MLTT Fantasy League
MLTT Fantasy League….oh it’s on like Donkey Kong! And we at MajorPonghead are in it to win it.
October 26, 2023. In the immortal words of Billy Joel: “It’s just a fantasy. It’s not the real thing.” Having grown up in the shadow of Oyster Bay, Long Island (oops, a small clue about our concealed identity), it pains us to disagree with Mr. Joel. But this looks to be the real deal! We at MajorPonghead have to admit that we didn’t see this one coming. On the eve of Week 2 of the Western Division event in Katy, Texas (get your tickets here!), Major League Table Tennis has just announced its first ever Fantasy League. It’s open to all, there’s absolutely no cost to join, and there will be lots of amazing prizes for the weekly winners, as well as some pretty incredible prizes for the season winner. Click on the link to see the rules, awards, and to get started forming your own formidable fantasy squad! With no entry fee, what’s the downside?
OK here’s the downside. Since we at Majorponghead have thrown our hat into the ring already, we are suggesting that you (our loyal readers) don’t even bother entering, cause sorry but we’ve got this one in the bag. The players we picked for our fantasy squad this week are basically guaranteed to bring us the weekly fantasy title, so you chumps might as well just give up. Definitely do not bother clicking on the link above and entering your own team, it’ll just prove to be an exercise in abject futility, and honestly, it will just end up with you feeling bad about yourself. We’ll explain why, and after you read the analysis of our picks, you’ll undoubtedly just throw up your hands and say “how am I supposed to compete against THAT?” and just pack it up.
Our fantasy team roster for this weekend:
Kou Lei (Portland)
Nikhil Kumar (Seattle)
Adi Sareen (Seattle)
Jiwei Xia (Portland)
Jonatan McDonald (Portland)
Senura Silva (Bay Area)
Olajide Omotayo (Seattle)
Kayla Goodwin (Portland)
Our Methodology:
Perhaps “methodology” is overcooking it a bit. Let’s just go with “thought process.” Picking the mighty Kou Lei to start things off is almost just a default move at this point, since he’s been so dominant in the early going. It’s essentially a compliment to say there’s nothing more that needs to be said. He’s The Man.
Kou Lei all day, baby.
Similarly, we went with Nikhil Kumar with our second pick because we land on him as the second-best #1, and #1’s are naturally more valuable because you can also count on them for some points via doubles. Initially it was a tough choice between Kumar and Jedi Master Tao Wenzhang of Bay Area, but then when we took their respective doubles partners into account, with all due respect to Angie Tan who we think is going open a lot of eyes, Fabiola Diaz is a notch above the other ladies playing this weekend, and that punch backhand…can we talk about The Diaz Punch Backhand? Actually, no…we have named that shot The Bruno and we don’t talk about Bruno. Ahem. Anyhoo, the Kumar-Diaz team will have the advantage of being a righty-lefty tandem. Finally, Kumar has that rare combination of fiery competitor + tactical thinker, hence his great performances to date in the Golden Games (61.9% winning percentage). So for all these reasons, we think Kumar is gonna rack up the fantasy points for us!
Nikhil Kumar, shown here playing chess while running the 100M dash. It might be a cliché, but with him it’s true.
For our 3rd and 4th picks, we went with a couple guys who we think are plus-plus #2’s on their respective teams. Aditya Sareen possesses an amazingly high ceiling and can elevate his play to unreal heights. He played well his first week, we think he only gets better. Jiwei Xia didn’t have the greatest first weekend of play, but we feel he’s primed for a huge bounce back week since we know there’s a white-hot fire burning inside this guy. Picking #2’s is a tricky proposition, because they’re occasionally flipped in playing order to face the opposing team’s #1 in singles…but on the flip side of the coin, it’s only the #1’s and #2’s who most likely play all 3 matches (whereas each of the #3 thru #5 guys will normally sit one match out). We considered a strategy of only picking one of these guys and then upgrading on the subsequent picks, but in the end we decided against it because we were happy with our 5th thru 8th picks to come.
Adi and Jiwei, sittin’ in a tree
W-I-N-N-I-N-G
First they beat the Chinese, then they beat the Swedes
Then they help us win this damn fantasy league
With the first four spots of our fantasy roster set, we are now getting to the tough part. It’s our guess that many fantasy players are gonna have similar picks for 1-4, and it’s gonna be 5-8 where the money is made, since the fantasy budget will be dwindling and you gotta get the most bang for your buck here. For our crucial 5th and 6th picks, we are looking for the two strongest #3’s and after much inner dialogue, we settled on newly-signed Bay Area Blaster Senura Silva, and one of the biggest surprises of week one, Jonatan McDonald. Picking Silva is probably not a big shocker, given his eye-opening performance in week one as a free agent for the short-handed Princeton Revolution. We love his fight, we love his positive attitude, and we love his 63.6% winning percentage in the Golden Game. McDonald was a breakout star in week one, scoring the MajorPonghead Upset of the Week when he mastered the master Tao Wenzhang by the score of 3-0 no less. One final note on why we went with these two guys, when the Andrew Cao’s and Yoan Rebetez’s of the world are still out there…both these guys are students at collegiate table tennis powerhouse Texas Wesleyan, a short 3+ hour drive from Katy. This means for these two there’ll no travel fatigue, no jet lag, no time needed to adjust. We like the home state advantage!
This caption has nothing to do with table tennis, fantasy or otherwise. But we just wanna say that many if not all of the world’s problems would be solved if we all agreed to put Senura Silva in charge of everything on our planet.
For our penultimate and ultimate picks, we came up with two absolutely brilliant value picks (in case you haven’t noticed by now, the Modesty Moderator at MPH has been on vacation this week) in Olajide Omotayo and Kayla Goodwin. Omotayo is priced as if he’s a bottom of the lineup guy, which is a complete joke cause this guy is a beast…just hop in your DeLorean and go ask 2019 Quadri Aruna, if you don’t believe us. But whether he plays out of the C or D slot in singles, this guy is gonna be a one-man wrecking crew this weekend, mark our words. And finally, we absolutely love that Goodwin is getting a shot this weekend to show her quality. We loved her game at the MLTT Eastern Combine, she’s going to kick some ass and take down some names in the Golden Games for sure. And, it doesn’t hurt that she’s a lefty with a big forehand AND partnering with the mighty Kou Lei in doubles.
Kayla Goodwin’s Purple Reign begins this weekend.
UN-DER-RATED! (clap clap, clap-clap-clap)
So there you have it, Majorponghead’s official fantasy roster and thought process behind all our picks. Definitely do NOT click on this link and enter your own team, because we’ve already spent that $250 Amazon gift card, and we already have plans for that autographed Butterfly Ovtcharov Innerforce ALC Table Tennis Blade.
Keep on pongin’!
