53 Hook 13 Length 15 Breakpoint Shape

Manufacturer’s Intent: “The Pursuit S has the Symmetric Empire core design, and the Hyper Branched MDI Technology cover,” says Ebonite’s Ed Gallagher. “The ball is cleaner, with more back-end shape, than the Pursuit. This is the ball all high rev rate players should have in their arsenal. With the new surface sanded with 800 Abranet and 1500 Abranet, the Pursuit S is still clean through the front, yet very strong on the backend. This is a motion the Ebonite brand has not had in quite some time.”

Core Design: The Empire S (symmetric) core has a 2.49 RG with a .054 Diff. The shape is designed to allow ball drillers to change the values of the RG and differential at the same rate after drilling. We found this core shape to be friendly to both drillers and user releases. We saw nearly 6 inches of track flare with strong layouts in both testing and with the Blueprint software.

Coverstock: The Pursuit S uses the same Hyper Branched MDI coverstock described in the previous review.

Test Results: We felt the symmetric version rolls more evenly than the asymmetric counterpart. Even though the Pursuit and Pursuit S share the same cover, the core creates quite a bit of separation between the two in motion shape and total hook. We saw a little bit of The One (July 2008) and Total NV (February 2007) in both balls. On the PBA Viper pattern and our heavy-volume typical house shot (THS), we saw more skid/flip, whereas on Cheetah and our lighter THS, the roll was more arcing in nature.

When to Use: Use confidently on most medium-volume oil patterns with the appropriate layout choice. We especially liked the 60x4.5x40 dual angle layout for most patterns when playing inside angles of attack. From outside angles, our 40x4.5x65 layout matched up better as it held the pocket easier throughout transition.