MLTT Week 2 update

(By Steve Hopkins, photo MLTT)

The second weekend of Major League table tennis contained six games in the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The first two games were played on Friday – the New York Slice and the Florida Crocs started at 4 p.m. The slab won a tight 13-8 competition that needed a strong finish in the Golden Game. Koki Niwa started the slice with a 2-1 lead-after three tight games with Asuka Sakai. Tiffany Ke then expanded the lead of the slice with a 2-1 score about Tashiya Piyadasa. The double team of the Croc created the score by winning 2 of 3 (Chihwei Yeh and Angel Naranjo about Slice’s Wenzhang Tao and Jishan Liang). Daniel Gorak from Croc won his match 2-1 over Hoacheng Wang from The Slice to even the score and then the Marc Duran of the Croc ended the individual matches with a 2-1 victory over Yiran Wu who gave the Crocs the 8-7 lead that went into the golden game. However, the Golden Game is worth 6 points and the slice won 21-19 to add the 6 extra points-with a final victory 13-8.

The second Friday game was the Atlanta Blazers and the Carolina Gold Rush. This followed the same script as the earlier match with the blazers that the individual matches won 8-7, but then the Gold Rush won the victory over the power of their golden game. Early the two teams were even with blazers Yuya Oshima who won 2-1 over Enzo-angles, and then Gold Rush’s Chen Sun won 2-1 over Minhyung Jee. In Dubblers, the Blazer’s team of Kayama Yu and Tom Feng registered a narrow 2-1 victory over Enzo-corners and Eugene Wang. And then the last two singles matches Self-with Gold Rush’s Mohamed Shouman Die Jeet Chandra defeated 3-0 and then won Kayama Yu van Blazers 3-0 about Wei Wang. The end result was an 8-7 advantage that went to the Golden Game. At that time, the Gold Rush pulled forward and won the Golden Game 21-17, so that the 13-8 victory was obtained.

On Saturday Koki Niwa registered three victories for the slice and topping Kayama Yu of the blazers. Minhyung Jee equalized the score and won all three of her matches for the blazers about Tiffany Ke of The Slice. Niwa then worked with Yiran Wu to take 2 of 3 over Tom Feng and Kayama Yu from the blazers. Wenzhang Tao expanded the lead of the slice by taking 2 of 3 over Jeet Chandra. Yuya Oshima van de Blazers won all three games against Slice’s Haocheng Wang to give the blazers a benefits of one point (8-7) that entered the Golden Game. Again, the team with the lower points won the Golden Game and the 21-19 victory gave them the 6 extra points and the overall 13-8 victory.

The second Saturday match was the Florida Crocs against the Carolina Gold Rush. The Gold Rush registered a dominant version that won the first phase 9-6 and then won the Golden Game. Mohamed Shouman stood on Daniel Gorak 2-1 to give the gold rush the early lead. Chen Sun then wiped Tashiya Piyadasa 3-0 to extend the lead to 5-1. And the double team of Kai Zhang and Enzo Angles led a tight 2-1 win over Chihwei Yeh and Angel Naranjo to further expand the leadership to 7-2. At that time, the Crocs mounted a small comeback and won the following two games with 2-1 to limit the leadership-Marc Duran over Enzo-corners and Asuka Sakai above Eugene Wang. At that time, the competition score 9-6 with a solid advantage for the Gold Rush and they managed to win the Golden Game 21-20 to obtain a general score of 15-6.

On Sunday, the Crocs and Blazers played in the first matchup followed by the slice and the gold rush. In the early competition, the Crocs set a 10-5 lead in the Golden Game. Asuka Sakai gave the Crocs an early 2-1 lead with his match about Kayama Yu. Tashiya Piyadasa then expanded that lead with her 3-0 win over Minhyung Jee. The blazers won the doubles with Tom Feng and Kayama Yu who won 2 of 3 about Chihwei Yeh and Angel Naranjo. Marc Duran van Croc then registered 3 victories over Jiwei Xia before the Yuya Oshima of the Blazer the lead a bit limited with a 2-1 win over Daniel Gorak. With the score 10-5 in favor of the Crocs, they had a big advantage in the Golden Game and held it on 21-18 for the victory. The final score was 16-5.

The last game of the weekend was between the two unbeaten teams – the New York Slice and the Carolina Gold Rush. It was the gold rush of the hometown that won. The Enzo-corner of the Gold Rush stood Koki Niwa 2-1 to give them an early advantage. Chen Sun expanded the Gold Rush lead with a 3-0 win over Tiffany Ke. The Doubles team of the slice of Koki Niwa and Yiran Wu won 2-1 over Enzo Angles and Kai Zhang through the narrowest margins (11-10, 10-11, 11-9). After the last two games have been split, which won 2-1 for the Gold Rush, and then Jishan Liang won 2-1 for the slice, it was a 9-6 advantage for the Gold Rush that went to the last golden match. In that game, the Gold Rush pressed their advantage and won 21-14 value they received a general score of 15-6.

The results of week 2 were Gold Rush 3-0, paste 2-1, Crocs 1-2, blazers 0-3. And the cumulative seasonal totals now show the goldrush that leads the East and the Texas -Smash in the West. It is early and the young season has to start for three of the ten teams. Lots of action on tap with 15 competition weekends (12 more) before the end of March.

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