A Farewell to Texas and to ~10 Years of our Expected Lifespan
Seattle’s Aditya Sareen’s Quad-G (Golden Game Golden Glory) win over Portland and MLTT’s #1 ranked Kou Lei set off a celebration of the ages. Sareen first lay down on the ground to bamboozle his teammates, then took off like a rabbit, hurdled the barriers like Edwin Moses (or Liu Xiang), and then sprinted off for a joyous tour of the arena that put the entire MLTT universe, for a few brief but wonderful moments, into his own personal spin(ners) cycle.
October 30, 2023. After the two blowout wins (Bay Area over Seattle, Portland over Texas), we here at Majorponghead offices had a moment in which we looked at each other with dread…and while the thought was too terrible to vocalize, we were all thinking the same thing: “Is this weekend gonna suck?!?”
Two days, four matches and multiple panic attacks later, we can say that our unspoken fears were unfounded and we are now quite worried that we’re not going to survive this season. FFS MLTT, you’re gonna be the death of us!! The amount of drama, especially in the two Sunday matches, was almost too much to bear...and if you were wondering when MLTT was going to get its signature moment, well look no further than Aditya Sareen and his fellow Seattle Spinners’ 8-second madcap sprint around the rodeo, celebrating their unlikely comeback win against mighty Kou Lei and the Portland Paddlers, which has now been viewed thousands of times from multiple angles on social media. We would be remiss if we didn’t give Olajide Omotayo his flowers for winning 3 straight match points for Portland (from down 20-17 to tie it at 20-20) in perhaps the biggest clutch performance of the weekend, before Sareen stepped into the raucous arena to seal the deal against King Kou. We’ll be understated and say that utter madness then erupted. Sareen hurdling the barriers with his teammates in hot pursuit while avoiding spectators, camera operators, MLTT officials, ball boys, concession stand workers, etc etc etc drove the crowd into a frenzy, delighted the Lepler-O’Neill commentator combo, blew the mind of seen-everything-in-table-tennis Adam Bobrow, definitely gave us the goosies, and with current Cal student Nikhil Kumar part of the pursuit team, reminded us of a particular equally legendary celebration (although full disclosure: no Stanford trombone players were harmed in Seattle’s celebration) that also involved a few Cal athletes.
Updated team rankings. Things are pretty crowded in the early playoff race in the west.
The big picture story of the weekend was the inspired play of the Bay Area Blasters. Coach Maggie Tian’s squad, despite fielding two bottom-of-the-roster players AND a free agent due to the unavailability of three of their top guns, way exceeded expectations with strong performances in all three of their Golden Games to stake an undefeated 3-0 weekend and blasting them up the rankings to the #2 position, just a couple points shy of the lead. We’re giving them the first A+ grade of the season for how they upended expectations and swept their matches. Huge props to all their players, who all showed up and showed out. From Lashin “The Kingslayer” Elsayed’s takedown of Kou Lei, to the huge contributions of Senura Silva, Alexis Douin, Aditya Godhwani, and free agent Angie Tan, the Blasters had themselves a weekend to remember.
Another moment that we absolutely adored. The exact moment that Master Jedi Tao Wenzhang found out that he went 6-3 in singles this weekend.
By now you all know that we don’t particularly report in depth and in detail about games and results…it just seems a total waste of time and very unnecessarily spoiler-ish, given that the matches are all available to watch and re-watch on MLTT’s Youtube Channel. Additionally, with the top notch production value of the video presentation along with the absolutely fantastic commentary work by ESPN’s Evan Lepler and USATT Hall of Famer Sean O’Neill, we literally feel like we have nothing of value to add…and that we cannot say it enough, go watch it for yourself and feel what we felt. It’s so much damn fun and such a joy to see our beloved sport finally presented professionally, and then to have the MLTT athletes put on such a show on top of that…it just feels like a the best gift ever for us pongheads. Anyhow, long story short, this is why we simply like to focus on the moments that struck us over the weekend, be they momentous (like Seattle’s win and celebration of the ages) or subtle, as in the case of the moment captured above with Bay Area’s #1 player Tao Wenzhang. Look at his expression as he learns from Evan Lepler that he went 6-3 for his team in singles…he’s completely surprised but it! “6-3? Really?!?” he says, his happiness so evident in his face. He didn’t even know his own singles record, lol. This moment hit home with us because it illustrates the mentality and approach of a pro like Tao. We’re gonna go out on a limb and say he probably doesn’t go back to his hotel room and calculate how many USATT rating points he gained/lost each day. If you want to see what a forward-facing mentality looks like, look no further. Table tennis is a game of extreme ups and downs. It’s a sport that will at times make you feel like the king of the world, and then immediately humble you, bring you to your knees. Going through as many highs and lows as we do - as amateurs and spectators - is a recipe for shortening your lifespan and, for lack of a better term, sucking. You gotta have short-term memory, as they say. Or in the case of Master Jedi Tao Wenzhang, no memory at all…bordering on ignorance of what has transpired, in order to be better focused on the present task at hand.
