A SMASHING CINDERELLA STORY: Texas Takes the Title in Fairy Tale Ending to Remarkable Season
Your 2023-2024 Inaugural Season Champions, The Texas Smash!
May 1, 2024. The Texas Smash, led remotely once again by Coach Jorg Bitzigeio, are your 2023-2024 inaugural MLTT season champions! They completed the feat in dominating fashion, defeating both East Division powerhouses Carolina Gold Rush and Princeton Revolution convincingly…an incredible feat made even more amazing when considering their very presence at these playoffs were somewhat of a miracle in and of itself, as they ascended from the cellar of the Western Division only securing their ticket to Chicago on the very last day of the very last weekend of the regular season. But once Cinderella got to the ball, she definitely made a smashing impression on the dance floor, capturing the MLTT Cup and the hearts of fans throughout the kingdom.
A bird’s eye view of the playing floor of Loyola University’s Gentile Arena, taken from the Announcer’s Box. Note the two men’s basketball banners hanging proudly from the rafters.
It was fitting that the chosen venue for MLTT’s Final Four was the home arena of the Loyola Ramblers men’s basketball team. Those of us who follow March Madness religiously will all recall Loyola’s incredible run as a #11 seed to the 2018 Final Four, a story which captivated the fascination of the entire nation. For the uninitiated, the NCAA March Madness tourney features 64 top college basketball teams playing a single elimination tournament each spring for the national championship, and for an 11 seed (since it is four brackets of 16 teams, an 11 seed is the equivalent to a 40th-44th seed) to make it to the Final Four was simply unprecedented. Along the way, Loyola’s celebrity super-fan was a nun by the name of Sister Jean, and her heartfelt devotion to the team became the stuff of legend. The Texas Smash’s journey to the championship mirrored the underdog story of the Loyola Ramblers, taking down the favored big guns along the way with a combination of grit, determination and otherworldly individual performances. They even had their own version of Sister Jean, in Texan Superfan Derek…boyfriend of Texas Smash player Emily Wang, photobomber of the championship photo and unchallenged owner of the most powerful cheering voice in the league.
Texas Smash’s #1 Superfan Derek evoked memories of Loyola’s Sister Jean with his steadfast and vocal support of his GF Emily’s championship squad.
OK let’s get down to business. While we here at Majorponghead aren’t big on play-by-play rote reporting of results, the bull through the china shop charge by Texas through the twin beasts of the east, Carolina in the semis and Princeton in the finals, deserves a brief synopsis.
Against Carolina on Friday night, having seen Princeton blow past the Bay Area Blasters (21-9 in the Golden Game) in the earlier semifinal matchup after a tight 8-7 result in the singles/doubles matches, Texas essentially matched the Revolution’s effort. Running out to an 8-4 lead thanks to David McBeath’s 3-0 sweep over Romain Lorentz, Kasahara/Wang’s rousing 2-1 win in doubles over Enzo/Hong Lin, and then a tremendous beatdown of Jeremy Hazin by Yoan Rebetez. It left Carolina in dire straits going into the final singles match between Enzo Angles and Hiro Kasahara. And despite shots like the one below, credit to the league MVP Angles to come up with a huge 3-0 win to pull Carolina within a point in the GG. But Texas, who earlier in the season could not win a Golden Game to save their lives, came up big and put Carolina away without too much drama, 21-14.
Play-by-play announcer extraordinaire Evan Lepler said it best: “Great crowd, great atmosphere, great facility, great city…and GREAT TABLE TENNIS!”
The win set up the final showdown on Sunday against an equally red-hot and ascendant Princeton Revolution. In many ways, these two teams’ seasons were mirror images of each other, stumbling out of the gate, battling through key absences, surviving to live another day at some events with the help of key free agent contributions, and then closing out the season on fire. But from the outset, it was clear that this was going to be Texas’ day. Kasahara began the onslaught with a dominating 3-0 win over Jishan Liang. Nandan Naresh then turned in perhaps his best performance of the season (saving the best for last) by outplaying Koyo Kanamitsu 2-1 in a key encounter that kept the momentum going into the doubles, in which Texas was sure to have the advantage, with the duo of Kasahara and Amy Wang convincingly sweeping Liang and Angela Guan. Princeton’s amazing modern defender Mathieu de Saintlian gave Princeton a brief ray of hope with his 2-1 win over Rebetez, but then The Shakespearean Shakehander McBeath outplayed Jinxin Wang 2-1 to give Texas a commanding 7-point lead going into the GG, which it would not relinquish, winning with ease 21-7. It was almost anti-climactic, given the amount of drama both teams saw during their Cinderella runs to make the playoffs…but in the end only one team put on the glass slipper and it was the Texas Smash, which made history as the first-ever MLTT champion.
