Xiom Omega VII Tour

As mentioned by yogi_bear. This rubber is not for learning table tennis. This rubber is for people that already have a decent technique and spent time with systematic practice to improve it.

The nominal 55 degree sponge is not as noticable as with other compareble rubbers (like Joola Golden Tango). The rubber and topsheet are very bouncy and there is no time a "dead" feeling that you experience so often with harder rubbers. Compared to a Omega 7 Pro, it does not really feel any harder, just much faster. In the begining I used the O7P and O7T on a Vega Tour blade and as mentioned in the O7P review I struggled with the speed of both rubbers.
Over summer last year I was able to adapt to the O7P very well and played it now for 5 month on my FH.
After I received the Omega 7 Tour I tried on the FH first and again had the same problem with speed and spin sensivity as earlier with the O7P. The Omega 7 tour faster and shots tend to get even longer than with the Pro. Blocking was nearly impossible in the beginning and after like 5 hours of trying I gave up.
I then tried the Omega 7 Tour on the backhand and this worked better. Maybe because of the shoter strokes, I was able to manage the speed and also got used to blocking. Only my underspin shots and chops were many times to long and so I gave up on the O7T and wanted to save it for later in the year, when our match season is over, to give it more time in practice like the O7P.

But....I did also receive the new XIOM IceCream Blade and I was surprised how the behaviour of this rubber changed after using it on the this blade. I use the O7T now on the ALC side and use if as my FH rubber. Gone is the blocking problem. I can now precisly block and placement is excellent. Short play is a brease and shots that previously went too long, now have a better arc and get on the table again.

I did put weigth on the negative side, although it has to be mentioned. Omega 7 Tour is a heavy rubber, but this is to be expected with 55 degree rubber.

All in all this rubber is a spin machine. With every stroke you will be able to generate spin. If you are used to the O7P already and would like to add a speed and spin, than O7T is worth a try. It will require some time to get used to the amount of speed. But you will be rewarded with excellent loops with high spin and excellent speed.

As mentioned, the rubber is sensitive to the blade composition. I found it difficult to play it with ZLC (I tried it with the Vega Tour and IceCream ZLC side as well) but works perfectly with the IceCream AZX ALC side (maybe it was designed that way)....

Omega VII Tour
Weight: 74 grams (uncut)
Hardness: Hard
Speed: OFF+
Spin: Extremely High

Omega VII Tour is the hardest rubber and at the same time the spiniest rubber in the Omega VII series. The Omega VII Tour will be out in August and I was fortunate enough to use this ahead of the release date. This is the fastest rubber in the market along with the Joola Rhyzer 48 only that the difference is that the O7T has a 55 degree hardness. I never thought I would use a non sticky ESN rubber this hard. The Vega China was very hard at 54 degrees but this is even harder at 55 degrees ESN scale. At first feel of the rubber before gluing it to the blade, the sponge is very hard but the topsheet feels medium soft. I guess, Xiom designed it as a balance for the hardness of the sponge. When you press against the topsheet, you can still feel your fingers dig into the sponge. I would not call it soft (i.e., the tospheet) but the ball can partially sink to it. It is on the heavy side. At 74 grams, it is even heavier than a DHS Hurricane 3 rubber.

I tested this with several blades like Xiom Stradivarius, Fuga andFeel ZX3 but I spent the testing most with Stradivarius since it has the feel Ilike best. The Feel ZX3 is an awesome blade but since it is Kiso Hinoki, Ichoose to test the rubber more with the Stradivarius because it is a koto outerply blade. No offence to hinoki blade users but this is just a personal preference on top plies that I have for myself. The Omega VII Tour has an extragear or two compared to the Omega VII Asia. The VII Asia is already extremely fast but the Omega VII Tour still has extra speed that can offer. Mind you this is not for the faint hearted. The rubber is not designed for intermediate players or players that are still mastering their basics. It is a beast when you unleash it provided you have the skills because the rubber is the best representative for an all out offensive rubber never caring about defense. This is the rubber you go to when you want an artillery to demolish your opponent’s shots. Onthe serious side, the advanced players will really appreciate this because thepower on the shots is simply above the rest of the ESN rubbers in the market right now. I had to adjust with the rubber in my forehand because it was very bouncy on attacks. This is also because I am accustomed to slower rubbers thatare not as bouncy and not on the level or class of the Omega VII series of rubbers. For the backhand, it was not a big problem because I adjusted to it ina span of 2-3 days. When you are doing topspins, I would caution you to take a step back away from the table the moment comes back because you would need to stay a bit farther from the table because of its long trajectory. The Omega VII Tour shines the best starting at middle distance when you are past the initial attack and are already doing fierce exchanges with counter topspins. Its shines even better when you are far from the table because you will not feel a reduction of power and speed even ifyou will just an all wood blade. When I used this with the Xiom Fuga blade with the Omega VII Tour, the power of the rubber carried it through even at far distance from the table. I recognize that the Fuga is not a slow blade but with other rubbers on it, it would dwindle in its amount of power once you are far from the table.

The thing with the Omega VII Tour is that it does not have the high throw of the Rhyzer 48. The Omega VII Tour has medium or medium high throw when you spin with it but it does not have the profound arc of the Rhyzer rather it has the sharp and long trajectory when doing topspins against underspin or topspins versus block. The spin is one of the spiniest I have tried. It already approaches near the Tenergy 05’s level of spin. If I compare it directly to Tenergy 05, it is almost as spinny but I would trade the Tenergy’s extra spin to the Omega VII Tour’s extra power. In the longer ran especially in rallies, the Omega VII Tour can overtake the Tenergy 05. Also,the Omega VII Tour’s hard sponge gives it a higher potential for spin and especially for power because you can compress more with sponge and the stronger the shot, the more compression with the sponge is needed. The O7T will give you extra juice when the situation calls for a very strong finishing shot whether it is near or far from the table.

The surprising thing about the Omega VII Tour is that it has a lot of gears. It is not linear in every way wherein even at soft or weak shots like drop shots it would be bouncy but in the case of the O7T, the drop shots can be slow. I was surprised that it has a good degree of control on shots inside the table but still needs some adjustments. Blocking is also very stable and I am talking about passive blocks. Active blocking seems to be a bit bouncy and also need adjustment. Nevertheless, despite its overwhelming speed, I would suggest to tame it and tame it with a lot of practice especially as a forehand rubber.If you are an intermediate level of player, I would discourage you to use this in max thickness, even at 2.0mm I still think this would be too fast. This is suited for players who have mastered their shots and have very good control on their counter topspins and other form of attacks. In my opinion, I think we are facing the best attacking rubber that is new in the market right now.