NOTE: Im not a full time english speaker, so there may be some lang errors in review.
NOTE2: It's just a casual review of intermeditade level player, but I tried to do my best for sharing my experience with this new LP.
NOTE3: Because I played FeintLong3 and Curl P1r I compared Ilius to these LP's. (In all 3 sponge was 1.1 or close to it)
Introduction:
Ilius S is a new rubber from BTY. For around 34$ (its not much, I was prepare for higher price, nice work BTY!) we got a large square sheet in a typical BTY package, only rubber+paper on it, no glue foil, no attached glue on sponge, which is nice, I don't like manufacturer ones, I prefer to do it Myself. Looks very solid, after assembling blade I tried to separate sponge and topsheet from pip's leftovers, but it's glued very solid, it's not possible to order sponge one to tear it to OX + sponge to use later, at least whitout using any chemicals. Ive seen no fabric errors like holes in sponge or some stains on topsheet. So it seems like a very nice product. Forgot to weight it, because i had no wage to mesaure pips, bit Ilius is sure heavier than FL3 or P1 (ofc sponged ones)
Testing Setup:
Fh: Sanwei Target National (raw, I don't use booster)
Blade: Joola Chen Weixing blade 2021 edition, with new design of paintings and handle. (87g)
Bh: Ilius S Red 1.1
Glue: Gewo clean stick glue
First impact
Because my blade is kind of fast , I just tried to some flat hits to air (whitout table) ball wasn't going very high, seems like sponge is dead, which is nice I like it. Pips seems very grippy. After warmup I decided to play all strokes that I can play, separated them to Off and Def.
Defensive strokes
Pushing on table:
Ball goes not so low, You may have to be careful to adjust wrist. Pushing against backspin or flat balls seems quite good, but not so nice as FL3, but better than with P1.
Chops:
Ilius S main weapon is of couse slicing far from table, and Wow, feeling is completly different, but chops are very consistent and controlable. Spin is moderate, depends on arm movement. Because sponge is dampening, You can choose just to cut it very light, ball will go with little spin, or cut it brutal to get massive underspin. Ball goes low, not so fast as chops from P1, perhaps same for FL3. Tried to chop from FH and BH, results are very satisfying, so BTY made a good work on creating this LP.
Blocking on table:
Of course I have to split blocking for 3 types:
Normal no movement block:
Ball goes very slow, reversal is not a strong side of Ilius, but sometimes You may just have to do block, and it works.
Chop block:
Same as above, but with more underspin, but don't count for decepcion or heavy reversal: OX pips are way better to do it.
Side swipe block:
If topspin is coming slow, You can block it with side movement, ball goes with quite nice sidespin due to grippines, I liked it.
Allround and offensive strokes
Drive:
Ilius is very grippy, so driving is a pleasure, hard sponge makes pips bending so results are nice, ball goes slow but with some random spin.
Attacking from backspin balls:
Sponge is hard so with hitting from backspin is a pleasure, maybe not so good as with OX lp or Antispin, but does a trick.
Chop-spin (?):
When I've got flat ball on FH sometimes I do Forehand tospin with pips, because grip is quite high chop-spin (it's my name of it) works very well, I could do it repetitively.
Flicks and flips:
Especially from short undespin balls, ita quite easy to lift ball with wrist to produce short targeted stroke. Nothing very dengerous, but it's a nice surprise element in short game.
Summary:
After 4 sessions with Ilius S I decided to leave it on blade for much longer. Rubber plays with strange feeling at start, but becomes a very nice weapon for a creative player or a passive defender. Below I listed some comparison to FL3 and P1r
Defensive strokes
Pushing on table: FL3>IS>P1r
Chopping: IS>LF3>P1r
Blocking (all kinds): P1r>Ilius>FL3
Offensive strokes with spin
IS>P1r>FL3
Offensive stroked whitout spin
P1r>IS>FL3
Overall: Ilius S is a pure allround rubber, worth to give it a try. Not so pure passive as FL3, but less dangerous as P1r.
Thanks for reading, have a nice day!
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