A fierce battle between champions. The first of many rallies for two new brand new franchises. Stars in new uniforms looking for revenge against the teams that gave up on them too soon.
All of that, and more, will be featured during the 2025-26 season of Major League Table Tennis (MLTT).
The 10 teams that make up MLTT will return to the table on September 5 for the start of the league’s third year. That day begins a season full of matches that deserve to be circled on the calendars of table tennis fans, but not all for the same reasons. Some matches will attract eyes eager to see superstars against superstars, as well as the beautiful rallies that come with such matchups. Others will captivate hearts that fall for a captivating underdog, the birth of a legend, or a team victory after an offseason of turnover and turmoil. And whether they feature redemption, vengeance, or a long-awaited return home, some matches will intrigue the part of your brain that can’t resist being told a good story.
No matter the reason, these matches make this upcoming season the perfect time to start watching MLTT. And the following five are bound to make this third season of MLTT its biggest and most exciting yet.
A lot has changed since the Carolina Gold Rush hoisted the 2024-25 MLTT championship trophy. Romain Lorentz became the coach of the Los Angeles Spinners. Sid Naresh was traded to the Portland Paddlers. Satoshi Aida signed a contract to play in Poland, and Hong Lin won’t return to Carolina either.
Despite their new look, Carolina maintains a championship-caliber core. Season 1 Men’s MVP Enzo Angles isn’t going anywhere, and neither is Edward Ly. The Naresh trade brought Wei Wang’s impressive SPINDEX rating of 2695 to the Gold Rush. And after selecting Lam Siu Hang, Chen Sun, and Mohamed Shouman in the 2025 MLTT Draft, Carolina looks like a complete and competitive team once again.
This new-look Gold Rush will have to prove they can defend their title from the nine other teams desperate to snatch it from them. That includes the Texas Smash, whom the Gold Rush disposed of in the Season 2 championship match. Losing in the playoffs is a heartbreaking feeling for any team, but the Smash aren’t used to losing. They entered Season 2 as reigning champions, making that loss to the Gold Rush the first time they’ve ever lost a playoff match.
They’ll embark on a journey to reclaim their lost crown, but they will also have to do so with a modified roster. The Smash lost Amir Hodaei and Jeet Chandra in the 2025 MLTT Expansion Draft, and Angela Guan will not return to their roster. But the Smash drafted João Monteiro, Guodong Liang, Seunghwan Oh, and Anirban Ghosh, who will join the threatening trio of Amy Wang, David McBeath, and Hiromitsu Kasahara on their road back to becoming the heads of the table. That can’t happen without unseating their rivals in Carolina.
If you can’t catch the first-ever battle between two MLTT championship-winning teams, the second won’t be too far away. The Gold Rush and Smash will play again on March 6 at 7:30 p.m. at Alameda County Fairgrounds, which will be their first matches of Week 12.
For the first time since the league’s inaugural season, MLTT fans will see brand new teams at the table. MLTT welcomed the Atlanta Blazers and New York Slice as expansion franchises in March, and they will play their very first matches in Week 2. That week will start with the Slice’s debut match against the Florida Crocs on Sept. 19 at 4:00 p.m., and the Blazers will start their first season against the hometown Gold Rush three-and-a-half hours later.
Both matches will be remembered long after this season ends, but an even more compelling match will take place one day later. That’s when these two expansion franchises take the table against each other. It will be the first time in league history that two expansion franchises will face off against one another, a milestone that fans of either team would not want to miss.
This match will also be the first of many battles between the top two picks of the 2025 MLTT Draft. The Blazers took T. League sensation Yuya Oshima with the first overall pick, and the Slice nabbed silver medalist Koki Niwa one pick later. Oshima’s steady play style contrasted with Niwa’s flamboyant and unpredictable approach makes for must-watch table tennis on its own. But the weight they carry as not just this year’s top two picks, but the first-ever selections of their respective franchises, only adds to the excitement of their first MLTT game against each other.
Oshima and Niwa join some familiar faces in these new places. The expansion draft saw these two franchises poach multiple players from the other eight teams, many of whom were key members on their former squads. The Blazers left the expansion draft with Jeet Chandra from Texas, Jiwei Xia from Portland, and Tom Feng from Chicago. The Slice did more damage to their future rivals, taking Amir Hodaei from Texas, Jishan Liang from Princeton, Haocheng Wang from Portland, and Tao Wenzhang and Kaden Xu from the Bay Area. With just two drafts, both franchises turned empty rosters into very scary teams.
