Pitchford, Lebesson and Wei Headline a Dramatic Draft that Remakes the MLTT Landscape for Season Two
As expected, world #23 Liam Pitchford and former Euro champion Emmanuel Lebesson went 1-2. In a bit of a surprise, the little-known Wei Wensheng was selected as the first and only woman chosen in the first round at #7. The expected script was essentially followed only until pick #4 by Portland, after which low-level chaos ensued and many pre-draft game plans went out the window.
May 29, 2024. “With the number one pick in the 2024 MLTT draft, the Florida Crocs select….Liam Pitchford.” With those epic words reminiscent of Adam Silver of the NBA, MLTT’s Commissioner Flint Lane kicked off a wildly entertaining and hugely consequential draft, with massive implications on the balance of power among the eight teams for next season.
With only about half the players from season one retained by their respective teams for season two, a lot of new blood was set to come in…ranging from 2 new players for Princeton up to a whopping “extreme makeover” number of 5 for Chicago and Portland. The selections were made by the team coaches (including new Bay Area coach Timothy Wang) and they would all seek to improve their teams while also fulfilling the requirements of having at least one woman + three US players (citizen or permanent resident) per roster. These requirements along with some additional rule changes for season two, which we we get into later, ultimately led to some fascinating strategies and decision-making.
A couple of additional early highlights included the Chicago Wind selecting France’s former European Champion Emmanuel Lebesson with the 2nd overall pick, and the Princeton Revolution selecting the first female player in the draft with their first round pick at #7, the relatively under-the-radar Wei Wensheng of China. You can rewatch the entire draft in its entirety here, and we highly recommend it. Once again MLTT has blown the lid off expectations in terms of presentation, with special kudos to the excellent play-by-play and color commentator tandem of Evan Lepler and Sean O’Neill, plus the MLTT technical and graphics team…their efforts plus Commissioner Lane’s usual command of the situation made the entire proceedings not only an exciting but also an entertaining watch.
A Very Brady MLTT Draft
The MLTT draft was conducted live for the first time, Brady Bunch style! And like an episode of the Brady Bunch there were a lot of unexpected twists and turns along the way, but then many important lessons were learned in the end.
So now, we present our exhaustively researched yet totally unscientific DRAFT GRADING report. As with all list-style articles, the opinions expressed here are ours alone and do not reflect the opinions of people who actually know what they’re talking about. Our analyses and grades are actually an amalgam of discussions amongst our entire pool of staff writers and editors. If you’re a coach, player, fan or someone associated with a particular team and you feel slighted, please note that is why we have a goofy-looking mascot style logo upon whom you may direct your ire.
Complaints Department, how may we help you?
On the flip side of the modesty coin, we’d like to point out that in our inaugural preseason article approximately 10 months ago we accurately predicted with uncanny accuracy all four eventual season one playoff teams before a single loop was looped in anger. Specifically, we nailed Princeton at #2 and Carolina at #4, while Texas at #3 and Bay Area at #1 were flip-flopped. Additionally, and perhaps even more impressively, our staff MLTT fantasy team finished in 2nd place out of hundreds of contestants…so maybe we DO know what we’re talking about? That’s kind of a scary thought. Anyhow, here goes!
The FLORIDA CROCS and Coach Frank Arias owned the 1st, 9th, 17th and 24th picks.
The Florida Crocs: season one players retained (4): Daniel Gorak, Marc Duran, Daniel Gonzalez, Matilda Ekholm. Draft requirements: 1 US player. Players drafted (4) Liam Pitchford, Kaden Xu, Yuan-Yu Wu, Seunghwan Lee
Florida’s run of good fortune continued in the draft lottery, as last year’s #2 pick barely missed making the playoffs, retained the core of their roster, then proceeded to win the lottery and the coveted #1 pick with consensus no-brainer top draft pick and #23 ranked player in the world Liam Pitchford as the grand prize. After Pitch, Coach Frank Arias went on a whirlwind Asian shopping spree. With his #9 pick he satisfied his team’s US requirement by selecting arguably a young player with the highest ceiling available in Chinese-American Kaden Xu. Then in round 3 he visited the beautiful island nation of Taiwan to select an equally young and dynamic lefty in Yuan-Yu Wu (thereby also filling the unspoken need for a lefty on each team, since men’s doubles will be featured next season), and then finally in a candidate for late steal of the draft, he took Seunghwan Lee of Korea in the 4th round. Lee in particular has us intrigued, as the youngster has had some recent wins over big names in the Korean leagues.
