Major League Table Tennis (MLTT) will hold the first-ever weighted MLTT Draft Lottery on April 7 for its Season 4 Draft, league sources tell Table Tennis TV.
The lottery will determine the first six selections of the Season 4 Draft, which will be decided through a random drawing of balls that represent each team that misses the postseason. The number of balls each eligible team receives will be determined based on the reverse order of their regular-season finishes.
In previous years, all four teams (at the time) that missed the postseason would receive the same number of balls, giving each a 25% chance of winning the lottery. The league’s new weighted lottery system will debut with the following odds for each lottery-eligible team:
Any tie between two lottery-eligible teams will be broken with a coin toss.
The team that owns the first drawn ball will earn the No. 1 overall pick in the Season 4 Draft. Balls will then be drawn until three different teams are selected, which will determine the top three selections.
The lottery will end once the first three picks are determined, and the three unselected teams will pick 4th, 5th and 6th based on reverse record order. The 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th picks will go to the four postseason-bound teams based on the reverse order of how they perform at Championship Weekend, with the Season 3 MLTT Champion picking 10th.
For the six teams that miss this year’s Championship Weekend, the lottery could be their best chance to acquire a player talented enough to take them there in future seasons. The team that earns the No. 1 pick can select any player from this year’s pool of world-class talent, which includes Nigerian table tennis superstar Quadri Aruna (Men’s Singles No. 35).
No team has secured a spot in the Season 4 Draft Lottery as of this article’s publication, but the Florida Crocs (.369), Atlanta Blazers (.403) and Los Angeles Spinners (.463) are currently projected to have the highest odds of earning the No. 1 pick.
The Chicago Wind will not participate in the Season 4 MLTT Draft Lottery so far, as they clinched a spot in the postseason during Week 12. They are the only team so far with a confirmed spot at Championship Weekend, but all nine other teams are still mathematically able to join them.
This will be MLTT’s fourth year of using the draft as its method for assigning incoming players to teams. MLTT is the only table tennis league to conduct a draft or a lottery, both of which draw heavy inspiration from other American sports leagues, such as the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB).
MLTT will hold its Season 4 Draft on April 30. Any player, regardless of skill level, can declare for the Season 4 Draft until registration closes on March 23.
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