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Dustin Markowitz
08-25-2011, 03:30 PM
The Ball: 15.3Lbs Raptor
The Layout: Pin placement 2 O’Clock, 1/4 Side-1/2 Finger
The Pattern: 39 FT House, 41 FT Tournament
The Positive: Strong mid-lane read, great continuation and adaptable for strong oil.
The Negative: Tends to be overaggressive on dry lanes.

The Review: This was the first ball I had the opportunity to test while using Motiv and it is still by far my favorite of the group. As a medium-high speed player with Med revs, I was originally skeptical of how this ball would react out of the box due to it’s coverstock. In the past many of the rough asymmetrical balls that I have thrown ended up being very aggressive early on but then pittered out on the back end. This ball, however, blew that conception out of the water. This ball had amazing continuation down lane and never got to the point where I was leaving excessive flat corners because of no energy.

The first condition I threw the Raptor on was the 41 FT “Tournament” pattern currently designed by the Riverside Lanes in Laughlin, Nevada. Typically the prefer the “Southern California Wall” using heavy oil towards the middle while keeping the outside dry. This ball read the transition beautifully finding a happy medium coming from the dry and continuing on with the oil. My first five games out of the box with this ball resulted in a 251 average and a very happy smile on my face. This was my go to ball early and still is on the pattern.

The second condition I had a chance to try was the 39 FT “house” pattern which is immensely geared towards seniors who have less rotation on their equipment. I must admit that while the ball performed adequately, I was forced to truly pipe the ball down the lane in order to keep the ball on the right side of the head pin. I would definitely say this is a ball to keep away from the dry and stick with medium-heavy oil patterns.

All-in-all I feel that the Raptor is a great ball to keep in the bag as the arsenal choice for heavy oil and definitely one of, if not the best ball, Motiv currently offers.

Dustin Markowitz
MOTIV Staff Member