It took the Atlanta Blazers six matches to earn their first win of Season 3. They waited for 58 days after their season opener before celebrating after a match. Every other team in the league had a positive number in their win columns by then, and it took the Blazers nearly two months to join their rivals.

This season, the Blazers achieved that same feat in just one match.

That win came after a 14-7 battle on Friday against the Chicago Wind, who faced Atlanta with a roster that earned a bronze medal last season. The Blazers watched the Wind in the postseason from the comfort of their homes; they didn’t even make it to the postseason last year. But that was Season 3. This season, free agent Jessica Reyes-Lai (SPINDEX: 2453) won all three of her games against Season 2 Women’s MVP Mo Zhang (2540) in Singles 2. This season, Blazers rookie Woojin Kim (2684) defeated Alexandru Cazacu (2645) 2-1 to tie the match in Singles 3. And this season, former No. 1 overall pick Yuya Oshima (2747) took two games from Sean Zhang (2653) in Singles 4 to give the Blazers a lead heading into the Golden Game, which they won 21-18.

That was the Blazers’ victory in front of their home crowd though. They fell to the Los Angeles Spinners 6-15 on Saturday before closing out their weekend with a 2-19 loss to the Princeton Revolution on Sunday. And yet, the Blazers can still call their opening weekend a success, given how well they performed in the Golden Game. First overall draft pick Quadri Aruna (2840) tied for a weekend-most 15 Golden Game points against Ľubomír Pištej (2755) and Season 3 MVP finalists Seungmin Cho (2836) and Emmanuel Lebesson (2849) in his first-ever weekend of Major League Table Tennis (MLTT). Oshima, Tom Feng (2657) and Kim followed right behind with nine, eight and seven points, respectively. The Blazers couldn’t seem to understand the Golden Game last year. Now, they’re quickly proving themselves worthy of respect in the biggest game of the match.

In terms of expectations, the Blazers were the most variable team heading into Week 1. Their star-studded, new-look roster could have earned them an undefeated outing. They could have struggled to a winless weekend against two postseason teams without Kayama Yu (2804) or Braxton Chang (2604). With that in mind, a 1-2 weekend doesn’t seem half bad. At the very least, it’s a massive step in the right direction given how long it took the Blazers to earn that one win just one season ago.

The Start of a Revolution?

The prevailing thought surrounding the Princeton Revolution’s Season 3 was simple: their most dangerous enemy was themselves. Key players failed to perform in pivotal Singles or Doubles matches. Convincing leads were squandered by poor performances in the Golden Game. They made the playoffs despite starting their year with three consecutive losses.

This weekend, the Revolution made one thing clear: none of that will be happening again.

Well, aside from the “losses” part. Losing is inevitable, a fact the Revolution were reminded of on Friday after falling 5-16 to the Los Angeles Spinners. But there’s a calm before every storm. That storm raged against the Chicago Wind on Saturday, 13-8, as the Revolution overcame a deficit heading into the Golden Game to take revenge on the foes who beat them in the Season 3 consolation match. That wasn’t even the worst of it. Just ask the poor Atlanta Blazers, who could only sit and watch the Revolution decimate them 19-2 on Sunday.

The usual suspects did most of the Revolution’s damage this weekend. Seungmin Cho showed why he was the runner-up for Season 3 Men’s MVP with five Singles wins, five Doubles wins and 13 Golden Game points. Koyo Kanamitsu (2747) capped off his five-win week with 13 Golden Game points of his own. Jiangshan Guo (2584) didn’t show that same dominance on Friday after Matilda Ekholm (2551) swept her in Singles 2. But she rose alongside the rest of her team, taking down Mo Zhang and Rachel Sung (2529) without dropping a single game.

The Revolution had every opportunity to take an early lead over a competitive East Division, and they capitalized on those chances. They even did so without the help of former Player of the Week winners Kang Dong-Soo (2788) and Yang Shuo (2751). When those players finally suit up this season, there’s no telling how successful the Revolution can be this season. They’ve always had enough talent to dominate their foes en route to an MLTT title. They can prove it this season by maintaining their Week 1 form.

Same Roster, Different Outcome

Look out for … the Los Angeles Spinners?

The same Los Angeles Spinners that were eliminated from postseason contention in Week 13 last season, well before any of their rivals locked themselves out of playoff spots? The same Spinners team that brought last year’s roster to Duluth, Ga., for a three-match bloodbath against two playoff teams and a new-look Atlanta Blazers roster? 

Yes, that Spinners team. And that Spinners team opened its season with a 2-1 Week 1.

It started on Friday with a 16-5 demolition of the Princeton Revolution, who finished last season in fourth place. They kept their winning streak alive with a 15-6 victory on Saturday over the Atlanta Blazers, who had just thrashed the Chicago Wind on opening night. By the time the Wind finally blew them away 17-4 on Sunday, the Spinners had already clinched a positive weekend and, for now, the top spot in the West Division.

