It’s a Gold Rush Sweep of the MVP Award as Enzo Angles & Hong Lin of Carolina Take Top Honors
DOUBLE FIST PUMP TIME!! There was a lot of celebrating on Friday for the Carolina Gold Rush faithful when the news exploded onto the internets that teammates Enzo Angles and Hong Lin had won both the MLTT Men’s and Women’s MVP Awards for this inaugural season.
April 21, 2024. It was one of those historical moments that one will always look back upon and remember exactly where they were when it happened. For us, it was a relatively quiet Thursday afternoon (April 18th), and we were all sitting around Majorponghead offices doing research for the upcoming Championship Review article when all of our phones simultaneously blew up. Similarly across the US and the world MLTT athletes, fans and officials all experienced the same thing as alerts piled up upon notifications with the big news. Enzo Angles and Hong Lin, the indomitable duo from Coach Alex Yang’s Carolina Gold Rush had swept the inaugural regular season MVP awards!
It may not have come to a big surprise to some, as Enzo and Hong had statistically both been no-brainer selections…but the MVP award is decided by a coaches’ vote (each MLTT coach votes for their top 3 MVP candidates, they cannot vote for any player on their own team) and as we all know, coaches are still human beings, and these kinds of thing are rife with personal opinions, biases, even politics. So it’s a testament to the excellence of these two outstanding athletes that being on the same team did not somehow split the vote in the minds of the coaches. Their history-making inaugural season performances stood on their own.
We found it so telling and appropriate that both congratulatory video calls by Commissioner Flint Lane caught the two MVPs at their home clubs, in the middle of training and coaching. Enzo got the news surrounded by his students and training partner Varun Prakash, survived table tennis’ version of a Gatorade shower, and was then was regaled with an adoring “ENZO! ENZO! ENZO!” chant worthy of any NBA arena. Hong Lin was also hard at work at her literal home club when she was surprised by the news, and while her reaction was certainly more understated than that of Enzo’s, it was so obvious and touching, the joy and pride that the accolade brought to her.
Enzo’s statistical highlights: #1 MLTT Power Ranking…49-17 (74.2%) singles record…52-14 (78.8%) doubles record…93-70 (57.1%) Golden Game record.
Hong’s statistical highlights: #4 MLTT Power Ranking (#1 ranked woman)…50-13 (79.4%) doubles record…63-44 (58.9%) Golden Game record (also #1 amongst women and #3 overall).
In addition to the winners, MLTT also awarded cash prizes to the 2nd and 3rd place finishers in the voting. For the men, the electric (some would say beyond the realms of absurdity) Jishan Liang of the Princeton Revolution finished as the runner-up, while the Bay Area Blasters’ wünderkind Senura Silva and the Portland Paddlers’ man of the people Jiwei Xia tied for third.
Three exciting fan favorite stars filled out the men’s MVP voting: Princeton’s Jishan Liang, Bay Area’s Senura Silva, and Portland’s Jiwei Xia were all tone-setters for their respective squads…forces to be reckoned with for the entire season.
On the women’s side, it was a trio of truly magnificent ladies who were selected to this honor. The imperturbable Amy Wang of the Texas Smash was the MVP runner-up, while the Florida Crocs’ fiery Matilda Ekholm and the Portland Paddlers’ silent killer Rachel Sung shared 3rd place.
The women's MVP award also honored three incredible players who could be described as a Song of Fire and Ice, with college roommates in what must be UCLA’s chillest dorm room Amy Wang (runner up) and Rachel Sung (T3) flanked by the incendiary Matilda Ekholm (T3).
Congratulations to all MVP winners! You can read MLTT’s official announcement here. It bears noting that 5 of the 8 athletes honored (both MVPs plus Liang, Silva and Wang) will be appearing at next weekend’s Championship Weekend in Chicago. It’s almost as if 5 of 8 dentists surveyed agree that having an MVP or near-MVP on your roster is beneficial to your chances of making the playoffs. Check back soon to read our Championships Preview article!
