WINTER HAVEN REVIEW: Mission Accomplished for Princeton, but Florida Bites Back

A scene repeated over and over at all MLTT tour stops…players supposedly warming up for the next match caught peeking though the curtains, unable to resist the drama and excitement that is unique to MLTT: the Golden Game®. An anonymous player summed it up best when he declared off the record that “The Golden Game is so much fun…to watch. Playing it is torture.”

February 13, 2024. The storylines for the Winter Haven tour stop were laid bare in the preview article. Hit the skip button if you want to get to the real action, but Previously, in Major League Table Tennis…all the playoff drama in the East Division boiled down to a head-to-head confrontation between the 2nd place Florida Crocs and the 3rd place Princeton Revolution. Earlier a near-lock for the 2nd playoff spot out of the east, Florida had seen a most unwelcome surge from Princeton, cutting its once comfortable lead down to a 13 point spread in the standings. Both teams came to Winter Haven with their optimal lineups, and so this would be a penultimate showdown with Florida seeking to beat back the upstart Revolutionaries, while Princeton looked to leapfrog the Crocs. The Chicago Wind, still not mathematically eliminated, looked to spark a miracle comeback or at least show some pride and play spoiler. Finally the Carolina Gold Rush, all but assured of a 1st place finish, only looked to strut their stuff and honor the competitive balance of the league by competing equally against all challengers.

Princeton Revolution (record 3-0, from -13 to +3 vs Crocs, going from 3rd to 2nd place and currently holds the 2nd playoff spot). The Revs showed up with its optimal lineup for only the 3rd time this season, and got representative performances from the majority of its players starting with Jinxin Wang, Jishan Liang and Ievgen Pryschepa…this trio has seemingly been on an upwards path all season and sure enough, all turned in their best performances to date. The Professor (6-3 in singles, 13-8 GG) notched big wins over Cazacu and Lorentz, Liang (7-2 singles, 14-10 GG) produced the Majorponghead Upset of the Week with his brilliantly-played win over Enzo Angles (let’s be frank…any win over Enzo makes the headlines as this is only the 3rd time it’s happened all season), and added key victories over Khanin and a 3-0 sweep of Duran. Pryschepa and Kanamitsu both encountered difficulties in their GG performances but both won several critical points and also notched important singles wins. Princeton as a team posted a remarkable record of 10-2 in singles matches (25-11 in individual games), and obviously won all three Golden Games, primarily on the back of superb GG performances by Liang and Wang, with Angela Guan turning in her finest GG performance to date, winning 8 while dropping 9. Princeton’s dramatic GG wins over Florida and Carolina were marked by clutch performances but also a couple instances of the Gods of Pong doling out some good fortune, with Guan getting an unreturnable net ball against her arch-nemesis Ekholm, and Mathieu de Saintilan in save mode snaking a miracle edge ball against Enzo. That said, an impressive weekend including a rather eye-opening 10-5 lead over Carolina going into the GG, will certainly give the Revolution a lot of momentum and confidence going into the deciding weekend in March…which for better or for worse will be Princeton’s one and only home game of the season.

Team MVP: we simply couldn’t choose between Jishan Liang and Jinxin Wang. Both A/B players for Princeton were nothing short of dominant this weekend. Liang posted a 3-0 record in singles (7-2 in games), and 14-10 in GG. Wang was equally magnificent at 2-1 (6-3) in singles, and 13-8 in the GG. Liang provided huge emotional boosts for his teammates all three times he took the court for the first singles match and set the tone with his blistering play. Wang was an inspiration all weekend long, competing with determination and excellence so soon after the passing of his mother, and perhaps giving us his signature moment of the season so far when he closed out the GG victory over Carolina. So someone get a knife and let’s cut this award in half!

Angela Guan once again got the better of Matilda Ekholm, but it might have been a completely different story if this little miracle hadn’t happened for her.

Rumor has it that Princeton Revolution owner Roger Kang sold his soul to the devil in exchange for one net and one edge.

Carolina Gold Rush (2-1 record, extends lead for top playoff spot from +42 on Florida to +47 on Princeton): despite dropping only their fourth team match of the season, the Gold Rush actually increased their lead in the East Division to a now-insurmountable gap. Although not mathematically clinched it would take a minor…no MAJOR miracle for them not to be in Chicago in April. To scientifically illustrate this, we gamed out a scenario in which Coach Alex Yang’s team could actually lose the top spot. And it goes something like this: upon arriving in Lawrenceville, NJ in March, the entire loosey-goosey Carolina squad decides to take a fun team-building trip down to Atlantic City the night before any matches are played. One thing leads to another, and Kai Zhang’s gambling losses climb into the 7-figure range. Unable to pay up, the team finds itself confronted by some very unsavory debt collecting strongmen; fade to black, then they all wake up on Monday morning in an ice-filled bathtub with infected stitches on their sides…their kidneys surgically removed. In that case, Carolina would have defaulted all three of their matches, 21-0. Princeton could then overtake Carolina for the #1 seed IF they also defeated Chicago and Florida by scores no less than 14-7 and 13-8. And even then, Carolina would still comfortably take the 2nd playoff spot. So long story short, Carolina has this thing stitched up (cymbal crash….see what we did there? Thank you, we’ll be here all week, don’t forget to tip your waitress).

