MLTT 101
Welcome to the first professional table tennis league in the United States!
Major League Table Tennis was founded in 2023 by software entrepreneur and table tennis enthusiast, Flint Lane
While table tennis is a sport with millions of followers globally, America has never had a professional league. Flint sought to change this, and rapidly put together the league in a matter of months, going from idea to regular season in essentially 6 months, with the league appearing on ESPN’s Ocho Day on Sep. 8, 2023, and the first match of the season taking place in Daytona Beach on Sep. 15, 2023. The league will again appear on Ocho Day in 2024, this time taking place on Aug. 2.
MLTT features world class players — the best in America — representing 40 total countries, and competes in an innovative team game format. It’s an 8-team format, and the 8 teams are the Bay Area Blasters, Chicago Wind, Carolina Gold Rush, Florida Crocs, Princeton Revolution, Portland Paddlers, Seattle Spinners and Texas Smash.
At every team match, there are 21 points at stake. For every game won by a player, each team is awarded one point. There are 3 games per matchup, and the matchup format is two singles, one doubles, two singles. It all concludes with the Golden Game, a pulse-pounding race to 21 points where every member of each 5-person team rotates in every 4 points. The winning team gets another 6 points, which can dramatically change the outcome.
The league’s top draft pick and current No. 1 player in Enzo Angles of France. Some of America’s best Olympians in recent memory, and current Olympic hopefuls, play in our league, including Lily Zhang (soon competing in her fourth Olympics at this summer’s Paris Games), Amy Wang, Rachel Sung, Jishan Liang, Timothy Wang, Nikhil Kumar and Emily Tan. We also have former Olympians from other countries, including Matilda Ekholm (Sweden), Daniel Gorak (Poland), Benjamin Brossier (France) and Jeremy Hazin (Canada).
In our first year, we’ve already attracted a number of investors, including NBA Hall of Famer Manu Ginobili, who has an ownership stake in the Florida Crocs franchise. Top 10 world-ranked table tennis star Dima Ovtcharov has a stake in the Princeton Revolution franchise.
General admission tickets for the event start at $10. Tickets also grant fans access to the fan zone, where they can play on ping pong tables, meet the pros, and potentially even get a chance to play a few points against them.
The league will host its Championship Weekend at Loyola’s Gentile Arena in Chicago, IL, on April 27-28, 2024. This will be the highlight of the season, where teams will be competing for the coveted MLTT Cup and $100,000 in prize money. Tickets for all matches are available for purchase at mltt.com/tickets. Fans eager to witness the live action and cheer for their favorite teams are encouraged to book their spots in advance.