Until the regular season comes to a close, no lead is safe in Major League Table Tennis (MLTT).
The second half of MLTT’s third season is about to begin, and time is running out for teams to lock up a coveted playoff position. Only two teams in each division can compete during championship weekend, and the next few months will be a mad dash for each of the league’s 10 teams to punch one of four tickets.
As of this article’s publication, none of these teams has earned a seat at this prestigious table. The teams at the front of each division’s line have a rival breathing down their neck. With only a few matches separating the leaders and outsiders, the difference between playing in April and an early exit could come down to a few games. And for the teams in the most volatile positions heading into the second half, a single player’s performance in those games could decide how their team will watch the postseason.
Adam Hugh wouldn’t have called the first draft pick of his MLTT coaching career a difficult selection. When an Olympic silver medalist and one of the greatest chop blockers in the sport’s history falls into your lap, you can’t let that player fall into someone else’s. He’s been almost every bit as advertised throughout the Slice’s first few weekends, winning 45.5% of his singles games (15-18) and 46.7% of his doubles games (7-8). Those wins have helped the Slice earn a 7-5 record with 121 points in the first half, as well as the top spot in the East Division for a while.
Then came Week 8. A 3-18 loss to the Bay Area Blasters. A 5-16 loss to the Los Angeles Spinners two days afterward. The team that reached the summit of the East Division plummeted to third after just one miserable weekend. That weekend, Niwa went winless in the Slice’s first two matches before flu-like symptoms ruled him out of their third.
But there’s a reason why the Slice finished every weekend 2-1 prior to Week 8. Niwa’s presence as a gifted athlete and leader has driven this expansion team in not just their worst weekends, but in their best battles. And if we see the Slice play after the regular season ends, it will likely be Niwa who extends their first-ever year with the league.
Despite the Blasters’ standing as the fourth seed in the West Division, several of their players have a real argument for this list. Taehyun Kim (2750) could make a real impact if he returns to his MVP form as he recovers from his foot injury. Jinbao Ma’s (2740) outstanding Week 8 could change the fortunes of this team if he carries that momentum into the second half.
But this spot couldn’t have gone to anyone other than Lily Zhang, who routinely dominates Singles 2 as if it’s her mission to win seven games every weekend. That’s not even an exaggeration. She won seven of nine games in Week 6, when she won Female Player of the Week honors for that week. She won that many games in Week 7, the same week she became the first woman to ever top MLTT’s official power rankings list. And she won seven games again in Week 8 to put her overall singles percentage to an unfathomable 73.7% (22-8) for the season.
Amid a Blasters season mired by inconsistency, Tim Wang and his team can rest easy every time Singles 2 starts. There’s always a good chance that Zhang will walk out of that match with a few extra points for her team, points that will be essential in the Blasters’ postseason push.
When we first saw Emmanuel Lebesson this season, he finished Week 3 with a rather pedestrian 5-4 performance in his singles games. His team left Portland, Ore., that week with one win and two losses.
When we last saw Lebesson, he became the third player in league history to win all nine of his singles games. The Wind did not lose a single match in that entire weekend.
One of the more noticeable trends throughout this season: the Wind blows wherever Lebesson goes. If he takes command of the table, his team often celebrates at the end of that match. If his opponents get the better of him, it becomes much harder for the Wind to take the Golden Game. The Wind have a 6-0 record whenever Lebesson wins at least two of his three singles games, and they are just 2-4 when he doesn’t.
The Wind might just be the key reason why neither playoff spot in the West can be guaranteed. They’re the division’s third seed as of now, which could very easily change if Lebesson’s hot streak continues.
The Texas Smash have done an admirable job holding down the West’s second seed without coach Jorg Bitzigeio on the sidelines. But as the only team to have played in fewer than nine matches this season, there’s still reason to doubt they’ll keep that silver standing for much longer, especially with the Wind roaring right behind them.
That makes these next three months critical for the Smash’s playoff hopes. But if there’s one team that historically can’t be counted out, it’s the Smash, the only team to have competed in the final match in each of their first two seasons. And in each of those seasons, Amy Wang has had a primary role in taking them there.
Wang’s second season with the Smash reflected the championship she won just one season prior, having finished with a singles percentage of 55.6% (30-24). That’s the same percentage she has in Season 3, as she has won 10 of her 18 games so far this year.
The Smash’s next several matches will be must-wins if they want to keep their postseason hopes alive. And as long as Wang takes the table, the Smash shouldn’t have much trouble winning those matches.
The Princeton Revolution left Bensenville, Ill., without a win in Week 4, marking an unenviable end to a horrid Season 3 debut. Since then, they have won four of their last six matches and have ascended to the East Division’s top spot.
What’s changed? Seungmin Cho.
The Revolution have been thankful for Cho’s 66.7% singles percentage (12-6) since he made his MLTT debut in Week 5. The fourth overall pick in the 2025 MLTT Draft has arguably been the league’s most productive rookie this season, even when compared to top-two picks Yuya Oshima and Koki Niwa. And if the league’s official power rankings are anything to go by, then Cho has been the best player of the league’s first half, despite not having a Player of the Week award to his name.
But Revolution fans don’t need an award to see how impactful the rookie has been to their team’s success. If Cho takes the table, there’s a good chance the Revolution will end up winning. And if the Revolution keep winning, then it’s not hard to imagine seeing them in the postseason in a few months.
