Hey everybody... Old schooler here who's just contemplating coming back from a 25 year hiatus. Without sounding like I'm stuck in the past, I loved the brown top TS of old; however, I just watched that promo vid, and I have to say...it looks like the Warrior plays similarly to my beloved brown top. Back then (and excuse my old school vernacular) it was common to see banks from back and front men, uncountable variations of back- and front-pin shots (we called them toes instead of pins), pull and push with or without the pin, kicks/wristers, slaps (much more capable, no-tell, palmed predecessor to the modern rollover shot which could be performed on the fly or stationary), reverses, tap-slaps, tic-tacs, back man flip-backs...you name it...shot variation was simply part of the game, be it local play or bigger tourneys. The game seemed more exciting back then, even from a spectator standpoint. Then Tornado came around after TS went under, dominated for the next 20+ years, during which I lost touch, and with a unique "then and now" perspective, all I'm seeing in the videos with top players, and at the local level are pull/push kicks, and snakes. What happened to this sport? I'm not taking away from the talent playing these days...there's no doubt they're talented as hell, but it seems to me the Tornado table's play characteristics have limited play overall.
Anyway...just wanted to say the Warrior Table (and I'm keeping an eye on Fireball too) really seem like tables which are going in the right direction for the sport IMHO. I just hope each company finds its way through the maze of promoting their product so it becomes a real force in the bar/bowl/tourney/tour segments. I think the sport needs a modern twist on the old German/French hybrid idea the brown tops helped to forge years ago.
Just my 2 cents.