This creation of the 176 Black Ops is very similar to the origins of the 179 (180 pull) to go with the 190 pull K2 Pettitors.
Originally, the Pettitor 118 was a derivative of the great 116 final, widest Obsethed, stiffening up the center half of that ski, at 190, with both skis designed for Seth Morrison. But Sean Pettit wanted a shorter version. (Seth was about 5'8", maybe 165 lbs., while Sean was maybe 5'4", 140 lbs. roughly, at most.)
K2 lost interest in sponsoring Seth, who to them had aged out, and was making fewer if any more extreme videos. As a result, the new ski was named for Pettit instead of Seth, even though the optimal length for most people was the longer 189/190 Seth version (moved forward 3-4 cm., not on the line), not the shorter Pettit 179/180 version (skied on the line for little folk, skied - 2 cm. for many).
For anyone who has skied both the Pettitors and the 118 Black Ops, the Black Ops are clearly a knock off of the Pettitors; though you would never get the Rossi people to admit this. They would say the widest Black Ops was a modification/improvement of the OG Rossi S7, which may be partly, sort of, true. The S7 is a classically good ski, but I've never heard you can move it foward to make it "turny," and better (like the longer Pettitors and Black Ops 118 and Sender Squad).
Seth himself skied his Obsethed 190/116 at +4.5 cm, where a few friends - and K2 Reps at the time -
also skied both that Obsethed and the 190 Pettitors.
When I tried this, I found that +4.5 was the point where one stopped feeling and being able to drive the tips, even just a little bit; those skis thus became more freestyle, pivoting around their radius more, and being better for airs, flips and switch.
(But I like to drive the tips at least a bit while getting some of that "pivot around the radius" feel, @ +3.5 to +4).