Draft Grade: B
Summary: we felt that given the best possible draft position overall, Arias ended up with too many question marks on his roster, by filling it with a preponderance of relatively inexperienced youngsters. Using the #9 pick on Kaden Xu, with all due respect to Xu who is an electric talent, may have been too cautious a move given the other big time names still on the board, even with the threat of Chicago lurking just behind Florida in draft position, needing 3 US players. Certainly these new young guns come with a very high ceiling, but also a lower floor…and when you also take into account that acclimating to MLTT’s unique format has been difficult for many players, plus the travel and jet lag Wu and Lee will face coming from Asia, Arias might have placed too much stock on youth versus experience after the Pitchford pick. That said, the holdovers from season one are experience personified. Individually, Daniel Gorak, Marc Duran and Matilda Ekholm have probably forgotten more about table tennis than we’ll ever know or learn…so this points to it being a calculated strategy on the part of Arias…calculated, but still risky in our opinion for a team sitting in the draft pole position for each round of picks. Arias could have taken a far different tack here, but it seems he’s counting on these young guns to blaze. It will be absolutely fascinating to see if they do. It’s all but guaranteed that Liam Pitchford will be a standout from the outset, but the three big questions for Florida will be:
how do the returning veterans from season one (Gorak, Duran, Ekholm and Gonzalez) fare in their new roles?
how do the newly drafted young Asian and Asian-American rookies (Xu, Wu, and Lee) adjust and perform?
can Arias find a men’s doubles combination that works?
How these three questions are answered will determine whether Florida can take the next step and qualify for the playoffs in season two.
The Chicago Wind and Coach Eric Owens went into the draft with the #2, #10, #18, #25 and one of only two 5th round picks (#30)
The Chicago Wind: season one players retained (3): Damien Provost, Alexandru Cazacu, Daniele Pinto. Draft requirements: 3 US players, 1 female player. Players drafted (5) Emmanuel Lebesson, Mo Zhang, Xiangjing “Sean” Zhang, Yin “Tom” Feng, Daniel Tran.
In season one, Chicago was arguably the most unlucky when it came to the draft, as the #5 pick was also the 4th and last pick out of the East Division teams when many of the top players based in the west coast had the option (no longer available) of playing only in the West Division, putting many of the top players out of their reach. Although you’ve never heard one peep of anything even resembling a whisper of a hint of an excuse out of either Owens, any of the Chicago players or even The Bowen Family (team owners) about this being a factor, we at Majorponghead specialize in not being classy and saying the quiet part out loud…very very loud. Chicago was never able to overcome being hamstrung from the outset by their terrible draft position last season. So while they didn’t win the draft lottery, second place with Emmanuel Lebesson in the draft is a damn good step towards karmic restitution.
