Portland, OR Postgame Report: Rip City Was LIT
JIWEI UNLEASHED…the absolute thrill of victory! Crowd favorite and Portland Paddler star Jiwei Xia’s gloriously unfettered celebration after his thrilling 11-10 3rd game win over Bay Area’s Lashin Elsayed in their critical Sunday matchup (to the delight of the hometown fans) was one of the best moments of this inaugural MLTT season.
January 31, 2024. The recently concluded Portland event will now forever be known (surpassing both Pleasanton, CA and Broward Country, FL) as the high point of spectator engagement and home town excitement. Portland Paddler fans absolutely jammed the stands for their matches and created a standing room only, electric, pro-Portland environment. So we are starting off this article with giving massive props to the Portland fans, they showed up and showed out for their hometown players and without a doubt were a huge factor in lifting their team to a couple of critical (perhaps season saving) wins. No home team curse this weekend, despite a tough Friday evening start against the surging Texas Smash (much more on them later), Portland’s win to close out the proceedings on Sunday resulted in ridiculously close standings with just two regular season events to go…a mere 11 points separating all four teams. You want drama? Here’s your drama: at this point in time, the gap between first place and last place in the west could mathematically be overcome in just one single team match. The West is primed for some major fireworks in the last two months of the regular season.
Texas vaults from 3rd to 1st in the standings, but there’s currently less space between the teams here than [insert highly inappropriate analogy]. It’s still anybody’s race in the west.
We had to lead with a tip of the cap to Portland, since the atmosphere at the Portland Expo Center was so electric and the Saturday/Sunday wins by the hometown heroes were so much damn fun to witness. But from a purely competitive perspective, the big story this past weekend was the outstanding performance by Jörg Bitzigeio’s Texas Smash. Texas had shown signs of a turnaround starting with a solid performance in Pleasanton, followed by an oh-so-close-to-good (perhaps unlucky) cross divisional event. But here in Portland, they put everything together in spectacular fashion, and methodically destroyed all comers.
There was an epic quality to everything Coach Jörg Bitzigeio did this weekend. His next level coaching and tactical thinking were on full display during all three matches, while his postgame interviews were his usual master classes in understated hype-free analysis.
Although announcer Evan Lepler could never get their coach to admit it on air, Texas put up about as dominant a performance as you could ever hope for….they hit the ground running with a 15-6 dismantling of hometown Portland on Friday. Coming back from down 6-3 after the doubles, Yoan Rebetez and David “The Admiral” McBeath pulled off the rare back-to-back 3-0 sweeps to put them in great position for a relatively stress-free Golden Game win. They kept it rolling on Saturday with another 15-6 win over Bay Area, again falling behind 4-2 before roaring back to take the doubles match before Darryl Tsao and Hiromitsu Kasahara each notched convincing victories, and a another somewhat easy 21-15 GG win. And finally on Sunday it was a dominant 17-4 thumping of Seattle.
Team Grade: A+ (3-0, vaulted themselves from 3rd place to 1st place in the season standings) You literally cannot ask for more than what the Texas Smash accomplished this weekend. The surest sign that something special was happening? Coach Jörg’s post match interviews became increasingly an exercise in dancing around the team’s runaway success, for fear that he would jinx it.
Team MVP: with dual tips of the cap to McBeath who was, as usual, a tireless workhorse…and to Kasahara who flew in from Japan to play in the weekend matches, no one shined brighter for Texas this weekend than Yoan Rebetez. It must have pained Coach Jörg when he was forced to sit Rebetez, because when he was on the table, he was completely dominant. An unblemished 6-0 record in singles, and 10-6 in GG points. The man with the headband with the elegant Federer-like game has certainly on an upwards arc, and not coincidentally his rising tide has helped lift all of Texas’ ships. Keep your eye on Rebetez for the rest of the season, for we have a feeling that with how steady the Texas top guys play, how goes Rebetez will be how Texas fares as well.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t include a post-credits scene about Texas’ Nandan Naresh, who had himself and up-and-down (but mostly up) weekend. Took a game off of Kou Lei in singles, fought him to a standstill in the GG; lost 2-1 in a nailbiter to Silva but was solid in the GG against Douin at 5-3; and then finally smoked Lapcik 3-0 on Sunday before getting smoked by Sareen in the GG 6-1. His game may have been a bit up and down, but we’ll say it again…his top knot is consistently top-notch.
The Portland Paddlers, after a tough start on Friday night in front of a sparse (late working?) hometown crowd, showed up on Saturday and were met by packed stands full of rowdy, boisterous fans, many of them dripping with Paddlers gear. That angry green little anthropomorphic paddle-guy sure can be intimidating when hundreds of them are snarling at you in unison, from the the VIP section all the way up to the nosebleeds!
