Opinion wanted on this!!!

[foreverincamo]

I had posted on the Tournament page about a tournament where you have to pick one ball out of four allowed, and use that ball for the whole tournament, spares and strikes. When they announced the tournament, they announced the oil pattern as well. So I went and looked at all four balls and compared them to the oil pattern and how I throw the ball, and chose a ball BUT didn't buy it. I kept watching for someone on EBAY to sell a used ball for cheap since the entry was $90 plus the ball.
Well, I never found the ball I wanted for a bargain price, and spending over $200 wasn't in the budget. And after months of trying to get the ball I wanted I finally gave up and told them I wasn't going to compete. Here's what I want opinions on: Two days before the tournament, they announce that they are changing the oil pattern. Completely different pattern that I figured would never match up with the ball I was looking at.
The tournament commenced without me, and after they cut to the top 50% of the field after 5 games from qualifying, only one bowler made the cut using the ball I chose. 90 % made the cut with the Hammer Red Legend Solid. I don't understand changing the pattern so late like that. Had I bought that ball and got in, I'm sure I wouldn't have made the cut. Just doesn't seem fair to anyone who looked at the original pattern and available equipment and spent good money only to never have much of a chance.
Last year I had one of the available balls already in my arsenal but was injured so I didn't compete. When they made the first cut to the top 25, 24 bowlers were using the Hammer Black Widow Legend, which was the ball I had. Now this year they change the oil pattern and the Hammer Red Legend Solid dominates. Something just doesn't pass the sniff test here with me. Anyone else have a say?

[foreverincamo]

You could pick from the Black Widow Red Legend Solid, the Track Legion, Columbia Urge, or the Ebonite Adrenaline Shot. The oil pattern they went with was the USBC Gateway Arch instead of the USBC Wall Street.

[foreverincamo]

The reason for the change was explained that the Wall Street pattern wasn't available anymore. I couldn't find anything saying that pattern had been discontinued by the USBC.

[Tony]

Seems very fishy to make you select a ball then change the pattern and not let you change balls. On the other hand I don't know all the general tournament rules.....


Is the sponsor Hammer ?

[foreverincamo]

It's called the EBI ball challenge. All four balls are under their umbrella. If you had more than one of those balls, you could use multiple balls in practice but had to declare a ball before the tournament started.

[Amyers]

Well from what I can see the two patterns are pretty close. I believe that properly applied you could play any of those balls successfully on this pattern. Both are designed to be relatively easy shots played around the second arrow. I'm not sure why they couldn't use Wall Street if they wanted too but Gateway Arch is basically just the newer version from what I've seen. Gateway is slightly longer and slightly more over the middle to be honest Gateway maybe even easier because the pattern should hold up longer. If I had to choose I doubt I would use the Red Legend on this pattern unless I was speed dominate.

[JasonNJ]

Maybe the center no longer had that pattern programmed on their oil machines. I know with my center, I'm friendly with the maintenance guy and I've asked him to lay down an Earl Anthony pattern once and he said he didn't have it on the machine. It could only hold about 12 or 16 patterns and the Earl Anthony wasn't one of them. He would have to delete a pattern and program it for the Earl Anthony pattern.

[foreverincamo]

All I can say is the Red Legend dominated the tournament. No Ebonite or Columbia ball made the cut. Two were Track, rest were Hammer.