Draft Grade: A
Summary: Admittedly we have a number of advanced statistical analytics “nerds” on our staff who were absolutely enthralled with Coach Eric Owens’ handling of his team’s draft situation. First, fully embracing the rebuild by stripping down the team to just the three best players who they felt would contribute most next season (although we remain completely stymied as to why Aleksandr “Sasha” Khanin was not retained), next he went through the motions in selecting the powerhouse lefty Emmanuel Lebesson - as much as a no-brainer pick at #2 as Pitchford was at #1 - and then finally, unlike the aforementioned Frank Arias who dealt with his US requirement early, Owens was ultra-aggressive in selecting his top female choice in the 2nd round with Canada’s eternal Olympian Mo Zhang. Many of our more conservative draft simulations had Owens selecting the best available US woman at the #10 pick, in order to satisfy two requirements (woman + US) with one pick, but Owens was having none of that, clearly determining the drop in quality plus the heightened importance of a team’s female player for season two would not make this the right strategy. Even though he then limited himself into making US-only picks with his remaining choices, he still did very well to secure Zhang, Feng and former Seattle Spinner D-Tran. With the season 2 rules stipulating that two US players must be present at each competition, but that only 1 must play in a match (either singles or doubles), Owens also knew that he could - if desired - somewhat “hide” a weaker US player in the doubles match.. All of this resulted in a “best available first" draft strategy that had our draft viewing party abuzz, especially the corner of the TV room where all the analytics eggheads sit together. When Owens selected Zhang at #10, our offices descended into bedlam with our Editor-in-Chief running around like Charlie Steiner yelling “Follow me…follow me to FREEDOM” in that classic ESPN Y2K spot.
The Seattle Spinners and Coach Luba Sadovsky owned the picks at #3, #11, #26 and #31.
The Seattle Spinners: season one players retained (3): Adi Sareen, Olajide Omotayo, Andrew Cao. Player traded for (1): Kou Lei. Draft requirement: 1 female player. Players drafted (4) Lubomir Pistej, Debora Vivarellu, Thiago Farias Monte Monteiro, Senura Silva.
Coach Luba Sadovska and Coach Christian Lillieroos pulled off the only player trade of the offseason, but it was a blockbuster. Seattle sent Nikhil Kumar and the #19 pick to Portland in exchange for Kou Lei. We’ve never been so certain that there was a ton of drama behind the scenes of this trade, but all of our attempts to ferret out any salacious details have been met with stonewalled silence. But adding the mighty Kou Lei to the young core of Seattle’s season one team put Seattle in position, especially at the #3 and #11 picks, to make critical selections for major contributors for next season. And since we’ve been so adamant in labeling both Pitchford at #1 and Lebesson at #2 as “no-brainer” selections, let’s go ahead and state for the record that Lubomir Pistej is as close to a no-brainer at the #3 pick as you can get. His all-around game is going to open some eyes in the US next season for sure, and don’t be surprised if he notches some wins against opponents that will make you turn into Keanu Reeves chronologically saying WHOA.
Draft Grade: A-
Summary: Coach Sadovska seemingly played her cards just right. After the no-brainer pick of Pistej at #3, her sole focus at #11 was to pick the best female player available in her mind, with the additional caveat that like Chicago before her, female players will likely be matched up against men next season, and so the style of play needed to be effective versus men as well (this is likely why we did not see two of the stronger female players selected -Hopanova and Zhang - since they were defensive specialists). That left a pretty obvious choice in world #90 ranked Debora Vivarelli. With the 26th pick, the ultra-experienced Monteiro of Brazil was simply too perfect to pass up, and then with one of our favorite moments of an eventful draft, with the 31st and last pick she selected fan and player favorite Senura Silva formerly of Bay Area (Senura and Daniel Tran were the only two unsigned players from season 1 rosters who were re-drafted for season two). In the NFL draft, the last pick is always given the moniker “Mister Irrelevant” due to the minuscule chance that he’ll actually make a roster, but we are designating Silva “Mister Relevant” instead. We love the perfect mix of old youth and new experience on this new-look Seattle squad. With the two top picks going to teams out east, this means Seattle’s #1 Pistej may have a clear runway to becoming the new alpha male in the west. You add the evergreen Kou Lei to Pistej and that’s likely the most potent 1-2 punch in the west, with Monteiro anchoring the down singles and Vivarelli hopefully battling the women to a standstill…and therein lies your reason for optimism about Seattle’s playoff chances next season.
The Portland Paddlers and Coach Christian Lillieroos found themselves with bevy of selections to make with the #4, #12, #19, #20 and #27 picks.
