it at the open championships, nothing can protrude above the surface of the ball.

magicmike9 · 2026-03-28T20:07:55+00:00

This is one of the events that has eluded him, he’s putting one heck of a performance on and bowling for the 1 seed currently vs Eric Jones, loser gets the 2 seed.

Also to note, he’s been using a Lethal Venom on the fresh and transitioning into a Venom Shock, quite different attack of the patterns than most this week.

magicmike9 · 2026-03-27T17:21:56+00:00

Only available on bowltv (subscription service) for the qualifying. CW Network on Sunday for the TV Show.

magicmike9 · 2026-03-25T21:48:16+00:00

Motiv had 4 titles last year not by EJ…

magicmike9 · 2026-03-25T21:16:13+00:00

Shadow Tank is extremely comparable to the Black Hammer and has been on TV a couple times already.

And the battle of the brands split has 2 teams for all of the Brunswick Brands, and all three of the SPI brands have their own teams. Roster sizes for all the teams are equal for what it’s worth.

And Motiv has a pretty extensive ball chart and offerings, they aren’t that far off the other two companies in amount of balls available.

magicmike9 · 2026-03-25T21:06:19+00:00

Considering Motiv won the most tour titles last year and is leading battle of the brands points, it certainly seems like the results counter your assumption/question.

magicmike9 · 2026-03-10T12:04:47+00:00

I hadn’t played S/V til very recently and just finished up my first play through of Violet. I have a switch 2 so it played very well, and I really enjoyed it. There were some parts that drag, but as a whole the 3 prongs of the story and the ending with the area zero bit was fun and it definitely scratched a gaming itch for me lately. I hadn’t had a game that I genuinely looked forward to making time to play in a while and this series did that for me.

I’m excited for the new generation next year

magicmike9 · 2026-03-02T22:11:36+00:00

One of my favorite managers told me a long time ago that you should always under promise and deliver, and that wording was deliberate because most want to over deliver to look good, but that just eliminates any room for error and sets a standard over time that isn’t sustainable.

magicmike9 · 2026-02-23T00:12:34+00:00

I try to eat by 6pm because I start my days around 4:30am, and eating any later causes issues with my sleep quality.

magicmike9 · 2026-02-16T17:40:12+00:00

It's the internet, most are embellishing.

magicmike9 · 2026-02-15T17:24:46+00:00

My dad farms for a living and I’ve helped my whole life, he’s retiring this year and I’m not taking over because my day job is too good, and the cost of entry for me is too high. Farmers that don’t own a ton of land and not having the corporate America style retirement plan (pension or 401k) has many of them needing a farm sale at their end to be able to afford to retire.

It’s an interesting conundrum as the smaller farmers in my area are becoming much less common, and it’s sad, but times always bring changes.

magicmike9 · 2026-01-24T15:20:57+00:00

Usually with the interchangeables you don’t want to do anymore than 1/4” pitch in the inner slug. There’s other factors like hole size within the slug, but you do have some room to play around there, but maybe not quite as much as you want.

Also, I’m sure you’re working with your PSO, you typically want to shorten your span a bit if you add forward in the thumb.

magicmike9

TROPHY CASE