This historic match won’t be the only one between these two franchises this season. The Blazers and Slice will play again during Week 8 at Terasaki Budokan in Los Angeles, which fans can watch on TableTennisTV or the MLTT’s Official YouTube Channel on Dec. 13 at 4 p.m.
It’s always bittersweet when a team’s recently added player faces their former squad for the first time. And thanks to the first-ever MLTT expansion draft, many players will have to shove the happy memories and good times they had with their old teammates underneath the table this season. Jeet Chandra and Amir Hodaei will face the same Texas Smash they helped bring to the MLTT championship game last season. Tao Wenzhang and Kaden Xu remain teammates after the expansion draft, but they’ll face the other former Bay Area Blasters they once shared a roster with. The Princeton Revolution may be happy to see Jishan Liang again, but the hugs and fanfare might have to wait until after their inter-division match against Liang and the Slice.
Each of these matches could supply enough tears to fill both sides of the table. But when Jiwei Xia faces the Portland Paddlers on Jan. 10, tissue boxes might need to be available near the stands at the Oregon Convention Center. The fans in attendance will watch Xia and remember the consistency, competitiveness and total control of the table that made him an icon and fan favorite for the Paddlers. The sight of their star in an Atlanta Blazers jersey though? That’s an eyesore they’ll wish they could forget.
This away game for Xia will almost certainly feel like home. Not only will he play against the same teammates he rallied with for two seasons, but he’ll do so in front of the people he shared a hometown with for nearly a decade. He gushed about his fellow Portland residents to the Portland Tribune, claiming that they’ve made it very easy for him and his family to live in Oregon for so long. And when those same people welcome him back during Week 9, they will remember the connection they have with Xia, a bond stronger than any table.
“You’ve been traded” isn’t a phrase that MLTT players are used to hearing. Teams don’t swap players too often in this league, and that scarcity makes any deal an instant headline. So, when the Portland Paddlers and the Carolina Gold Rush completed the third trade in MLTT history on April 23, the news sent shockwaves across the league.
This groundbreaking trade appears even more fascinating considering the players traded. Carolina parted ways with Sid Naresh, whose chemistry with Enzo Angles gave the defending champions a true doubles threat. The Paddlers sent Wei Wang to the Gold Rush, who add Wang’s precision and poise to the table.
These traded players will face each other for the first time on Oct. 5, when the Gold Rush visit the Paddlers at the Oregon Convention Center. Paddlers fans in attendance will see Wang play for the first time this season, a star they’ve watched many times before. This match will also be an early chance for fans in Portland to see their new star play live, as Week 3 marks Naresh’s first home stand as a Paddler. It’s only fitting for that weekend to include a match against the only MLTT team Naresh had ever represented up to that point.
Naresh will have a homecoming of his own in Week 14, when the Paddlers take on the Gold Rush at Charlotte Convention Center on March 15 at 2:30 pm. The next time Naresh shares the table with the team he won a championship with, he will do so hoping to prevent a Gold Rush victory.
How much can one offseason alter a franchise? The Spinners may have provided a close-to-definitive answer. They will play their next match for a city they did not represent the last time they took the table, as the team that once rallied for Seattle now hopes to bring a championship to Los Angeles. They will attempt this goal under the coaching of former Gold Rush star Romain Lorentz, who scored the final point of last season’s championship match. And if they end up winning it all in Season Three, superstar Matilda Ekholm will likely be a key reason for it.
Ekholm doesn’t need much of an introduction. She’s had a Top 20 worldwide ranking next to her name before. She’s won the Swedish National Championship six times. She dominated the table as a member of the Florida Crocs last season. And for the 2025-26 season, she will bring her experience and talent to Los Angeles and aid the Spinners on their quest for glory.
That quest will require a stop in Hollywood, Florida, a location all too familiar for Ekholm. When her Spinners arrive at Broward Table Tennis Club on Nov. 21, she will play against the Crocs for the first time since she left. It won’t be an easy match. The Spinners will have to stop global sensation Liam Pitchford and the rest of Ekholm’s experienced, gifted former teammates. But if the Spinners can take down the Crocs in Week 7, their hopes for a trophy in April become much easier to achieve.
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