The Portland Paddlers: season one players retained (2): Jiwei Xia, Rachel Sung. Player traded for (1): Nikhil Kumar. Draft requirement: 1 US player. Players drafted (5) Hampus Nordberg, Jens Lundqvist, Wei Wang, Omoda Kokomo, Haocheng Wang.
In a whirlwind lead up to the draft, Coach Lillieroos must have felt he was literally dancing with activity. After the disappointment of drawing the short straw in the draft lottery (the #4 pick was the worst possible pick for a non-playoff team team), the team decided to retain only two of its season one players, Jiwei Xia and Rachel Sung, making Portland the team (even more so than Chicago) undergoing the biggest transformation. In the aforementioned trade with Seattle, the Paddlers picked up a key player in the lefty Kumar who will certainly feature in doubles as well as singles. With his first two picks, Lillieroos selected two fellow Swedes: Nordberg is a 30-something well-respected Euro league player who (take it from us, we watched ALL his playing videos) is an athletic, dynamic, powerful two-winged attacker who (you heard it here first) will undoubtedly become an MLTT fan favorite. 44-year old Lundqvist is a pedigreed player of the highest order, having attained a world ranking as high as #19 and having beaten the best players in the world including the God of Penhold himself Ma Lin (on an edge ball no less). In the 3rd round, with two consecutive picks at #19 and #20, Lillieroos then selected the defensive player Wang Wei to fulfill the US requirement, and then in a very calculated move, Kotomi from Japan as the 2nd female player on the team. Finally in the 4th round in a possible “sleeper pick of the draft” selection, he deftly took a flier on Wang Haocheng of China, who could prove to be the Koyo Kanamitsu of this draft (is Red Bull available in China?).
Draft Grade: B+
Summary: while the online chat by MLTT fans was decidedly cool on Lillieroos’ selections, we don’t quite agree. True, he might have foregone picking more well-known players with his first two picks in favor of forming Team Sweden…but real talk here, neither of those guys is exactly chopped köket, and let’s not underestimate the importance of the connection between coach and player. Wang and Kotomi will be the X-factors in terms of availability and ability, creating once again that high ceiling low floor situation. Kotomi in particular was initially a puzzling selection to many viewers, but she’s likely at least on the same level as Sung and was arguably the best attacking style player left on the board, which coaches all seemed to favor in this draft given the likelihood of cross-gender matches next season. We’re also excited to have Wang Wei’s elegant defensive flair and unique short pips backhand chop to be given more exposure via MLTT.
Coach Alex Yang and the Carolina Gold Rush mined this year’s draft pool with picks 5, 13, 21 and 28.
The Carolina Gold Rush: season one players retained (4): Enzo Angles, Romain Lorentz, Kai Zhang, Hong Lin. Draft requirement: 1 US player. Players drafted (4): Satoshi Aida, Eugene Wang, Sid Naresh, Edward Ly.
Going 0-2 in Chicago during the MLTT playoffs after leading the league in total team points in the regular season was a bitter pill to swallow for Coach Yang, Enzo Angles and the rest of the Gold Rush. This playoff failure led to some wholesale roster changes as the consensus #1 playoff seed would only bring back 4 of its season one players. The consolation prize for going winless in the playoffs was the highest draft pick among the four playoff teams, at #5. With that pick, Yang bucked conventional wisdom and selected yet another unique modern defender in Aida, whose doublesided-smooth rubber facilitates the wild offensive/defensive variation in his game without the need for twiddling a la Mathieu de Saintilan. Fans unfamiliar with Aida’s game are in for an absolute treat, as he is a one-man show. In the 2nd round at lucky #13, Carolina snatched up Canada’s finest Eugene Wang, upgrading their Great Northern Wall of Canada strategy. Then in round 3 it was Sid Naresh (older brother of Texas’ Nandan), filling their US player requirement with a young gun. Finally in the 4th round, a brilliant sleeper pick in the highly underrated Edward Ly, also from north of the border but unlike Eugene’s Toronto area roots, Edward hails from historical Montreal in Quebec where, if memory serves, the motto is “Je me souviens.” Coach Yang certainly did not forget to do his homework nor did he neglect his mission to promote North American table tennis by adding so much Canadian and American influence to support his twin MVPs, Angles and Lin.
