DAYTONA BEACH WAS A BLAST! Carolina and Florida Show Off, Chicago Shows Up, Princeton Shown…the Door?
Front cover of the MLTT Eastern Division program guide, which greeted and informed spectators at the Daytona Beach Ocean Center Arena this past weekend. For fans of table tennis, the first weekend of MLTT play could not have been more exciting.
September 18, 2023. Majorponghead’s travel budget was just enough to send this intrepid reporter to Daytona Beach for the long weekend marking the first weekend of competition of the MLTT, featuring the four Eastern Division teams. I was stoked! Got to stay in the beachside Hilton where the players and officials all stayed, just a quick 3 minute walk across the street to the Ocean Center Arena where the matches were held. I got there early on Thursday, and with our press pass we were given early entry to the arena to check out the setup and players going through their preparations.
The conditions were perfect. “Better than the WTT” was a comment overheard from several anonymous players. Witnessing all the work that went into the production was super impressive, from the logistics teams to the broadcast setup with ESPN’s Evan Lepler doing play-by-play, USATT Hall of Famer Sean O’Neill doing color commentary, and the Voice of Table Tennis Adam Bobrow as master of ceremonies slash emcee. Even more exciting was being backstage, so to speak, watching how professional players and coaches go about their business to get prepared. There was both a sense of excitement and fun, but tinged with an undercurrent of intensity. It really felt like, for many of these players, they were about to do something that might be the most important thing in their careers.
That said, I’m way too jet lagged and hung over to go into details, so this isn’t going to be a play-by-play analysis. Also, I certainly do not want to take away from the experience of viewing it yourself. If you couldn’t be there, the next best thing (and a pretty damn close second, I must say…the production value is so good it’s like watching an ESPN broadcast) is watching the live-streamed matches yourself on the MLTT’s Youtube channel. The one thing that is missing (so far) is highlights. They need highlights! Cause there were so many rallies that had spectators alternating between gasps and holding their breath, before bringing the roof down with shouts and applause. Adam Bobrow was his usual effervescent self, brought so much energy and fan engagement to the live experience, his enthusiasm was just infectious.
Carolina and Florida both excelled all weekend long. Their top draft picks, Enzo Angles and Daniel Gorak respectively, proved their coaches’ wisdom in selecting them first. They competed in total boss mode the entire weekend with barely a single hiccup, with Angles compiling a near-perfect singles record of 8-1, while Gorak quickly earned the monicker “King of the Golden Game.” Carolina’s Angles and teammate Hong Lin proved to be a dominant doubles team, with a 6-3 record over 3 matches. Kai Zhang was an absolute standout with an array of blazing winners and lightning fast footwork that had the crowd going insane. Romain Lorentz proved his quality and played with a veterans’ moxie, giving his team everything they could hope for and more. Dupont Bastien and Jeremy Hazin overcame shaky starts to perform incredibly well in clutch situations on day 3.
So a great job by the Carolina Gold Rush…but make no mistake, the highlight of the weekend was the chompin’ hometown Florida Crocs, who ran out to a 3-0 record with resounding wins in all 3 Golden Games they played…which, as an aside, from a spectator’s point of view is an amazingly fun roller coaster ride of a format that has the crowd living and dying with the players with every single point. There’s a palpable sense that every single point can be the game changer, regardless of whether it’s the #1 draft pick or an emergency sub from the bench with the spotlight on them at that moment…and the Florida players definitely handled the pressure better than any other team this weekend. Maybe time for Majorponghead to issue an apology for its preseason poll article! With the spectators joining with the players in celebratory croc chomps all weekend long, every time the Crocs played the arena became a party zone. With Matilda Ekholm mirroring Daniel Goran’s smoldering intensity, their doubles paring equaled that of Carolina’s with the best record of the weekend at 6-3. But it was the Crocs’ Fiery Four that over performed literally every time they were called upon: the 3-time Spanish national champion and fiery competitor Marc Duran raised the volume level, then the never-say-die Benjamin Brossier quickly became a fan favorite. Happy warrior Ojo Onaolapo and Mishel “Yellow Card” Levinski might be on opposite ends of the emotion meter, but both had their meters turned up to 11 and in the end it was them laughing and their opponents crying.
