Warrior Nemesis QS Goalie Head Review | Lax Goalie Rat

Warrior Nemesis QS Goalie Head Review

As 2022 winds down, us lacrosse goalies can look back with a smile on our face knowing it was indeed the year of the goalie.

ECD launched the Impact goalie head. True Temper lacrosse launched the Radar goalie head. Several other companies like Deep South, Gait and STX teased new goalie heads to launch in 2023.

Then in early December 2022 one of the earliest lacrosse gear manufacturers Warrior launched a brand new version of their goalie head called the Warrior Nemesis QS.

Quick aside – if you want to see the founder of Warrior lacrosse David Marrow in action, checkout this video of him in action as he wins a national championship with Princeton.

The Warrior Nemesis QS is an upgrade to their latest goalie head the Warrior Nemesis 3. Instead of going with the Nemi 4 title they chose QS for this line (also launching new Warrior Nemi QS goalie gloves which I’ll review soon). QS stands for quick save of course.

Let’s get into the review of the brand new Warrior Nemesis QS.

 

Warrior Nemi QS: Face Shape

The predecessor to this new head, the Warrior Nemi 3, was actually a very solid head in my opinion. However, it was illegal for the women’s game (for some reason).

I’m not a CEO of a lacrosse manufacturer but if a product is eliminating half the market, that’s not good business.

The Warrior Nemesis QS is legal in both the men’s and women’s game and at all levels – international, NCAA, high school, etc.

The face shape of the new Nemi QS remains relatively unchanged. You can see that clearly when the Nemi QS is side-by-side the Nemi 3:

You still have the flat top, the 7 top stringing holes, the classic Nemi outward flared sidewalls.

When you turn this goalie heads to the side you’ll also notice a striking similarity:

Both have 20 sidewall holes giving those stringers tons of options to throw in a tasty channel.

Surface area wise the Warrior Nemi QS is right up there with the highest. Top to bottom the Eclipse is just under 16.5″ while the QS is at 16.5″.

So face shape wise not much changed with this new version and that’s just fine in my opinion.

So what exactly has changed with this new goalie head?

Warrior Nemi QS Ergonomic Throat

More and more goalies these days setup with their top hand gripping the plastic throat.

Option 3 in this pic:

As a result, lacrosse goalie head manufacturers have realized the importance of making that part of the plastic very “grippable”.

That’s what Warrior has done with the Nemesis QS slimming down the throat, elongating it some and adding a little “lip” to make it easy and comfortable to grip. The throat also has a slightly textured finish which feels nice in the hand.

Most goalie heads like the STX Eclipse 2 and the ECD Impact do not have the plastic lip at the throat. I am personally a fan of the lip but this will differ by goalie.

Another thing to point out, the lip actually angles upwards (going toward the back) as you can see in this shot:

Lax Goalie Rat summer intern David Miedema who helped me review this head mentioned he wasn’t a fan of this and would have preferred to keep it level but some goalies may like this.

Overall on the new Warrior Nemesis QS the throat design was redone to satisfy those goalies who love gripping the plastic with their top hand in their goalie stance.

Warrior Nemi QS Goalie Head Stiffness

Another extremely important factor for the modern lax goalie head is stiffness.

If you watch a goalie head at the moment it contacts a shot, a flimsy head will literally bend back to the point that the ball goes into the goal.

Happened in the national championship game to Alex Rode:

Thus not only is stiffness very key in a goalie head, but the maintaining of that stiffness as all goalies know over time a head tends to get more and more flimsy (especially on those hot summer days).

The Warrior Nemi 3 – in my opinion – was stiff out of the box but did tend to get a little flimsy with use just like the STX Eclipse 2 does.

For a solution, Warrior has a new plastic they’re calling Therma-Loc+. This hybrid thermoplastic resin retains stiffness by up to 50% better than standard nylon heads.

The QS head feels stiff. It passes all the tests on stiffness for me.

Check the save Brett Dobson makes about half way into this video. That’s the kind of stiffness you want.

Well need to see how that stiffness lasts over time so I guess I’ll update this post after a season or two of play.

Unfortunately, I have seen some reports of goalies having their Nemi QS sidewall break relatively early in its life:

Has that happened to yours? Leave me a comment down below.

Warrior Nemesis QS: Weight

The challenge in a lacrosse goalie head is making stiffness as high as possible while not sacrificing heavy weight.

For example the CL18 goalie head is the stiffest on the market but its built like a tank and very heavy.

The Warrior Nemesis QS weighs in at a lean 322 grams (11.36oz) unstrung.

For comparison the STX Eclipse 2 is at 325 grams and the Warrior Nemesis 3 is at 319 grams. I don’t have the official weight for the ECD Impact unstrung but its lighter – I’d guess its at 318 grams or so.

