Major League Table Tennis is coming to North Carolina for the first time this weekend.
The MLTT will hold six games from Friday to Sunday at the Triangle Badminton and Table Tennis Club in Morrisville. Two games will be played each day between the Carolina Gold Rush, Texas Smash, Seattle Spinners and Chicago Wind.
Texas and Chicago will kick off the weekend Friday at 4 p.m. followed by a matchup between Seattle and Carolina at 7 p.m. Seattle will take on Chicago Saturday at 4 p.m., and Carolina will face Texas right after at 7 p.m. On the final day, Seattle will play Texas at 11 a.m., and Chicago and Carolina will end the weekend with a 2 p.m. start time.
Spectators can purchase general admission tickets for individual days (good for both games) on the MLTT website. Adult tickets are $25 and kids ages 4-12 can get in for $10. Students with a valid student ID and seniors ages 60 and up can buy tickets for $15. There’s also a $60 VIP ticket option that comes with an official MLTT complementary item and allows spectators to sit in the VIP seating area located courtside.
For those that don’t want to miss any of the action, there is a three-day general admission pass that is offered at a discounted price of $65. The three-day VIP pass is $150.
The MLTT was founded in 2023 and features some big table tennis names, including four-time Olympian Lily Zhang (a member of the Bay Area Blasters) and Olympian Rachel Sung (a member of the Portland Paddlers).
There are eight teams in the league. The Carolina Gold Rush, which plays in both North and South Carolina, earned a first-place finish in the East Division in last year’s inaugural regular season. The team was led to a 16-6 regular season record and a fourth-place playoff finish by No. 1 overall draft pick and 2023-24 Men’s MVP Enzo Angles (France) and Women’s MVP Hong Lin (USA), who are both on this year’s roster.
The Gold Rush, currently coached by Shigang “Alex” Yang, have six other players on this season’s roster, including “Cobra” Kai Zhang (USA), Romain Lorentz (France), Edward Ly (Canada), Satoshi Aida (Japan), Eugene Wang (Canada) and Sid Naresh (USA).
“We’re trying to rotate them through North and South Carolina because everywhere we go, we have these table tennis clubs and followers and student club from universities who just really enjoy getting involved,” Max Thompson, the MLTT vice president of marketing said.
An interesting feature of the MLTT is the “intimate” setting and the interactions between players and fans. “Think you’re good?” is the MLTT motto, and for local table tennis players that think they have what it takes, this weekend is a good chance to prove it.
Fans will get the opportunity to play against the players both before and after the matches.
“Our athletes are so humble and enjoy getting to interact with people,” Thompson said. “If you’ve ever been curious about table tennis, play it in your basement or you’re someone who takes it even more seriously than that, you’ll have a chance to meet these players, and they’ll even play against you.”
Said Thompson, “They’ll give you tips, tricks, all that stuff, and you can see what it’s like to take on the best.”
Another distinctive feature of the MLTT is the game format. Each game will start in a more traditional arrangement with two singles matchups followed by one doubles and two more singles matchups. In each matchup there will be three games each worth a team point. The aspect special to the MLTT is the game-ending “Golden Game” which is a race to 21. Every member of each five-person team rotates into the game every four points until one team reaches 21.
The first team to 21 earns six more team points which can change the outcome or make the games more interesting at the end.
“When it gets down to 20-20 right before 21 and one point is on the line, the lid comes off the place,” Thompson said.
Said Thompson. “When you get all the players on the team rotating and competing against each other, it’s really high stakes, and there’s really no room for error. I think you’ll see some of our best players really struggle sometimes in that high intensity, ‘you have to win these four points and that’s it.’ You don’t have the chance to beat someone in a game to 11.”