CROSSOVER WEEK Part 2 of 2: Princeton Revs, Texas Smashes, Seattle Spins its Wheels…Portland Up a Creek without a Paddle
Oh say can you see, by the dawn’s early light….the Mount Rushmore of MLTT:
L to R: #1 Enzo Angles, #4 Hong Lin, #2 Kou Lei, #3 Koyo Kanamitsu, and #5 Daniel Gorak.
New MLTT Power Rankings are HERE.
December 17, 2023. The remaining four teams not covered in part 1 of this 2-part series were, by and large, teams coming into the Cross Division Event with rosters that ranged from “missing key player(s)” to “duct tape and paper clips” and therefore the expectations and realistic goals were different from the Gold Rushes, Crocs, Blasters, and Winds of the world. While Texas could have rightfully held expectations of making up ground this weekend, Seattle and Princeton were likely in damage control mode, whereas Portland was certainly in pure survival mode. So again, our methodology in grading team performance is linked to the roster strength of each team.
The Golden Sequence: a moment-by-moment depiction of The Revolution’s Golden Moment as Princeton’s JinXin “The Professor” Wang emerged victorious in the weekend’s lone Ultimate Golden Point (vs Texas’ Kasahara), despite suffering damage to his lower back, groin, racket (and multiple barriers).
Princeton Revolution: 3-1 record, 50 total team points earned, but gap increased between them and Florida in the Eastern Division -16 to -21 points. Grade: B+. Kudos to Coach Mathias Habesohn and his merry band of spirited warriors led by mainstays Jinxin “The Professor” Wang and Ievgen “The Terminator” Pryschepa and their inspiring GG performances. In addition to The Professor’s thrilling Ultimate GG point against Texas, Pryschepa was a wrecking ball all weekend in the GG, racking up more won points (22!) than any other player in the competition. Their ace-in-the-hole Koyo “Red Bull” Kanamitsu continued his fine play and rise up the MLTT power rankings, and now at #3 he can no longer fly under the radar as he has now appeared on MLTT’s Mount Rushmore along with #1 Enzo Alles, #2 Kou Lei, and #4 Hong Lin (OK, we commissioned some extra mountain space and chisel #5 Daniel Gorak’s handsome face up there too…MLTT’s Mount Rushmore wouldn’t be complete without the Crocs’ Commander in Chief).
Koyo pictured here with his primary Red Bull supplier, Princeton Revolution majority owner Roger Kang. Unfortunately for Kang and the Revolution, Red Bull Koyo became Red-Eye Koyo after the first two matches, catching an overnight flight to play in his Austrian League match on Sunday (where he remarkably posted victories in both singles and doubles after a rushed Über from the airport and despite his team being sponsored now by Monster Energy).
With solid contributions from Alex “The Logo” Chen and free agent Nishant Lebaka (Princeton’s scouting department deserves a raise), Princeton ran off wins in its first three matches against Texas, Seattle and Portland, but then their magic finally ran out on Sunday against Bay Area, despite Wang’s thrilling 2-1 upset victory over MJB, and the mixed doubles team of Pryschepa and Angela Guan shocking the world with their 2-1 upset of the male-male pairing of Tao/Godhwani. But despite losing a bit of ground to the romping’, champion’ Crocs, Princeton can consider it a Mission Accomplished weekend, managing to stay in the playoff hunt for the second half of the season despite missing their #2 and #3 players for Rock Hill.
Princeton MVP: Ievgen Pryschepa. This was a tough call, Jinxin Wang was definitely also in the running for his solid performance in singles (winning 7 of 12 games), Ultimate Golden Point glory over Texas, and great win over Ma Jinbao. But Pryshepa was in full Terminator mode all weekend. While he did not fare well in singles, he more than made up for it with spectacular performances in doubles and the aforementioned record-setting 22 Golden Game points won. And the great thing about Pryshepa is that his team can always count on him…The Terminator doesn’t even need to say “I’ll be back.”
Texas came to Rock Hill on a high note, looking to extend their winning ways after a successful campaign in Pleasanton less than 2 weeks earlier.
Texas Smash: 0-4 record, 28 total team points earned, moved up from 4th to 3rd place in Western Division, from -9 to +3 vs Portland. Grade: B-. Firstly, we want to admit that we underestimated the impact that missing their two Team USA players, Amy Wang and Nandan Naresh, would have on the Texas Smash in our preview article. When you’re missing your top overall draft pick (Amy) and your #3 male player (Nandan), it’s just not going to be easy. But Coach Jörg Bitzigeio’s strategy of selecting a 2nd female player in the draft (Emily Wang) paid dividends all weekend, and was a single Golden Game Ultimate Point away from being hailed as a master-stroke, when Emily completed the Golden Sweep on Princeton to bring the match to a dramatic 20-20 tie.
