Roto Grip Idol:

Drilled at 40x4x40 (my benchmark layout)
Basic Bowling Profile: 350-375 rev rate at 15 mph

What I was looking to get: This ball was planned to be a replacement of my previous benchmark ball that had started to see significant decreases in performance (cleaned after each set and detoxed twice, but had a lot of games on it). The goal was to get a usable ball that could be used on a multitude of conditions, but the real goal was to have something that read the lane very clearly to help with ball choice.

What I got: I have thrown this ball since May and at first I found the cover to be more aggressive that what I was expecting, and frankly what I was looking for. I am not someone who gets excited about how aggressive the ball motion is, but rather want the ball to match a specific role within my bag. I was informed by a few Storm/Roto staffers that this ball settles in well once it gets a little bit of lane shine and I did see that after 30 games the ball settled down and better fit what I was looking for (without it calming down too much). At this point what I am getting out of the ball is exactly what I would expect out of a solid, symmetrical piece in which everything is set up for benchmark reactions. I feel as though this ball reads the fresh extremely well and thrives when you can keep the angles tight - for me it typically does not over-react when missing inside often allowing a change to hold the pocket - the flipside of this is that when missing outside it struggles to recover and hits rather softly. With this it can be expected/understood that once the lanes dictate that I have to move further inside this ball is typically going back into the bag - it still controls pocket very well, but direction through the pins causes for a lot of corner pins.

Adjustments I make: I have found the ball to be very responsive to surface adjustments which has been helpful in matching up with specific sport conditions. I personally use 3000 as a baseline for this ball - anything lower seems to be too much for the typical house shots I see, but the lower grits can match up well against higher volume - medium length patterns. For longer patterns you should have better choices in your arsenal and while it is usable on short patterns the same applies - you should have better choices in the bag. On house shots it is extremely good in the early portions, but typically in the later parts of the night you should be looking for something that has a little more length or get used to trapping yourself in the 4 pin/10 pin puzzle (for right handers).

Overall: I would recommend this as a benchmark ball for the bowler who bowls on multiple conditions and is not looking for this to be the only ball that comes out of the bag. It is great when it matches up with the lane condition but struggles for me when the lanes force a strong move inside.