But all jokes aside, Carolina played their three team matches with purpose and focus, honoring competitive fairness to the three other teams, certainly without the same sense of urgency felt by Florida and Princeton, but they nevertheless acquitted themselves honorably by vying against all three teams with complete professionalism.

Team MVP: no surprise as once again the #1 draft pick and leading contender for MVP Enzo Alles takes home the honors for Carolina again. His 6-3 singles, 8-1 doubles and 12-9 GG record are cumulatively even a bit below his own lofty standards, but certainly enough to keep his MLTT power ranking at #1. Nothing surprises us anymore about Enzo, as evidenced by the 2nd video below.

May we humbly present the funniest point celebration in the history of everything. Kai Zhang is a national treasure.

Mathieu de Saintilan to Enzo Angles for the touchdown on Superbowl Sunday. With hands like these, Enzo might have missed his true calling as a wide receiver in the NFL.

Florida Crocs (1-2 record, from +13 to -3 vs Princeton, dropping from 2nd to 3rd place): since the Chicago tour stop in November, Coach Frank Arias’ Crocs have been looking in the rear view mirror at a hard charging Princeton team. Heartbreaking Golden Game losses to both Princeton and Carolina (21-19, 21-18 respectively) highlighted the cruelty that can be the Golden Game as the Crocs went toe-to-toe in both contests and only fell short by the narrowest of margins. They went to bed on Saturday night out of a playoff spot for the first time this entire season. And when Princeton started the day on Sunday with a huge 16-5 statement win over Carolina, the tremendous pressure on Florida likely doubled. Many teams in the situation would crumble. How would Florida respond against Chicago in the most important match the season?

The short answer is, like champions. As often is the case, the leading man sets the tone for the entire team and so in perhaps his more important performance all season, Daniel Gorak gave Florida an inspiring virtuoso performance with a 3-0 drubbing of Khanin. Benjamin Brossier then took the baton and was brilliant in his 2-1 defusing of the power pack Pinto. Gorak and Matilda Ekholm teamed up to win the doubles 2-1; then Daniel Gonzalez, continuing his best performance on the MLTT stage to date, swept Wang 3-0 before Florida suffered its only loss, a 2-1 defeat of Marc Duran by a fired up Cazacu. And in the Golden Game, despite a spirited late comeback attempt by Pinto and Wang, they closed it out 21-18 for a resounding and counter-statement win, 17-4 (the largest margin of victory of any team match in Winter Haven). This crucial result pulled the Crocs to within a mere 3 points of Princeton for the 2nd playoff spot, setting the stage for a big showdown in March, with the challenge issued by Ekholm in her IG post stating “We’re coming for you, Princeton!”

Team MVP: Benjamin Brossier with his 6-3 record in singles and rousing 12-7 performance in the Golden Game pushes him slightly ahead of Gorak. His 2-1 victory on Sunday over Pinto was a huge victory in the green wave that swept over Chicago. His 3-0 win over Hazin was as dominant as we’ve ever seen him (it’s no mean feat to break down The Great Wall of Canada). And as always, he was brilliant during the Golden Games, as has become his trademark. The MLTT announcers like to call him “Rug Burn” for his all-out dives, but we here in the Majorponghead staff room refer to him simply as “Big Shot Ben.”

Daniel Gonzalez shuts the door on a Chicago Wind comeback.

Even though a bit muted (given the momentous task before them) there’s still nothing like a Florida Croc celebration.

Chicago Wind (0-3, from -36 out of a playoff spot to -43). Winter Haven is where the wind finally went out of Chicago’s sails. Though they fought gamely, there was a little something missing from their fight…a sense of resignation that the end was near. In the past, Chicago’s losses were mostly hard-fought, falling just short in the Golden Game. This time, they were almost lapped by Carolina on Friday, Princeton defeated them comfortably on Saturday, and smoked on Sunday by a very resolved Florida (although they did make a late comeback in the GG to make it interesting). Not a whole lot to say here other than good luck to Emily Tan as she makes her way over to Busan, Korea to represent the USA in the World Teams Championships, along with fellow MLTTers Kai Zhang, Jishan Liang, Nandan Naresh, and Nikhil Kumar.

Team MVP: the stats weren’t pretty (4-5 singles, 8-11 GG), but we are giving it to our favorite showman Alex Cazacu because he fought the entire weekend with happy warrior vibes….and he is just so damn entertaining to watch:

We are getting major Nadia Comăneci energy here, which makes sense as Cazacu also proudly hails from Romania. Never take your eyes off of Alex Cazacu. He is a perfect 10 in our eyes!

So the stage is set for an epic final weekend of play in Lawrenceville, NJ from March 15-17. With a mere 3 point margin separating Florida from Princeton for the 2nd playoff spot, all eyes will be on these two franchises to see who can step up and secure their ticket to Chicago for the first ever MLTT final four playoffs. Rumor has it that tickets are already selling like hotcakes, so the atmosphere promises to be electric. Don’t wait, get your tickets now!

Keep on pongin’, Pongheads!

Current standings with one event left on the regular season schedule.