(By Steve Hopkins)
The opening weekend of Major League Table Tennis featured six matches at Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, California.
The first two matches were played on Friday – the Texas Smash versus the Bay Area Blasters and the Florida Crocs versus the Portland Paddlers. The Texas Smash won 15-6 over the Blasters, with Hiromitsu Kasahara, Amy Wang, McBeath/Liang, Liang , and Monteiro collectively giving the squad a 9-6 advantage entering the Golden Game. In that Final Game, the Smash topped the Blasters 21-17, giving them the 6 points and extending their overall victory score to 15-6. In the other Friday match, the Portland Paddlers handily defeated the Florida Crocs, with Hampus Nordberg, Kotomi Omoda, Naresh/Kumar, Kang Dong-Soo, and Jens Lundquist had established a 10-5 lead and then after winning the Golden Game extended their lead to 16-5.
In the Saturday matchups, the Florida Crocs topped the Texas Smash 13-8, leaving both teams with one win and one loss. The winning Crocs squad was Daniel Gorak, Peiyu Zhu, Naranjo/Yeh, Marc Duran, and Chihwei Yeh, but the team was down 7-8 and needed the Golden Game in order to secure victory. In that final game, it was a a 21-19 victory – the narrowest of margins securing the 13-8 win. In the other Day 2 matchup, Portland logged a decisive 16-5 victory over the Bay Area Blasters. Kang Dong-Soo, Kotomi Omoda, Kumar/Nordberg, Lundquist, and Nordberg created a 10-5 lead and then won the Golden Game for a combined 16-5 score.
After losing twice, the Bay Area Blasters managed to salvage the weekend with a Sunday 13-8 win over the Florida Crocs. Elsayed Lashin, Ge Chi, Ma/Silva, Ved Shesh, and Jinbao Ma entered the final game down 7-8, but then dominated the Golden Game for the win. And in the final match of the weekend, the Texas Smash gave Portland its first loss with a 16-5 win. McBeath, Wang, Kasahara/Liang, Monteiro, and Kasahara entered the Golden Game up 10-5 and then extended their winning score to 16-5.
At the end of the opening weekend, the Smash and the Paddlers are each 2-1, and the Cros and the Blasters are 1-2. The next MLTT event will be in Charlotte, North Carolina from September 19-21.
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