Master Tao Wenzhang personifies the ancient Qing Dynasty concept of Nande hutu (难得糊涂) which translates literally as: “hard to attain muddle-headedness.” For those of us in western cultures, it may be a difficult concept to grasp as the absence of information is an anathema to us. But particularly in the realm of sports and competition, not being concerned or saddled with what has transpired in the past may be a very enlightened state of mind!
Ok so we went way into the weeds on that one. Back to sportswriting! The Seattle Spinners get an A on their weekend report card grade. We’re bumping them up from an A- (the score that a 2-1 record normally deserves) because of the glorious way they won their Sunday match and how it added to the lore and mythology of MLTT. Nikhil Kumar, despite some rough spots this weekend, continues to prove himself as a fascinating player to watch, alternating between puzzlingly poor play and stretches of inspiring brilliance. Same could be said of Aditya Sareen, the top two players for Coach Luba Sadovska’s team embody the risk and reward of drafting young players and the wider range of their potential performance. Fabiola Diaz and Olajide Omotayo quickly became arguably the best doubles team this weekend, even defeating the Kou Lei/Angie Tan combo. Andrew Cao continues to be an unflappable warrior, and Ondrej Lapcik more than proved that he belongs.
Ondrej Lapcik: Czech Mate
Ah, what could have been for Coach Christian Lillieroos’ Portland Paddlers. After a great start against hometown Texas on Friday night, they were unable to recapture the magic over the weekend, dropping heartbreaking Golden Games to Bay Area and then in an epic encounter with Seattle, only the second Golden Game Golden Point in MLTT history (hello Ojo Onaolapo, we’re chompin’ at YOU). We’ll give them a B here, as the difference between 1-2 and 3-0 for the weekend came down to a mere 5 points, and that is both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat when it comes to the Golden Game. What can we say, Coach? One day you’re dancing with the stars, the next you’re drinking alone at the hotel bar. King Kou Lei will be remembered on being on the wrong end of Seattle’s Golden Moment, but aside from his first-ever MLTT loss to Elsayed, he was his usual dominant self with 3-0 dismantlings of Sareen and David McBeath in singles. Jiwei Xia was at his best in his 2-1 win over Tao Wenzhang (who was 5-1 against everyone else not named Jiwei Xia). Daniel Tran and his lovely lefty style was a joy to watch, and he seemed to adapt immediately to the MLTT pressure cooker rather well, unlike many of his MLTT peers who required minimally a day of stinking up the joint before finding their own level. Jonatan McDonald failed to capture the magic he displayed in Santa Cruz, as did Isaac Ortiz despite #1 Top Play material like this.
Don’t let the baby faced good looks fool you, Daniel Tran is The Man.
And finally, the hometown Texas Smash. Awkwaaaard. A definite A for effort, but overall we’re grading them at a C+. Going 0-3 before your hometown crowd is a nightmare, but let’s not forget that they came into this weekend severely hamstrung by their top 3 players unavailable. And while they can shake a fist at the similarly-handicapped Bay Area for making them look bad, it’s just a fact that no team was at more of a natural disadvantage than Texas. David McBeath, Darryl Tsao and Yoan Rebetez all fought their hearts out. Emily Wang was an impressive presence, no moment seemed too big for her. Free agent Aaron Wang was really fun to watch, with his combination of creative serves and ability to keep the ball on the table for long rallies. The lone star of the show, however, was the Brazilian making his MLTT debut, Bruno Ventura dos Anjos. Yeah, that’s right Pixar…we are gonna talk about him! Sporting a shock of white hair that makes him look older than he is, Ventura dos Anjos quickly became a crowd and Majorponghead fave when it quickly became apparent that this guy wears his gigantic heart on the sleeve of his Butterfly jersey! He made his MLTT debut on Saturday against Omotayo of Seattle, and much to the delight of the hometown crowd, took the 2-1 win in spectacular fashion with a gutsy down the line backhand serve return winner on game point. Kudos to Coach Jorge Bitzigeio and this squad for asking no quarter and battling to the bitter end. Not the result they wanted, but they can hold their heads high and look for a comeback week in Oakland.
Thank you for the big time hospitality, Texas. Farewell for now to the Lone Star state, but we hope the MLTT tour brings us back soon.
Don’t let the premature white fool ya, Bruno Ventura dos Anjos is both young at heart and young IRL. Here the Majorponghead Time Machine takes us back to a pic of Bruno unleashing a backhand against another high school kid in an U-15 event somewhere.