The crowds in Portland were decidedly pro-Paddler, boisterous, and well…incredible. The Portland event set a high water mark for ticket sales and attendance for MLTT in its inaugural season, exceeding previous records set in Pleasanton and Chicago.
It must have taken a lot for Coach Christian Lillieroos to shake off those voices in his head whispering “hometown curse, hometown curse” after their loss to Texas on Friday night, which marked a league high 10-match losing streak dating all the way back to the Saturday match in Katy, Texas. You heard that right: Portland hadn’t won a match since October 27, 2023. There was less dancing happening here than in the fictional town of Bomont, Utah of Footloose fame (Before Bacon, of course). But with the big crowds came the big mojo, and of course it started with the Mighty Kou Lei’s 2-1 victory over Kumar, as Portland then proceeded to win all 4 of the singles matches over the young Spinners, highlighted by modern defender Tyrese Knight’s 3-0 win over Lapcik. Seattle fought back valiantly in the Golden Game but in the end it was fitting that King Kou would be the one on the table to secure Portland’s first win in exactly three months to the day. Then on Sunday, the magic continued against the Blasters, as the Paddlers posted a record three shutouts in singles, with Kou, Daniel Tran and Jiwei Xia all cruising to 3-0 victories, before the Paddlers rolled to a dominant GG win:
Courtside video captures the excitement of the moment as Xia closes out the match against Lily Zhang…the barriers go flying and the crowd goes wild! So who did it louder, the hometown crowds of Pleasanton, Broward, or Portland? You be the judge.
Team Grade: A- (2-1, moved to within 10 pts of a playoff spot, and 11 points of first place). One of the biggest questions to be answered in the final two tour stops (Seattle, WA and Wichita, KS) is whether the Paddlers are truly back to their early season form, or whether this past weekend was the outlier, fueled by the energy and adrenaline provided by the raucous Rip City crowds. In the now-immortal words of Xia, still jazzed from his Sunday GG closeout win over Bay Area, “ I (expletive) LOVE these fans!!” So much for YouTube’s policy against profanity. Go ahead Portland, swear like a sailor, smell the roses, then dance like everyone’s watching (cause they are)…Portland’s Dancing Coach and his pack of powered up Paddlers are back in the hunt!
Team MVP: we didn’t even bother looking at stats for this one, because once in awhile, a performance stands out so much for its visceral intensity that it renders the numbers meaningless. Jiwei Xia, hometown hero, fighting every single point like a man possessed, exhorting his teammates and the already-screaming fans to decibel levels previously unheard at an MLTT event…the lasting image of this weekend undoubtedly will be that of Xia’s unfettered celebrations, back arched, roaring to the heavens. Did we mention that the man was exhausted from fighting an illness? Like Princeton Revolution’s Mathieu de Saintilan at Broward, it seemed to provide additional motivation for Xia to reach down deep into the well of his competitive spirit and produced a performance as good as we’ve witnessed this season.
On a serious note…this near tragedy involving Tyrese Knight and a barrier which nearly asphyxiated the young star from Barbados has finally compelled MLTT to provide all of its athletes with formal barrier throwing classes. And while the league undoubtedly appreciates the PR value of the viral image of an MLTT-logoheaded man, they’d still prefer for Tyrese to be alive and breathing next month in Seattle.
The Seattle Spinners came into Portland riding high from their spectacular 3-0 performance in Pleasanton. Everything was looking great after their incredible Friday win over Bay Area, when trailing 19-17 in the Golden Game, Olajide Omaotayo pulled off the Great Houdini escape by executing a Golden Sweep against the Blasters’ Lily Zhang to stifle their comeback attempt in stunning fashion. This remarkable turn of events was preceded by fantastic performances by Nikhil Kumar’s 3-0 sweep of Ma Jinbao, and Aditya Sareen’s 3-0 sweep of Lashin Elsayed. Coach Luba Sadovska’s Spinners could do no wrong, the team’s energy was bursting at the seams. But as is sometimes the case with a younger team, the inconsistency monster reared its ugly head over the weekend and their centrifugal force came to a wobbling, stuttering halt as they fell victim to Portland on Saturday and then an old fashioned Texas ass whuppin’ on Sunday, in which the outcome of the match was decided before the GG even began. Perhaps nothing encapsulated Seattle’s frustration more than how they officially ended their weekend, trailing 20-17 in the GG to Texas:
In baseball jargon, we’ll note here that Omotayo did a very good job of letting the pitch get deep into the box before using his quick hands to make solid contact with the ball, driving it down the left field line with Aaron Judge-like exit velocity. Maybe Matilda Ekholm isn’t the only MLTT athlete who has a future in the MLB?
