Ebonite Mission 2.0 Bowling Ball Review

Due to the success of the original Mission, expectations are high for the Mission 2.0. Ebonite chose to use the Mission 1.0 core and wrapped it with their new XL1250 cover. The Mission 2.0 comes out of the box at a 2000 Abralon finish. The pearlized cover creates a cleaner look in the heads than the original Mission.

We found the Mission 2.0 to offer the best look for all three testers on our oily test pattern. The XL1250 cover pushed through the front part of the lane with ease. It picked up the midlane similar to the Mission and has the largest difference in the back end. All three testers were able to get the Mission 2.0 further right downlane than the original Mission on this pattern.

Moving to the medium pattern, Cranker nearly had to loft the left gutter cap to create enough length for the back end movement created by the Mission 2.0. Tweener was a good arrow left of where he likes to play the medium pattern. Stroker had the most recovery he has seen in a while when he got his Mission 2.0 to the friction.

On the sport pattern, all three testers were able to feed the ball farther right than usual, due to the downlane recovery. The downlane reaction will be tamer on longer sport patterns. The original Mission created an arcing type of reaction for higher rev players, especially when they tried to play deeper angles. This resulted in flatter hits and kept players further right. With the 2.0, there is no need to fear opening up the lane.

The dry pattern offered little reaction for any of the testers.

Strengths

What we liked about the Mission 2.0 was the strong read of the midlane, like the original Mission, with the added benefit of a stronger back end reaction. Those who like a strong read of the lane without losing any downlane reaction will enjoy this new piece.

Weaknesses

As is the case with the majority of high performance equipment, the Mission 2.0 will struggle on short and drier conditions. Only players with minimal rev rate and high ball speed will find success with the Mission 2.0 on patterns with less than a medium volume of oil.

Overall Summary

The Mission 2.0 is the latest addition to the Ebonite High Performance line of bowling balls. The 2.0 offers the same strong midlane that made the original Mission so successful, while offering a stronger move downlane. Players who like to play deeper lines will enjoy the added recovery of the new XL1250 pearl cover. The 2.0 offers a great one-two combination with the Mission on medium-oily and oilier lane conditions.