Secondly, let’s all take a collective breath filled with empathy and just say that for Texas, this weekend was this close to being a smashing success and that the Golden Game once again proved itself to be a medieval torture device created by mad King Flint Lane to bedevil different teams each weekend, and this weekend it was Texas’ turn in the dungeon. While they were not competitive in their GG loss to Chicago, a total of 7 measly points separated them from what would have been resounding wins over Princeton (20-21), Carolina (18-21) and Florida (18-21). Such a fine line between despair and glory, but such is life in the MLTT reality show. That said, we can’t imagine a better coach than Bitzigeio to remain sanguine and help his players turn the page on what could have been to what do we have in front of us, as Texas nevertheless moved up a spot in the ranking due to Portland’s even greater travails,
Hiromitsu “Crazy Eyes” Kasahara was a Lone Star for Texas in Rock Hill, winning 9 of 12 singles matches, and contributing in both doubles and the Golden Game. His rising level of play might have been overshadowed by his misfortune in being on the court for multiple last Golden Game points for Texas, but his ascendance bodes well for Texas’ playoff run in the 2nd half of the season.
Texas MVP: Hiromitsu “Crazy Eyes” Kasahara. Has anyone else noticed how intense Kasahara is when he plays? The focus is off the charts, to the point where it sometimes looks like he’s giving his opponent the stare-down…but off the court you cannot find a more humble and genial character in the league, so we are nicknaming him “Crazy Eyes Kasahara” in jest and in honor of his intensity on the court. Kasahara was a standout for Texas especially in singles, while also winning a couple of key doubles games with partner Emily Wang. His personal highlight of the week may have been his dominant 3-0 win over Carolina’s Romain Lorentz. Overall, he was responsible in part or in full for 11 of Texas’ 28 points (39.3%) in Rock Hill. We haven’t done the math for everyone, but we’re willing to bet Coach Alex Yang some cold hard cash that Kasahara led the league in this statistical category.
Seattle spun its wheels this weekend, but Johan Hagberg’s story arc continued its skyward march with yet another fantastic individual performance. It’s been no secret that we at Majorponghead are MAJOR Johan fans, with the combination of his creative, out-of-the box playing style and charisma overload during the postgame interviews. Earlier this week, Johan allowed the public to get a deeper look inside his journey with this honest and heartfelt IG post which had us mashing the heart button. Give him a follow, he’s one of the most interesting personalities in MLTT.
Seattle Spinners: 0-4 record, 26 total team points earned, dropped from 1st to 2nd place in Western Division, from +5 to -14 vs Bay Area. Grade: C+. Coach Luba Sadovska and the Spinners no doubt had higher hopes for the weekend coming off their head-turning performance in Pleasanton, where they ran the table on the Western Division and shot into the overall lead in the standings. But while they did so with their 2nd round draft pick Aditya Sareen (off representing Team Australia at the World Youth Championships), they were in an even tougher situation this weekend with both Olajide Omotayo and Fabiola Diaz also unavailable. And while Hagberg shined like a supernova, winning 7 of 12 matches including a gutsy 2-1 victories over Princeton’s Jinxin Wang, Ojo Onaolapo of Floria, and Jeremy “Great Northern Wall” Hazin, and Andrew Cao battled his way to victories in two of his three singles matches, it wasn’t enough. Perhaps feeling the pressure of needing to win every match he played, Seattle’s #1 Nikhil Kumar competed with perhaps too much of a sense of urgency and dropped tough decisions in 3 of his 4 singles matches. But all said, in the end it was an uncharacteristically quiet and low-key Seattle showing as they were blown out in 3 of 4 Golden Games, with the one semi-close loss (21-14 to Chicago) a rather deflating affair after going in with a 5-point lead.
So yes, Seattle had themselves a very tough weekend, falling out of first place. But let’s look at the bright side - the Spinners banked so many points in Pleasanton that a weekend like this, which would have proven disastrous for any other team not named Gold Rush, ends up being something that Seattle can weather (despite its terrible weather). They’re still in a playoff spot with a decent amount of space between them and 3rd place Texas. Coach Sadovska no doubt has her players already looking ahead to next month, and assuming they get their full squad back (or at least a semblance of it), we fully expect them to be running laps again at the Portland Expo Center in late January.