So with the Nemi QS you’re still getting a very stiff head at a very nice weight.

When I did the review with summer intern David Miedema we hadn’t seen the official weights yet but he said: “it feels really light..lighter than the Eclipse 2 but not as light as the ECD Impact”.

He was right.

Unfortunately – perhaps because of that lighter weight – some goalies have reported that their Warrior Nemesis QS head keeps breaking. Specifically in the same spot on the sidewall.

I hope Warrior addresses this durability issue because I’ve seen pics like these from a lot of goalies.

Warrior Nemesis QS Stringing

Miedema is also an expert goalie head stick stringer (checkout his ECD Impact stringing tutorial).

He said the Nemi QS strings up identical to the Nemi 3 – which checks out since the face shape wasn’t really altered.

The Nemi line of goalie heads is wider than the ECD Impact or the STX Eclipse 2 and while that is nice in the sense it gives you more saving surface area, it can be a nightmare for stick stringers to get a good channel.

He used the exact same stinging pattern that he used in a pervious Nemi 3 and was able to get a nice channel:

David did point out that the stringing holes are a little smaller so if you’re a stringer who likes to use paracord 550 you’ll need a pair of tweezers and/or pliers to get 2 revolutions through.

So the Nemi QS strings up just like the Nemi 3 and allows you to put in a tasty channel for great rebound control and dropping those dimes on outlets.

Warrior Nemesis QS Look

For now, the Nemi QS comes in 2 colors:

Classic White:

And bone:

Never seen a bone colored goalie head and I gotta tell ya – that thing looks awesome!

During the Lacrosse Goalie Summit 7 over the summer, Warrior sponsored athlete (and previous Lax Goalie Rat sponsored athlete) Brett Dobson gave us a sneak peak of that bone:

Scroll to the final video of this post to hear Archers goalie Brett Dobson talking about the Warrior Nemesis QS:

Maybe they’ll add a black version down the road so us goalies can get the Nemi QS fully murdered out but for now we’ve got white and bone.

Warrior Nemesis QS Price

When I filmed the video review with David Miedema (seen below) the price of this new goalie head was not yet released.

I ventured a guess that it would be in line with the other heads on the market:

However the Nemi QS came in a little higher at $130 (unstrung) making it the highest priced goalie head on the market right now.

Not going to lie I was a little disappointed with that high price as I’m sure many lacrosse goalie Moms and Dads outfitting a youngster will be.

One benefit of this is that the Nemesis 3 (the older model) can now be purchased for just $100.

Grab the Nemi QS here on LacrosseMonkey here.

Warrior Nemesis QS Goalie Head: Video Review

Lax Goalie Rat summer intern David Miedema and myself did a video review of the Warrior Nemi QS goalie head that you can check out here:

Conclusion

With the launch of the Warrior Nemesis QS goalie head, the iconic lacrosse company brings several upgrades over the previous Warrior Nemesis 3.

First of all, the QS is legal in the women’s game. Huge upgrade from the Nemi 3 which wasn’t!

The 2 other main upgrades are a redone ergonomic and grippable throat. I really like the way they’ve done this throat and for goalies who grip the plastic in their top hand setup I think you’ll agree with me.

The 2nd upgrade is a new a plastic called Therma-Loc+ which promises to keep the stiffness in the head over the course of the season.

The price of the Nemi QS is about $20 higher than the Eclipse 2 or ECD Impact at $130.

But overall the Warrior Nemi QS is a great head for young male or female goalie as well the pro’s like Brett Dobson and Dillon Ward.

The only remaining question I have about this goalie head: where are the wing flaps?

Anyone using the Warrior Nemesis QS goalie head? What do you think? Leave me a comment down below.

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4 thoughts on “Warrior Nemesis QS Goalie Head Review

  1. Great review Coach!

    Quick questions:

    1. How does the width compare to the Eclipse 2 and ECD Impact (heigh also here)?

    2. Any update on whether STX, Gait, or Deep South will have a new head out this year?

    1. Width is comparable to E2 or ECD Impact.

      Sorry for the delay in response but good news is all those companies have goalies heads on the market now.

      STX Eclipse 3, Deep South Lacrosse CL Ace, and Gait Command are all available. Gait head isn’t really new, its just the Under Armour Command rebranded.

  2. If you are considering buying this head, plain and simple, DO NOT. I have been an avid warrior lacrosse user for my entire lacrosse career, and this is where I draw the line. The nemesis goalie heads were always my favorite because of their stiffness and durability. I am currently a college goalie, and this season, I have gone through 3 heads in 2 months. All the heads broke in the same spot on the side of the head during warmup-type shots. Temperature doesn’t matter either, and they broke in a range of 20 to 55 degrees. If you are a Warrior fan and want to continue using their goalie heads, go elsewhere because this is a complete waste of $130.

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