“...super-light design that offers exceptional ball control and precision.” – Oxdog.net
FSL is a blade that I have little to no experience with prior to this review. I have had one sitting on my shelf for a couple of years now, and it is about time I give it a chance. Much to my surprise, this blade was advertised as one of the most sold ones on multiple web stores. I personally see very little usage of FSL in both my own games and at the pro level. Many of Oxdog’s top models have included FSL for some years now, though, so it is not completely out of the question that FSL holds a moderate yet dedicated user base. Forgive my digression into marketing oddities, let’s focus back on the blade itself.
Oxdog has clearly attempted to take a completely different route in the design process of FSL. The rectangular shape is not something you get in many modern blades as it can be quite polarizing. The lack of any “pocket” at the tip of the blade is an interesting choice too. In Avox, for example, the pocket is often the biggest aspect people praise. The upside of this pocketless design is the consistent feeling from tip to heel. This is beneficial to players who don’t like holding the ball close to the tip of the blade. FSL comes with a new MBC2 variant, which has an additional carbon insert, further increasing the blade’s stiffness. The build quality is great, and I do find this blade quite visually pleasing as well. For me, the 69 gram weight point is optimal for this style of blade.At first, the rectangular shape caused some inconsistencies in my game. It is difficult to pinpoint why this is, as no individual area of my game felt strongly impacted by FSL.
Passing with FSL is decent. Shooting with FSL is decent. Controlling the ball with FSL is decent. What is not decent with this blade? The slap shots! I absolutely love shooting slap shots with this one. I was testing this blade out with a 23 flex shaft and the effortless power I could create is something that you do not get on any other Oxdog product. Sure, it is gimmicky, but this is something I had to highlight. If you are a power play shooter and you get the time to wind up your slap shots, maybe FSL is worth considering.Aside from that, it is difficult to recommend this blade for any position or playstyle.
FSL seems to be designed as an all-around blade, but it simply loses to Optilight and Razor in each individual category. As a Razor enthusiast, this blade should have been the next great thing on paper, but the end product just does not deliver on the promises. FSL’s touch is just a bit too hard and the shape a bit too clunky for me to truly enjoy it. I would not consider this blade bad by any means, but there is no real wow factor for me. For a brief period when Gate didn’t exist, you could justify the use of this blade. The physical structure of FSL is fascinating, but it does not transfer to the feeling in the game. Some interesting gimmicks like MBC2 will probably be adopted into later Oxdog products, but it seems that we are too early into the development process to notice the real benefits of them. The only area where FSL shines is the slap shots, which in reality, are not required in the modern game. I just wish that Oxdog could have made this blade shine in some other, more important aspect, as I do think FSL has a lot of untapped potential. If you are looking for the best use-case for this blade, nail it on a wall and look at it. Probably shouldn’t put this thing on a floorball stick, though.