Great games are usually based on one great ball - and that's rarely the first one.
Literally all of the high scores on my machines are the result of that one magic ball, not all three.
Just last weekend we were playing LotR. First ball was an insta-drain, second was taken by another player by mistake (he thought it was his saved ball) and also drained quick. With the last ball I almost made it to Valinor, just missed it by 5 or 6 shots.