MLTT Season Two Set to Kickoff in Portland…and team rosters revealed
Some old faces, some new faces! Week 1's host team is irrefutably the most drastically changed team from season one, with a blockbuster trade and multiple draft picks resulting in 6 new players. Led by a pair of Swedes (Nordberg and Lundqvist) as well as an intriguing young player from Japan (Kotomi), and anchored by some familiar stars from the west coast (Xia, Sung, Kumar), Portland looks for a clean break from its season one travails. For those of you lucky enough to live in the Portland area, get your tickets here. For the rest of you, be sure to catch the quality livestream broadcast here.
September 10, 2024. Aaaaand we’re back! The long wait is finally over. Despite all the changes and events that happened over the league’s first offseason, the time still seemed interminable if you (like us) are addicted to the MLTT adrenaline rush fan experience. Now with all 8 teams somewhere between “significantly revamped” and “completely remade,” we have the first four teams en route to one of the best arenas for fan engagement: Viking Pavilion in Portland, OR. The Portland Paddlers and their rabid fanbase will play hosts to the Bay Area Blasters, Florida Crocs, and Princeton Revolution.
May we present the official team rosters for the first event of the season. Three teams are at or near full strength, but note the conspicuous absence of Ma Jinbao, Lily Zhang and Kheith Cruz for Bay Area...
Three of the four teams will be at or near full strength, but due to scheduling issues the Bay Area Blasters will be without the services of several key team members: Ma Jinbao, Lily Zhang and Kheith Cruz will not be present, replaced by free agents Nishant Lebaka (now playing for his league record 3rd team) and the debut of Jiangshan Guo with her tempo-altering long pips backhand.
Perhaps the single most anticipated moment of the new season will happen on Friday afternoon when #1 draft pick Liam Pitchford takes to the table for his inaugural MLTT match, as Florida kicks off the new season by facing a familiar nemesis, the team that broke their hearts last season: the Revolution. The Crocs will bring a revamped lineup with not only Pitchford but also New Jersey’s Kaden Xu plus Taiwan’s Yuan-Yu Wu looking to chomp and stomp the Princetonians. The Revs will unveil both of their new team members, Benedek “Big Ben” Olah of Finland, and the International Woman of Mystery from China, Wei Wensheng.
"Big Ben" Benedek Olah will need to be a force in the Revolution lineup if they are to repeat their success from season 1 and make a run at healing the hole in the soul of Coach Mathias Habesohn.
This epic rematch will be followed by the new look, Swedish flavored Portland Paddlers with Hampus Nordberg and Jens Lundqvist at the top of their lineup facing off against the shorthanded but still-formidable Blasters. Rookie MLTT coach Timothy Wang will still field a team with plenty of firepower featuring Taehyun Kim, Eric Jouti, Tao Wenzhang and Lashin Elsayed.
All eyes will be riveted upon Great Britain's superstar Liam Pitchford, as he takes off the colors of the Union Jack and dons Florida Croc green for his first match against Princeton on Friday afternoon (4pm PST).
We will have a reporter flying out to Portland so expect an in-depth analysis of the matches and performances next week. We are particularly interested in seeing how the new rules and new players will impact the competitive balance and strategies employed but the coaches. So while many of you might have expected a season-opening power ranking for the eight teams, please note that we plan on releasing that article, which promises to stir up a ton of good, fun controversy and discussion, only after we’ve had the chance to see how these new rules take effect on the table. In the meantime, we hope everyone understands the assignment:
#1: buy tickets to watch the matches in person, if you’re anywhere within shouting distance of Portland State University
#2: subscribe to Major League Table Tennis’ Youtube account and set a notification so you can catch the fantastic livestream broadcast with ESPN’s Evan Lepler, and Hall of Fame Sean O’Neill
#3: check back with us next week for an in-depth recap of the action and possibly even a highly controversial early season power ranking of all eight teams while keeping in mind in last season’s preseason ranking article, we accurately predicted ALL FOUR playoff teams…so give us our flowers, please!
Until then, keep on ponging, Pongheads!