Draft Grade: B+
Summary: the modern defender Aida with his first pick may be lightly criticized as a bit of an outlier pick, and then the two Canadian picks might be looked down upon later with the same 20/20 hindsight as Portland’s twin Swedish picks, if they don’t end up working out for Coach Yang. But national flags aside, both Wang and Ly are really good players who look to hit the ground running in this league, and they were both arguably the best player available - with the emphasis on available - at their spot. Carolina’s calling card last season was its consistency, as their roster barely wavered from month to month. Hard to argue with picking quality North American players living and training in the same time zone as all East Division matches, with the attendant short flights and quick adjustment periods before matches. Wang with his world of experience as Canada’s #1, and the younger Ly with his more recent surge atop the world rankings look to provide Angles with a lot of support. Aida will be the X factor here, as with all defensive style players, much of the time their effectiveness varies depending on the matchup, but this guy is such a fighter, it’s hard to imagine him not succeeding. Regardless, the Gold Rush seem to be reloaded and ready to make another playoff run next season.
Rookie coach Timothy Wang and his Bay Area Blasters finished 3rd in the playoffs and as a result were rewarded the 6th, 14th, 22nd and 29th picks.
The Bay Area Blasters: season one players retained (4): Jinbao Ma, Tao Wenzhang, Elsayed Lashin, Lily Zhang. Draft requirements: none. Players drafted (4): Taehyun Kim, Andy Mariano Pereira Diaz, Keith Rhine Cruz, Eric Jouti.
So many changes happening with this franchise with new ownership, a new head coach, four new teammates, and can we just say it? Hopefully brand new uniforms next season. Fuchsia-Magenta-Pink-Whatever It Was just did not scream “Blasters” so we’re greatly anticipating a reboot on the team uniform. Coach Wang didn’t have much time between being tapped to lead the Blasters to draft day, but the man did his homework and was able to add some fantastic additions to an already-fearsome quartet of players from season one. Wang went with a pair of lefties, adding the young pro Kim Taehyun (previously teammate and doubles partner with Koyo Kanamitsu in the Austrian Bundesliga) and also the compact and powerful Andy Diaz from Cuba. It was also known that Lily Zhang’s availability for next season would be somewhat limited, as she has relocated to sunny Australia, so Bay Area would also be in the market for a 2nd female player. Wang used his 3rd round pick to select a real up-and-comer in Kheith Cruz. And then finally, in our last candidate for sleeper pick of the draft, he scooped up Eric Jouti who had somehow gone unselected until the 29th pick of this draft.
Draft Grade: A-
Summary: having Kim still available at #6 was a minor surprise, as many simulations had Kim going to Portland at #4 or Carolina at #5. He’s a perfect fit alongside Ma Jinbao playing up. Diaz and Jouti make Bay Area hands down the deepest rotation in the west, possibly in the entire league. The thought of these two guys plus Tao and Lashin playing down must be giving the other coaches nightmares. Who Coach Wang decides to call up for any given event will likely be an excruciating decision-making process, so Bay Area players, start buttering him up ASAP (we know from personal experience that the way to Coach Wang’s heart is through his stomach, so download DoorDash and UberEats asap). His selection of Cruz as the second female player was initially puzzling, given the youngster’s relative lack of experience compared to a couple of the other choices still available (Hopanova and Zhang), but again the possibility of cross-gendered singles matches rendered taking defensive style women less attractive in the minds of pretty much all coaches we surveyed. Add to that Cruz’s recent performances have been spectacular (having beaten several highly ranked US men), and that she is living/training in the US, and that her perceived ceiling is high…and Wang’s decision seems much more reasonable. Bay Area seems locked and loaded for a big push for the playoffs and a second try for the MLTT Cup.