Spinners fans can thank Ľubomír Pištej, the Spinners’ veteran cornerstone, for that outcome. His five wins in both Singles and Doubles prevented the likes of Seungmin Cho, Quadri Aruna and Sean Zhang from taking too many points from his team. He was the only Spinner to compete in all three of his team’s Doubles matches, and he looked equally comfortable next to Marcos Madrid (2651) and Aditya Sareen (2732). And for good measure, his five points in the Golden Game helped turn the Spinners’ impressive leads into victories. 

Pištej wasn’t the only Spinner to perform well in crucial moments. Alexandre Robinot (2743) tied Aruna for the most Golden Game points in Week 1 with 15, despite only winning four of his nine Singles games. Matilda Ekholm only had three Singles wins this weekend, but those three came in a sweep against Jiangshan Guo, who would go on to win her remaining six games.

Those feats are impressive on their own, but the Spinners accomplished them without An Jaehyun (2900), the No. 5 overall pick in April’s Season 4 MLTT Draft. They took down the Princeton Revolution and Atlanta Blazers with virtually the same roster from last season, a roster that always had more talent than their record showed. If that roster can keep up its performance in Week 1, the Spinners may not be abdicating the West Division’s throne anytime soon.

Should We Worry About Chicago?

This wasn’t how the Chicago Wind expected to start Season 4. Great expectations should follow a third-place finish, but the Wind were, at best, the third-best team in Week 1. An opening night loss to the hometown Atlanta Blazers certainly stung, even though Robert Gardos (2807) did not compete. Gardos’s return couldn’t stop the Princeton Revolution’s 13-8 comeback in the Golden Game on Saturday, and a 17-4 victory over the Los Angeles Spinners prevented them from leaving Week 1 without a single win.

Wind fans have seen this exact weekend before: Week 3 of Season 3. The Wind opened their season that weekend and left with a 1-2 record. Those two losses didn’t stop the Wind from becoming the first team to clinch a postseason spot in Season 3. And based on how their key players performed this weekend, another losing weekend shouldn’t stop them this season, either.

Emmanuel Lebesson meant everything to the Chicago Wind this weekend. His six Singles wins against Quadri Aruna, Kou Lei (2751) and Benedek Olah (2753) kept the Wind competitive all weekend. He and Alexandru Cazacu won two Doubles games against Cho and Carlos Hernandez (2586) on Saturday to give Chicago a lead heading into the Golden Game. Speaking of the Golden Game, he led the Wind with 12 points scored against some of the toughest players on opposing rosters. His performance earned him the No. 1 spot on MLTT’s official power rankings list, and history shows that he’s more than capable of staying near the top throughout a season. 

Lebesson carried the brunt of his team’s workload this weekend, but Gardos contributed four Singles wins and 10 Golden Game points in just two matches. Sean Zhang had an impressive weekend as well, winning five Singles games and three Doubles games to keep the Wind afloat throughout the first 15 points. Cazacu and Mo Zhang didn’t have a strong impact in Singles this weekend, but they contributed nine and eight points, respectively, in the Golden Game to keep their opponents on their toes.

The Wind shouldn’t panic this early in the year. Gardos played in only two matches this weekend, and Lebesson still looks like the superstar he was last season. They have plenty of time to bounce back, and the rest of MLTT should fear them if they do. They were one of the league’s most dominant teams last season, which started with a 1-2 opener.

Luke Scotchie’s Player of the Week: Seungmin Cho (PRI)

Not many players face Ľubomír Pištej in a Singles match and get away with it. Even fewer feel optimistic before taking the table opposite Quadri Aruna. And as most will confirm, a Singles bout against Robert Gardos all but guarantees at least two losses. 

So what happens when a player faces all three in one weekend? The unthinkable. A win against Pištej, two games over Gardos and two more against Aruna to take a 5-4 record in Singles. He rematched Aruna and Gardos and faced Aditya Sareen in his Golden Games, in which he scored a combined 13 points, the third-most of any player all week. That really shouldn’t be possible for most players. But as Princeton Revolution fans know, Seungmin Cho is not most players.

Revolution fans also know that Cho isn’t a Singles-only threat. He played in all nine of his team’s Doubles matches this week and won five against three dynamic duos: Pištej/Marcos Madrid, Alexandru Cazacu/Emmanuel Lebesson and Tom Feng/Woojin Kim. His contributions across each match helped the Revolution take two of them, putting them right atop the East Division for now.

Several players had a claim for this award. Lebesson and Jiangshan Guo won six Singles games each. Pištej won five Singles games and five Doubles games with multiple partners. Koyo Kanamitsu not only won five Singles games, but his 13 Golden Game points helped earn the Princeton Revolution a 2-1 weekend. But Cho’s weekend was special. Not only did he combine the performances of both Kanamitsu and Pištej, he did so en route to a successful weekend for his team.

This is Cho’s first Player of the Week nod of his MLTT career, which comes immediately after a year in which he finished in second place for Men’s MVP last season. It’s difficult to imagine a season more successful than Cho’s rookie season, but if he keeps performing as he did in Week 1, second place might not be his highest-placing finish in MVP voting for much longer.

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