It proves blahness' point actually. The greatest of all time has beaten an average Joe of tt in the final. Big deal. The average Joe of tt reaches the final with pips on FH — that's serious.
It doesn’t prove his point though.
Sport is littered with shock tournament runs.
Whether that’s team sport or individual sport, there is always someone who over achieves and goes on an incredible run.
At that level (and let’s be fair, Falck was playing at the highest of high level during that tournament), the point is still proven that pips (IN GENERAL) fall short.
I emphasis the “in general” part, because you’ll always be able to find one off examples of where that isn’t the case.
If you want to argue about Falck not being on Ma Longs level….. what about his career stats against inverted rubber in general?
I think the whole “Falck” thing is a huge red herring to the overall discussion.
He had one amazing year where he played to an incredibly high standard.
But when it’s all said and done. He didn’t win in the end.
If you have someone with Ma Longs ability and they play with pips, I have no doubt they’d win tournaments and get very high in the world rankings.
But if playing someone with inverted rubbers on the same level…. They’d loose much much more than they’d win.