The Chicago Wind more than held their own against the competition with an overall 18-18 record in singles. Veteran European league standouts Damien Provost and Alexandru Cazaku showed Coach Eric Owens’ wisdom in drafting these proven, battle-hardened players, as their level of play was so unbelievably consistent from first point to last. Dan Liu and Aleksandr Khanin took a little time to find their footing, but once they did, their results were spectacular. Liu brings the thunder, and Khanin provides the lightning. Teen superstar Emily Tan is all smiles and laughing off the court, but on the court she is a steely eyed killer who doesn’t give an inch to more experienced/accomplished opponents…she might just be a high school kid but not once during the entire event did she look intimidated…count us as huge fans! Daniele Pinto probably would tell you himself that he played below his own expectations, but pretty sure the team isn’t too worried about their young Italian Stallion over the long haul.
Princeton Revolution proved to be the big disappointment. Yes, it’s a long season with 6 more weekends coming and many chances to catch up. And yes, they were missing a couple of starters due to Pan Am Championship commitments (Jishan Liang for Team USA, and Edward Ly for the Olympics-bound Team Canada), but let’s not beat around the bush. The Revolution fizzled. If we want to start off with the bright spots, there were a handful. First and foremost was defensive master Mathieu de Saintilan who was hands down the most spectacular player of the entire event. The fans were glued to their seats every point he played…this reporter even heard an elderly gentleman bemoaning how badly he needed to go to “the little boys room” but couldn’t bring himself to leave for fear of missing one of the highlight reel rallies. Ukrainian national team member Ievgen Pryschepa flew in from Sweden to join his squad in time for Day 2 matches and instantly brought a winning mentality. Free agent pickup Senura Silva was an absolute joy to watch as he played in the #5 spot with nothing to lose, and quickly won over the hearts of everyone with his spirited fighting spirit and lightning fast counterattacks. The Youtube livestream chats were filled with admiration for Senura the Sri Lankan Sensation, who must have impressed all the coaches in the league and will undoubtedly become the most sought-after free agent for this season. How was this kid not drafted in the first place? The defensive doubles team of de Saintilan and Angela Guan went into every match as the decided underdog and looked very much out of sync early on, but improved continuously and even won 2-1 against Chicago on day 3. But the team’s #1 pick Jinxin “The Professor” Wang, after a decent but shaky start, never seemed to find his own level and continuously put his team in 0-3 and 1-2 holes. He wasn’t particularly effective in the Golden Games either. Austrian Alexander Chen was wildly inconsistent, usually starting off matches spectacularly well, but then suddenly stumbling along the way and unable to seal the deal. Perhaps some bad luck in losing two Golden Games by razor thin margins, we’ll see if that kind of luck (like broken bat singles in baseball) will even itself out over the course of the long season. But Princeton better be hoping like hell it will, because they’ve dug themselves a considerable hole to start the season. Very rare to see a favorite stumble so badly out of the gate, but perhaps they will relish the underdog role they’ve hung on themselves.
Eastern Division team standings after the first weekend of play. With the NHL style of points taking precedence over W-L record, you can already see how each individual, in-match game matters, as Carolina ranks first for playoff contention despite Florida’s perfect 3-0 record.
One final footnote to end this article. Many thanks to MLTT commissioner Flint Lane for his incredible hospitality. The league is really focusing on a superior fan experience and once he found out that I was writing for Majorponghead, he upgraded my nosebleed seats to the VIP section for one match! Honestly, I think he gave me his own seat because I saw him sitting at the control table afterwards. But here’s a pic from my vantage point during Carolina vs Chicago…and let me tell you, being this close to top players is an incredible experience. Being able to see the subtle nuances of what the players are doing, the sound of the ball sizzling through the air, that cracking sound of the ball as it catapults off the Butterfly 09C…it’s just so freaking awesome and intense!
Tan/Khanin for Chicago facing off against Angles/Dupont of Carolina in a crucial doubles match. I wanted to understand French so badly during this match, cause I was so close I could hear the the French guys talking strategy between points!
Next up is the exciting opening weekend of the Western Division, which will take place at the Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz, CA! While we won’t be there in person (I know, it hurts…but I used up our 2023 vacation days already), we’re going to be live-streaming the matches in our office at Majorponghead and will come out with an article early next week. Until then, keep ponging!
