Chicago’s Robert Gardos (SPINDEX: 2841) has been named the Men’s Most Valuable Player for Major League Table Tennis’s third season.
Princeton’s Cho Seungmin (2818) finished second in voting for Men’s MVP this season, and Chicago’s Emmanuel Lebesson (2790) finished third.
Gardos’s victory makes him the first man to win an MLTT MVP award as a member of the Chicago Wind. He becomes the second player to win an MVP for the Wind, following Mo Zhang’s award in Season 2.
“[I’m] really happy and grateful to be named MVP of the MLTT League in my first season,” Gardos said. “I felt very good throughout the competition and truly enjoyed playing table tennis again at this level.”
Gardos ended his first season with MLTT as the league’s leader in Singles wins (39) and SPINDEX rating. He also finished his first season with a Singles percentage of 72.2% (39-15), a Doubles percentage of 55.6% (10-8) and a Golden Game percentage of 53.0% (62-55).
The Chicago Wind selected Gardos with the seventh overall selection in the Season 3 MLTT Draft. As the team’s primary Singles 1 player and a mainstay in Doubles, Gardos ended his rookie season as MLTT’s No. 4 player and co-Player of the Week for Week 10, and he helped Chicago become the first team to clinch a spot in the Season 3 playoffs.
“Big thanks to my coach Eric for the trust, and to my teammates Manu, Mo, Sean, Alex, Isaac, my doubles partner Daniel, and Park for the great atmosphere and support,” Gardos said. “Also a big thank you to the owners of Chicago Wind for contributing to such a positive team spirit.”
Men’s MVP runner-up Cho Seungmin ended his rookie season as MLTT’s No. 1 player on its official power rankings list, as well as the league’s leader in Doubles percentage with 66.7% (18-9). Third-place winner Emmanuel Lebesson won two Player of the Week awards this season, and he became the third player to ever win all nine Singles games in one weekend during Week 7.
The Men’s MVP was chosen by the ten MLTT coaches (50% of the total vote), as well as four members of MLTT’s official broadcast (50% of the total vote). Each voter took into consideration a player’s individual stats, all-around performance and team record while filling out their ballots.
All voters submitted their top three candidates for Men’s MVP, with each first choice receiving five points, each second choice receiving three points and each third choice receiving one point. Coaches were informed that they could not vote for players on their own team.
Gardos and the Wind will face the Carolina Gold Rush during Championship Weekend’s semifinal round on April 18 at Table Tennis Academy in Fremont, Calif. This match will start at 4:30 p.m. EDT, and will be streamed live on Table Tennis TV.