Coach Mathias Habesohn and his season one finalists Princeton Revolution went into the draft with only selections #7 and #15.
The Princeton Revolution: season one players retained (6): Jishan Liang, Jinxin Wang, Koyo Kanamitsu, Ievgen Pryschepa, Mathieu de Saintilan, Angela Guan. Draft requirements: none. Players drafted (2): Wei Wensheng, Benedek Olah
With only two picks in the draft, the Revolution was only seeking to bolster an already loaded for bear roster, and their strategy of selecting a female player, China’s Wei Wensheng, with their first round pick was a complete and obviously calculated mirror image of their season one draft strategy (which involved focusing on male players until the 5th round when Guan was selected after nearly every other team had already selected a female player). But adapting to the new S2 rules, with all due respect for arguably their S1 MVP Guan, Princeton realized that it had a weak spot that it had to address. Our reporter at the post playoff party in Chicago’s trendy Tao actually overheard Guan urging her coach and owners to do what’s best for the team and select a strong international female player to replace her. The news that her team decided to retain her as a backup player was reportedly met with a lot of (well-deserved) happiness (catch in the throat, eyes welling up). Oh man, is anyone else’s allergies killing them like they’re killing us?
How Wei acclimates to the travel, time change and newness of MLTT is TBD, but on paper at least she looks like she could contend for the top female player honors in the east, and her two-winged attacking style should allow her to threaten some of the men she plays as well. With their 2nd round pick at #15, Habesohn was likely flabbergasted when Benedek Olah was still available. Olah was ranked much higher on everyone’s depth charts, as high as the #3 man on several MPH staffer’s lists. He will slot in nicely playing up for the Revolution, with the necessary firepower and gravity to go head-to-head with the other new alpha males in the east.
Draft Grade: P (for PASS)
Summary: We aren’t giving Princeton a letter grade for their draft performance, simply because given their unique situation (only picking twice, in obvious need for the best available female, and having Olah unexpectedly drop down to them), we think their choices were so clear it was almost predetermined. As far as their overall S2 strategy is concerned, that bears more discussion/debate. On one hand, if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Obviously Princeton’s braintrust was very happy with their season one squad, retaining more players than any other team in the league. The faith placed in their current players is perfectly understandable, given their past performance…but it’s also notable and perhaps describable as a risky strategy given the depth of new talent available. In other words, by keeping almost everyone, you don’t get to add as many…and even Texas chose to keep only five from their championship roster. Habesohn mentioned in his post draft interview that he really really likes his players not just as athletes but as professionals and people. Value was placed on the team chemistry built through the gauntlet of season one, not to mention the continuity. We shall see if this pans out.
Coach Jörg Bitzigeio of the champion Texas Smash accepted the biggest handicap in the draft, with picks at #8, #16 and #23.
The Texas Smash: season one players retained (5): Amy Wang, David McBeath, Hiromitsu Kasahara, Nandan Naresh, Darryl Tsao. Draft requirements: none. Players drafted (3): Amirhossein Hodaei, Arthur Abusev, Jeet Chandra.
Like the Revolution, Texas returned a strong core and with their 3 available draft pics were looking for additive players who could fit into the requirements of their system. With their US requirement already met and their female player set with Amy Wang, Bitzigeio was free to scour the world for, as the fat cats in suits said at the conclusion of Raiders of the Lost Ark, “Top….Men.” And that he did, selecting a trio of players who all could be described as potential “diamond finds” (to lift a phrase from commentator Sean O’Neill). Obviously utilizing his extensive knowledge and familiarity with international players, Bitzigeio eschewed conventional wisdom in making all three of his picks. As he explained in his exit interview, he is directly familiar with all three of these players and has obtained guarantees that if drafted, they would be available for the now-famous Texas Smash pre-competition training camps. Hodaei and Chandra are both young, rising Top-200 level players, while Abusev is yet another modern defender (bringing the league count to 4 men, 1 woman) who will be a complete joy to watch.