On full display here, the Federer-like touch of Yoan Rebetez…as well as the hazards of sitting in the VIP seats when De Saintilan is at work.
Earlier in the day, the bronze medal match between Bay Area and Carolina ended up being not just the more competitive match of the day, it ended up being an absolute barnburner. At the start of the day, it didn’t look like this would be the case, as players on both teams struggled with their emotions and low energy level at being denied a chance to play for the title. Warm ups and preparations were somewhat half-hearted. But not surprisingly, as soon as the competition commenced, professional pride and competitive juices began flowing, even to the point where some controversy erupted between Carolina’s Romain Lorentz and Bay Area’s Coach Maggie Tian. In the end, Bay Area completed a remarkable comeback down 0-7 in the GG to win 21-18 and claim 3rd place, despite spectacular efforts like this from Carolina’s Bastien Dupont over Bay Area’s Senura Silva:
A bit of luck gave this long Golden Point to Dupont, despite the hand-switching efforts of Silva to save it.
In the aftermath of Texas’ on court celebration, no one was happier with the result than team owners Mahesh and Anita Joshi. Both were seen making the rounds at the afterparty, shaking some hands and slapping some skin, as Adam Bobrow would say. Mahesh’s heartfelt toast honoring Commissioner Flint Lane was greeted with much enthusiasm by the collected players, owners, and staff. The Joshi’s unofficial honoring of Hiro Kasahara as the team MVP was also very fitting, as it was Kasahara’s ascendance from mediocrity to stardom that was a defining factor in the rise of the Smash down the homestretch of the regular season.
Perhaps the only NNSFW image of the MLTT afterparty, taken before things started to get wild.
We managed to speak with Kasahara after the trophy ceremony, and take it from us…you won’t find a more humble, soft-spoken champion. Deflecting all praise, he immediately told us that he credits his performance the latter half of the season and playoffs to Timothy Wang (of the Chicago Wind), who has been graciously housing and training with him in Colorado. Kasahara’s English isn’t perfect, but he clearly wanted to acknowledge his gratitude and repeated over and over again “Tim…he is such good guy!” Seems like the relationships built through MLTT have begun to transcend both language and team barriers.
Another transcendent moment occurred after the first semifinal match between Princeton and Bay Area. Seattle Spinners’ Coach Luba Sadovska, in town as a spectator and to support the league, was caught completely by surprise by her partner of over 10 years, Claudine Gunn. After accepting the MLTT award for Volunteer of the Year (bravo, Claudine), she out-strategized the coach by popping the question on the livestream! It was a beautiful, touching moment that left many in the crowd (yes, us included) wiping away tears. Commissioner Flint Lane held it together just long enough to run to hide behind the black curtains before his floodgates opened, the big softie! Congratulations to the newest and darewesay the First Couple of MLTT?
SHE SAID YES!!! Not all the drama this past weekend happened on the table. Congratulations to Luba and Claudine…will Majorponghead be invited to cover the wedding ceremony?
While the first season has come to a most triumphant close, like other American pro sports we can now also say that “there is no offseason in Major League Table Tennis.” Next up will be the highly anticipated announcement of the new players who have signed up for the season 2 draft. A few big names (Pitchford, Lebesson, Eugene Wang, Sid Naresh, Vivarelli, Tokic, and Lundquist, for example) have already been revealed, but rumor has it that a couple more big names might have made it in just before today’s deadline. The draft itself happens on May 21st, and look for several teams to remake their roster almost entirely, while teams like Texas, Princeton, Bay Area and Carolina will look to add a couple important pieces to keep up with the incoming firepower. And on August 2nd, look for MLTT’s second annual appearance on ESPN’s The Ocho!
We’ll leave you with a couple more behind-the-scenes sights from this amazing championship weekend. The first season may be over, but Majorponghead will still be reporting during the offseason on major MLTT happenings, so stay tuned for much, much more.
Head Referee Edward Hogshead was responsible for this amazing “Walk of Honor” display along the spectator walkway into the main arena. It paid tribute to this season’s top performer on each of the four playoff teams.
Chicago was an inspired choice to host the MLTT Championships, as enthusiastic spectators packed the stands for both days. Some fans traveled from as far as the Bay Area, Texas, and yes, New Jersey! The Princeton REVAN-lutionaries were loud and proud all weekend in support of their beloved team.
Falling just short of the championship is a difficult thing to overcome, but Princeton seemingly has found the solution: say YES to the open bar afterparty, drink anything/everything that is put into your hands, tour the city, get on a boat, and continue drinking until Ievgen looks like THIS.
