Only one Major League Table Tennis (MLTT) team has yet to prove itself this season. That will change at ULH Event Center in Houston during the final weekend of October.

The Carolina Gold Rush don’t have much left to prove, though. They recently earned MLTT’s silver medal just one season after winning it all. Enzo Angles remains one of the league’s top players, and he’s got an excellent supporting cast in Eugene Wang, Edward Ly and Kai Zhang. They’re even welcoming back Hong Lin, who’s only two years removed from winning Women’s MVP in Season 1.

That doesn’t mean that the Gold Rush are guaranteed another Championship Match appearance. They will have to earn it, and their first three tests won’t be easy. The Atlanta Blazers and Texas Smash have both added new players and coaches, and the Chicago Wind are out for revenge following their Season 3 postseason defeat at the Gold Rush’s hands.

The Gold Rush have proven time and time again that they can succeed against the league’s best teams. But if things go poorly for them in Week 4, their impending uphill battle to earn another title may be larger than any they’ve ever experienced.

Week 4 Schedule

Friday, Oct. 30:

• Atlanta Blazers vs. Carolina Gold Rush (4 p.m. CT)
• Chicago Wind vs. Texas Smash (7:30 p.m. CT)

Saturday, Oct. 31:

• Atlanta Blazers vs. Chicago Wind (4 p.m. CT)
• Carolina Gold Rush vs. Texas Smash (7:30 p.m. CT)

Sunday, Nov. 1:

• Chicago Wind vs. Carolina Gold Rush (11 a.m. CT)
• Atlanta Blazers vs. Texas Smash (2:30 p.m. CT)

Tickets available at tickets.mltt.com

Where Does Each Team Stand?

Texas Smash: The Smash arguably find themselves in the best position of any team competing in Week 4. At 2-1with 38 points, they have the opportunity to defend their status as the West Division’s No. 2 seed in front of their home crowd at ULH Event Center. Additionally, No. 2 overall pick Takuya Jin will make his MLTT debut alongside a group of Smash teammates that won two matches in their opening weekend.

Atlanta Blazers: The 2-4 Blazers will travel to Houston without Yuya Oshima or Kayama Yu, two of their top three players. Free agents Wei Wang and Mishel Levinski will join Koji Itagaki’s squad, which currently holds the No. 3 seed in the East Division. They can leap into playoff position with an immaculate weekend, but the Blazers’ primary focus should be adding more points to their East Division-leading 49 with a depleted roster.

Carolina Gold Rush: The Gold Rush are the final team in MLTT with a perfectly clean slate. They’re bringing one of the league’s most talented rosters to Houston for their first outing of Season 4, but they haven’t played together since losing the Championship Match in April. Recent history doesn’t favor teams making their season debuts in Week 4, a claim the Princeton Revolution backed up with a winless Week 4 last year. But the Gold Rush have a track record of defying odds, and they hope this weekend will be no exception.

Chicago Wind: Just two match weekends after earning MLTT’s bronze medal in Week 3, the 3-3 Chicago Wind find themselves as the West Division’s No. 4 seed. They’re looking to tip the scales in their favor in Houston, and they’re bringing their star-studded roster with them. Their top three of Robert Gardos, Mo Zhang and Emmanuel Lebesson will compete, and they’ll be joined by Alexandru Cazacu, Daniel Tran and Sean Zhang. They’ll miss Jeongwoo Park, but the Wind are more than capable of adding to their current point total of 66 during Week 4.

Matchups to Watch

Quadri Aruna vs. Takuya Jin (Atlanta vs. Texas, Nov. 1 at 2:30 p.m.): The top two picks in the Season 4 MLTT Draft will compete in the same match, and there’s a chance they’ll do so against one another. Atlanta’s Quadri Aruna has shown why he was taken No. 1 overall, as his No. 13 power rating currently ranks No. 1 among all first-year players. Among those fellow first-year players is No. 2 overall pick and three-time club champion Takuya Jin of Texas, the highest-selected player yet to make his MLTT debut. Will Jin prove that he should have gone No. 1 overall in April? Or will he fall behind Aruna on MLTT’s power rankings list, as every other rookie has so far?

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Carolina Gold Rush vs. Chicago Wind (Nov. 1 at 11 a.m.): Only two MLTT teams roster multiple MVP winners. Those teams are playing one another on Nov. 1. Carolina stars Enzo Angles and Hong Lin earned the first-ever Men’s and Women’s MVP awards back in Season 1, and Chicago mainstays Robert Gardos and Mo Zhang have earned the award in subsequent seasons. With that much hardware on either side of the table, neither Carolina nor Chicago will have an easy time against one another. But you don’t win an MVP award without rising above your competition, a task that Angles, Lin, Gardos and Zhang must accomplish before their weekends end.

Scenarios

Texas Smash

• Best Case: The Smash will become the West Division’s top seed if they score 59 points or more.
• Worst Case: The Smash will fall to last place in the West Division if they score 18 points or less, and if the Chicago Wind score 18 points or more with a tiebreaker advantage.

Atlanta Blazers

• Best Case: The Blazers will become the East Division’s No. 2 seed and hold a postseason position if they score exactly 63 points.
• Worst Case: The Blazers will fall to last place in the East Division if they score nine points or less, and if the Carolina Gold Rush score 19 points or more with a tiebreaker advantage.

Carolina Gold Rush

• Best Case: The Gold Rush will become the East Division’s top seed if they score 50 points or more.
• Worst Case: The Gold Rush will remain in last place in the East Division if they score 19 points or less, and if the Atlanta Blazers score eight points or more with a tiebreaker advantage.

Chicago Wind

• Best Case: The Wind will become the West Division’s No. 2 seed and hold a postseason position if they score 49 points or more.
• Worst Case: The Wind will fall to last place in the West Division if they score 17 points or less, and if the Texas Smash score 18 points or more with a tiebreaker advantage.

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