Draft Grade: I (for INCOMPLETE)
Summary: If you accuse us of copping out on this one, we will not protest vehemently. We felt incapable of assigning a meaningful grade to Texas’ draft performance due to the relative unknown nature of their three new players. Let us just say that from an MLTT fandom perspective, we are all very taken by Coach Bitzigeio’s knowledge of the game. But from a journalistic POV, we’re honestly kind of sick and tired of his playing of 3D chess while we’re just here making minimum wage and trying to report on a 2D checkers level. Jörg, you are no fun…it’s too much work trying to comprehend your mad genius level strategizing. That said, if past is precedent, then undoubtedly we’ll be revisiting this grade in late April 2025 to amend the Incomplete to an A+ as Texas is celebrating a history-making repeat championship…in which case our apology to Coach Bitzigeio will be done in writing.
After the draft, here are the final season 2 team rosters.
But…did the draft do its job?
We’re pretty sure that MLTT is the only pro table tennis league in the world that builds its teams through a draft process, and given the international flavor of our readers (we see your IP addresses in Sri Lanka, guys!), perhaps we should take a step back and provide a little explanation as to the logic and purpose of an annual players draft. Since the less successful teams (those which did not qualify for the playoffs) are awarded via lottery the top 4 picks, and then the remaining playoff teams are assigned the 5-8 picks based on order of finish (and all subsequent rounds of drafting is conducted in this same order), this gives a huge drafting advantage to the weaker teams. When the draft pool is both deep and can boast a handful of transformative players such as Pitchford, Lebesson and Pistej, it stands to reason that the weaker teams should be able to retool and improve significantly each offseason. The stronger teams are handicapped in this process, and therefore the overall effect is that magic term that all US pro sports leagues look for: competitive parity. The NFL was the first league here to recognize that dynasties can get boring, and eventually result in viewership decline. No one likes the idea of a small handful of teams (usually big market teams with deep-pocketed owners) dominating the playoffs year after year. A competitive imbalance is not only a bad look, it’s quantifiably bad for business. More recently, you’ve seen the NBA recognize and react to this fact as well, and partially as a result of this, the NBA is thriving even as an entire generation of mega-stars (Lebron, Steph, Kawhi, KD) enters their twilight of their careers. The verdict is still out for MLTT, but at least on paper it seems to have been a resounding success. Teams that struggled such as Chicago, Seattle and Portland have been empowered to drastically remake their rosters with the addition of new quality players, some of them completely transformational in ability. Meanwhile the more successful playoff teams were also able to add key contributors to keep up with the talent arms race. Again this is all based on what we see on paper only, but it does seem that there are no overmatched teams anymore, and that every single match will be a complete dogfight. This is not the time and place for our preseason power rankings, but we can tell that when we do sit down to write that article, it’s going to be a very, very difficult analysis.
It also goes without saying that another purpose of the draft is to bring in new talent, thereby elevating the overall level of play in the league. On that point, there’s absolutely no doubt. The level of play in MLTT next season will be vastly upgraded. And we cannot wait to watch it all unfold.
One final note that we just had to bring up. The recent draft did something else that we think is absolutely wonderful; it has expanded the number of countries represented in the league to an absolutely incredible 27. There are 10 new countries represented, and the first time countries in season two are: Brazil, Cuba, Finland, India, Iran, Philippines, Russia, Slovakia, South Korea and Taiwan. Table tennis is a truly global sport, one of the most popular sports in the world by both participation and viewership, and so it’s just amazing to see such a growing international presence being embraced by both MLTT and its fans.
With everything that has transpired since, last year’s appearance on ESPN The Ocho seems such a long time ago…but we are looking forward to a bigger, better sequel this summer on August 2nd.
We will be back with a few more articles before the start of the season. Certainly we will be covering the August 8th ESPN The Ocho event, in which MLTT will make a repeat appearance with an all-new format and an all-new cast of characters. We’ll also report on any other significant happenings in MLTT this summer, but certainly be on the lookout for our much-anticipated preseason ranking poll article. The researching has already begun!
