A Purple Five Ball Makes No Sense to Me

[MattPoland]

I can’t wait for the day this backwards color scheme ball set finally loses its luster, undersells, and goes out of production.

There’s no reason with HD cameras, TVs and phones they couldn’t make the 4 purple and the 5 orange. Maybe not the classic version of those colors. But maybe with enough contrast and brightness to stand out well enough.

 

[Woodshaft]

They should just make all the balls the same color. And remove the numbers. And do away with the cue ball. Game would be so easy to follow then

 

[CaptainBly]

Wonder if Matchroom will go the way of the ABA? Remember the odd colored ball?

 

[Pool Hand Luke]

One guy I used to play with bought a black and white striped 8 ball because his regular partners (older) had trouble seeing the all black 8.
Meh.

 

[dnschmidt]

One guy I used to play with bought a black and white striped 8 ball because his regular partners (older) had trouble seeing the all black 8.
Meh.

What a guy! I would have taken the easy money if my opponents were blind.

 

[AtLarge]

Here's Saluc's "story behind Aramith Tournament BLACK colours": https://www.aramith.com/story-behind-aramith-tournament-black-colours

 

[LeftyIke]

The original color choices were optimal.
White and black
3 primary {Red Yellow Blue}
3 secondary {Orange Green Purple}
1 trinary {Brown}

I was always taught that they were all 8 numbers apart: 1&9, 2& 10, 3 & 11, 4 & 12,etc.. With all of the bragging on TV resolution, it’s ridiculous to have to change colors. If the felt is Green, shouldn’t we be able to easily tell?

 

[DDiabolico]

I really liked the color of the Cyclops Zeus balls: https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/cyclop-hyperion-pool-balls.483642/

 

[Buzzard II]

Watching these stupid colored balls on TV is like dropping tabs of orange sunshine. A bad idea in '69 and not much better now. It's just another cheap trick for the Chi Coms to sell more unnecessary junk.

 

[Rachel T]

I really liked the color of the Cyclops Zeus balls: https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/cyclop-hyperion-pool-balls.483642/

I agree! The colors would easily be distinguished from one another while watching on tv, even if not in HD.

 

[mdavis228]

There is no excuse or reason to have the wrong color balls. Period no exception.

Nuff said!!

Fatboy

AMEN! (Yes, shouting)

 

[Jedco]

I hate it when people don't give new ideas a chance, I always try to keep an open mind. But like my dad used to say, if your mind is too open your brains will fall out. If their goal is to make the colors less confusing to spectators, why pick a color that's already in use? I've been watching the PLP stream all week, and even though I know damn well that the colors are different, I STILL keep mixing up the 4 and 5 ball!

 

[iusedtoberich]

I watched a 10 ball stream last night with this set. Earl vs Josh Brothers. The set in 10 ball is even worse than for 9 ball. The 10 is black and blue, and they almost blend together to make it look like the all black 8 ball.

On a traditional set, this can happen with the 1 and the 9 ball. But the difference is in that case, the one is pocketed immediately so if there is any confusion it’s gone quickly.

With the blak set, the 10 and the 8 are on the table for 80% of each rack. So there is confusion 80% of the time.

Emily, are you listening? This set is HORRIBLE! Worse than the Cyclop set we finally got rid of.

 

[poondogger]

Agree with OP. Stupid purple 5 ball has me confused all the time. Change the lighting or camera or...

 

[pw98]

Simple, at this point pink 4 is considered part of their brand. I guarantee there was a meeting in a boardroom with marketing in there and the word brand recognition was used at least once.

I absolutely love the black stripes but there's no way I will buy them with a purple 5. Now if they had any kind of brains at all they could have made the 4 purple and the 5 pink. Not many people play with a pink 4 unless they bought a set to look like the ones on TV, or they are playing on TV themselves.

Maybe they did it so they could trademark/patent the color of the 5 ball so they have a monopoly on the colors used in the major events?

 

[Island Drive]

Ditto to OP...

 

[sjm]

Count me among those who had an issue with the ball colors. It did seem strange that ball colors in use for over a century would be changed. That said, Matchroom was one of many that tried different colors, and they were not the first. Aramith and Cyclops had already introduced balls having non-traditional colors. I wish that none of them had done so but we'll probably never get back to where we were.

At this point, isn't it best to just embrace (and, of course, memorize) the new colors? Is it really that difficult? My biggest hope, given where we are, is that they don't switch the colors again.

 

[garczar]

Here's Saluc's "story behind Aramith Tournament BLACK colours": https://www.aramith.com/story-behind-aramith-tournament-black-colours

Bunch of bs. E. Frazier and MR just have to continually piss on their territory. That shit about better visibility on 'small screens' aka cell-phones is pure malarkey. They're hideous.

 

[Island Drive]

Makes me wonder who will come up with a different color for the 8 ball.

 

[Guy Manges]

OK, maybe purple isn't that good of a color for TV so change the four ball to pink to make it stand out more on TV. I'm OK with that.
A black and Yellow Nine Ball doesn't bother me either. Can't deny that it does stand out on the table.
HOWEVER, if purple sucked on the four ball why is it acceptable on the five ball? Orange is very vivid color and shows up great. DO THE CHINESE MASTERS AT PREDATOR HATE ORANGE? What other reason could Predator have to make this stupid change.

Maybe because the word orange doesn't rhym with any other word. Weird