Was it an insolent mockery of an official competition?

[igorponger]

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

entertainment; fan service. Something overly serious vodka loving Igor cannot understand but never mind, we learn new things everyday.

 

[Reaper]

i might be a minortiy about this subject agreeing with igor, but those goofy displays might get you clicks on social media, but to me is making a mockery of our sport. An exhibition point at the end might be cool, but they played many point half-assed.

Outsiders already make fun of table tennis, oblivious of how hard it is, and stuff like this doesn't help.

 

[Ninja26Go]

i might be a minortiy about this subject agreeing with igor, but those goofy displays might get you clicks on social media, but to me is making a mockery of our sport. An exhibition point at the end might be cool, but they played many point half-assed.

Outsiders already make fun of table tennis, oblivious of how hard it is, and stuff like this doesn't help.

Can't people just have a bit of fun? Maybe the players just wanted to put a smile on some people's faces?

 

[Ninja26Go]

the crowd seemed happy and they were the ones who paid, so as long as they are happy, its ok. THis is just one match out of so many. All the others are serious. Why can't there be one or two matches of funny play?

 

[andymagata]

I was confused, because the lack of information. Bad website, bad rules, bad promotion of table tennis.

But I liked to see the players train and have some fun. Terribly bad to include the bizarre farce in the official score. I highly doubt that Truls enjoyed being forced to a fourth game by Lev.

 

[Attitude]

So because i was in the arena live, i just have to give my 2 cents here to that matter, although i despise writing something serious in an igorthread.

As many of you noticed the actual match was over after Saarbrücken won 2 points from Darko and Truls, because Saarbrücken won the first match last year 3:0 and Hennebont had to make this a 3:1 or 3:0 to bring it to a decider.

But still, because of FZD losing to Wen Ruibo, they had to play a forth match.
That match already (FZD vs Gauzy) wasnt played out seriously. Both players didnt focus and played at around 70% of their level at best.
FZD shouldnt have lost that match as well. But he did so Truls had to play again as well. So they were just doing fanservice which almost everyone like.
At the end they got forced to play "serious" again by the umpire for whatever reason and the arena got pretty silent, because the match was boring that way and they were just smacking the ball around.

So yeah why are they doing this. Many people seem to forget that it gets quite exhausting playing at your peak level and performance. On top of that you extent the risk of injury for no reason at all, if the actual match is already over.
While being a FZD fanboy i enjoyed Truls showmatch more than FZDs match against Gauzy. There was no point in cheering and both players obviously didnt care about the outcome. In case you dont believe just check the time between the point they took and when they came back between the sets.
I would bet that Gauzy just took the win for the lulz and to troll Truls.

All in all i would blame the format if there is an issue about not taking their games serious. Me on the other hand were quite happy seeing them performing these trickshots.

 

[Ninja26Go]

So because i was in the arena live, i just have to give my 2 cents here to that matter, although i despise writing something serious in an igorthread.

As many of you noticed the actual match was over after Saarbrücken won 2 points from Darko and Truls, because Saarbrücken won the first match last year 3:0 and Hennebont had to make this a 3:1 or 3:0 to bring it to a decider.

But still, because of FZD losing to Wen Ruibo, they had to play a forth match.
That match already (FZD vs Gauzy) wasnt played out seriously. Both players didnt focus and played at around 70% of their level at best.
FZD shouldnt have lost that match as well. But he did so Truls had to play again as well. So they were just doing fanservice which almost everyone like.
At the end they got forced to play "serious" again by the umpire for whatever reason and the arena got pretty silent, because the match was boring that way and they were just smacking the ball around.

So yeah why are they doing this. Many people seem to forget that it gets quite exhausting playing at your peak level and performance. On top of that you extent the risk of injury for no reason at all, if the actual match is already over.
While being a FZD fanboy i enjoyed Truls showmatch more than FZDs match against Gauzy. There was no point in cheering and both players obviously didnt care about the outcome. In case you dont believe just check the time between the point they took and when they came back between the sets.
I would bet that Gauzy just took the win for the lulz and to troll Truls.

All in all i would blame the format if there is an issue about not taking their games serious. Me on the other hand were quite happy seeing them performing these trickshots.

If FZD was playing 100% he would have crushed Ruibo and Gauzy

 

[Walalang]

From what I know, they were just doing exhibition matches in the end, just having fun. It's because their team (Saarbrucken) already went to the semis even without winning the whole match, so they just had fun with it. Take this with a grain of salt tho cuz i just saw something abt this, not sure if its true