Seattle MVP: Johan Hagberg. This was an easy decision. Hagberg not only won 3 of 4 singles matches, he also contributed 5 game wins in doubles with his free agent partner Yasiris Ortiz, and he did all of this after being moved up to the top of the draw due to Seattle’s absences. He battled tooth and nail for every point he played, despite still feeling the lingering effects of the injury suffered in Pleasanton. If Seattle is looking for silver linings, Hagberg offered them an entire playbook of them. His successful foray into the top positions in singles bodes really well for the team when they get Sareen and Omotayo back, and Hagberg can drop back down and look to overwhelm his matchups there.
The Majorponghead Upset of the Month goes to….Seattle’s Ondrej Lapcik! In an absolute head-scratcher if you’re anyone associated with the Carolina Gold Rush, Lapcik ate the goose egg in game one of his match with Dupont Bastien 11-0. Then apparently Coach Sadovska gave Lapcik the secret to table tennis life or something, because he then came roaring back out of the abyss to win the next two games over a rather stunned Bastien, in a rather stunned arena.
Portland Paddlers: 0-4 record, 14 total team points earned, dropped from 3rd to 4th place in Western Division, from -4 to -14 out of a playoff spot. Grade: INC. As if things were'n’t already going to be tough enough for Portland, with the Mighty Kou Lei, Rachel Sung and Daniel Tran all unavailable for Rock Hill, Coach Christian Lillieroos was also a late scratch due to illness. With all these handicaps staring them in the face, it would have been understandable if the Paddlers folded like a cheap, non-Butterfly brand track suit (click here to purchase a high-quality Butterfly Team USA track suit…accept no alternatives!). But if you came here expecting to dance on the grave of the Paddlers and read about a failing grade, you’re sorely mistaken…in the immortal words of Captain Jack Aubrey of the HMS Surprise, you’ve come to the wrong place for anarchy, brother.
Yes, the results were awful and they now find themselves in challenging situation to make the playoffs. They were led by interim emergency coach/owner Idan Levi….so while we made light of Portland’s leaderless situation in the article title, this was actually far from the truth: owners of other teams were caught on a hot mic expressing their surprise that a fellow owner could step in and take the coaching reins, but Levi was formerly a high level player in his own right, having competed both internationally and as a member of the famous Texas Wesleyan collegiate program, before going on to a successful career in business.
Taking their cue from Levi’s fiery competitive spirit, the Paddlers refused to go quietly into the night, fighting and clawing tooth and nail down to the bitter end. Their matches, whether they were getting stomped by Carolina or trading blows in a tense dust-up with Princeton, were the loudest in the arena. Watching Jiwei Xia in a match, you can never tell the score…the man just battles and fights for every point like it’s tied 10-10, it’s as if every point for Xia is an Adam Bobrow Gooooooooooolden Point! And after a match, you can also never tell who’s won or lost by watching him, as he’s also the most congenial personality around. The man is living his best life.
Tyrese Knight signing yet another autograph for a new fan. The sprawling Rock Hill Sports Center also hosted a youth basketball tournament that weekend, and the MLTT arena was often filled with curious first time hoopsters who flocked to the charismatic and fan-friendly Knight.
Jiwei’s teammate Tyrese Knight is also an affable personality off the court, but on the court his fighting spirit takes perhaps a somewhat harder edge as evidenced by his contentious and drama-filled match against Princeton’s Alex Chen. Although the favored Chen eventually pulled out a tight 2-1 victory, Knight gave as good as he got and the game was emblematic of Portland’s entire weekend. Isaac Vila Ortiz, the Human Highlight Reel, was yet another Paddler who showed amazing fighting spirit in every match he played. Jonatan McDonald was a Golden Game standout, posting a team-high 17 points won. In summary, the wins were scarce but the spirit burned as brightly as ever, and we’re expecting a big run for a playoff spot in the latter half of the season from Portland.
Portland’s Jiwei Xia, the happiest of all warriors.
Portland MVP: Jiwei Xia. The leadership and example provided by Xia in a less-than-ideal situation this weekend was a factor in holding the squad together. His 2-1 victory over Chicago’s Damien Provost was a solid win and probably his individual highlight of the week, unless you count the historical footnote lone game win against Romain Lorentz, preventing a Carolina shutout. If you find yourself chuckling about this, keep in mind that if Portland makes the playoffs by a single point…
We will leave you with the updated team rankings after 4/7ths of the season. The race is tighter in the West than in the East, but all teams are still within striking distance of a playoff spot. We’re looking forward to a wild ride for the latter part of the season with the Eastern Division first locking horns on January 5-7 in Florida, and then January 26-28 the Western Division teams renew hostilities in Portland. Tickets are of course already on sale!
Keep on pongin, Pongheads!