Team Grade: B- (1-2, dropped from 2nd to 3rd place, but also finds itself closer to 1st place than before the weekend started). Our guess is that if you asked anyone associated with the Spinners, they’d probably give themselves and even lower grade. But the fact of the matter is that while they dropped out of a playoff spot, they conversely find themselves closer to the top than before. With Bay Area’s big tumble, this was a big opportunity lost for Seattle to place an early stranglehold on a playoff spot. That said, Seattle is still in prime position in the playoff race, and guess who’s got a home event coming up next tour stop? Get those Spinners fans a discount code for tickets ASAP!
Team MVP: Nikhil Kumar played like a #1 all weekend. His energy level and fighting spirit were at a level we’ve not seen before in MLTT; a man possessed, he was practically bristling with intensity. He opened up the event with Majorponghead’s Upset of the Week, his 3-0 stomping of recently crowned US Open Champion Ma Jinbao. It’s not so much that he defeated MJB, but it was the whitewashing that was so surprising, especially considering MJB’s recent results on the international stage. Kumar also held his own against Kou Lei on Saturday (in both singles and GG), and defeated a tough Kasahara on Sunday.
The absence of Tao Wenzhang was keenly felt by Bay Area, who struggled all weekend without their Master Blaster.
Coach Maggie Tian was dealt a tough hand when the news broke that their #1 pick Tao Wenzhang was out with a knee injury. Even with one of the deeper rosters in the Western Division, the absence of Tao resonated down the lineup as more pressure was placed on Ma Jinbao, and Lashin Elsayed would need to move up to play the A/B position. As if that wasn’t tough enough, Elsayed was unexpectedly forced to sit out their Saturday tilt with Texas due to elbow tendinitis/inflammation. All of this had a negative cascading effect down the roster, and with the sole exception of Senura Silva who had a brilliant individual performance, the Blasters progressively collapsed over the weekend. After a hard-fought GG loss on Friday to a fired up Seattle squad, their loss to Texas on Saturday was decidedly less competitive, and they exited the weekend on Sunday with barely a whimper against Portland.
MJB still hasn’t unlocked the key to success in MLTT, which is perhaps the biggest current head-scratcher in the West Division. His recent performances on the WTT and international stage have been nothing short of awesome, he is clearly one of the best players in the league, but there’s something about MLTT’s uniquely distilled team format which to date hasn’t suited his steady flowing style of play…the urgency just isn’t there with him. He wasn’t alone this weekend, as the normally steadfast Lily Zhang, Alexis Douin, and Elsayed all took their lumps.
That said, the Blasters can regroup and lick their wounds knowing that they’re still right in the middle of the fight, still in playoff position and just a single measly point separating them from the top seed. Hopefully Tao will be back for the Everett, WA event on Feb 23-25, and the Blasters will return to the form they displayed at the Cross Division challenge, in which they were the sole team from the West able to blast the Eastern Division Crocs, Revolution and Wind.
Team Grade: D (0-3, dropped from 1st to 2nd place, from +14 to -1).
Team MVP: Senura Silva. The always smiling always positive Silva was the lone bright spot for Bay Area, compiling an impressive 6-3 record in singles, and a gaudy 12-4 record in the GG. At #5 in the MLTT Power Rankings prior to Portland, look for Senura to move up a spot or two after this performance…quite the Cinderella Story for the undrafted 18-year old med school student from Sri Lanka. Highlight of his weekend was his winning battle against Texas’ Nandan Naresh, as the two young guns entertained the crowd with an array of rallies and shotmaking that belied their tender years.
Our final thoughts to tie a bow on this past weekend. Yet another really, really special event put on by MLTT. Texas and Portland get the winner’s roses, Seattle and Bay Area get the bulletin board material for motivation. But the big story was undeniably the record-setting crowds and the crazy-fun Great Northwest atmosphere they brought to the arena. “THIS IS WHY WE PLAY PING-PONG!” exhorted broadcaster Sean O’Neill, the magic of the moment overcoming his usual measured composure. MLTT is working hard in trying to grow the fan/spectator base, and Portland was a big step forward on that front. As Princeton Revolution owner Roger Kang (like Kasahara, flying into Portland from Tokyo to extend his perfect attendance record to nine MLTT events in a row…yes, that’s all of them so far) so succinctly stated, “The Commissioner was all smiles this weekend.” He wasn’t alone, as Jiwei Xia brought smiles to the faces of all the fans in the stands, first with his hometown heroism and then with his glorious potty-mouthed postmatch interview. Finally, a sure sign of the apocalypse, we even got a momentary almost-smile out of Coach Jörg Bitzigeio during his last interview of the weekend, which thanks to modern screen capture technology we’re able to document for posterity.
Keep on pongin’, Pongheads!
