It's way overblown. CNT has achieved all the major milestones for 2024.
There were way more bumpy years for CHN on the men's and women's sides in the early to mid 2000s. KOR in MT SF at WTTC 2001, Samsonov at World Cup 2001, PRK in WT F at Asian Games 2002, Boll at World Cup 2002, Schlager, Joo Saehyuk, Chen Weixing (and Korbel to a lesser extent) at WTTC 2003, AUT in MT Grp (Schlager again) and JPN in WT Final 4 at WTTC 2004, RSM, Waldner, Li Jiawei and Kim Hyang-mi at Athens 2004, Maze at WTTC 2005, Boll at World Cup 2005, Li Ching/Ko Lai Chak at Asian Games 2006, RSM at World Cup 2007...
The new and old are in a transition period. For instance, ML, back when he was the new kid on the block,
lost a lot by CNT standard in MS and MT for the London 2012 cycle. World Cup 2008, ATTC 2009, World Cup 2009, WTTC 2010, World Team Cup 2010, Korea Open 2012 and World Cup 2012. Other than World Cup 2008 and 2009 and WTTC 2010, the way he lost in the others was ugly.
In the past, after the Olympics, they would enter the typical 休整期/rest period. As a tradition starting in 2004, the Olympic medalists from all disciplines would also visit HKG and MAC, which usually spans a week. Up until 2016, there would be a few Opens in Europe, World Cup and WTGF left on the ITTF calendar and that's it. Arguably, the sign of change first appeared in 2019 as T2 Diamond, which started out as T2 APAC in 2017, messed up the schedule and Qin Zhijian and Li Sun openly criticized it (
1,
2), but the hectic and chaotic schedule became the new norm in 2021, the year WTT officially started.
For example, because of the pandemic, WTTC 2021 was
postponed from April to November, therefore, after Tokyo 2020, they chose to use the period from August to October to adjust by skipping
WTT CT Budapest 2021,
WTT SCT Doha 2021 (collided with National Games 2021),
ATTC 2021 (which wrecked the draws for ATTC 2023) and
WTT CT Tunis 2021. In the buildup ahead of WTTC 2021, they sent a B+ team and dominated
WTT CT Lasko 2021 and
WTT CT Novo Mesto 2021, winning 7 out of 8 titles.
After Paris 2024, because of China Smash 2024 and ATTC 2024 (the latter of which doubled as the continental qualification tournament for WTTC 2025 with all the placement matches), the rest period has been severely compressed and only FZD and CM took a real break. For those two events, it's clear the idea is 以老帶新, literally to bring the new up to speed with the old, LSD/KM winning XD in both events marked the successful
transfer of power from WCQ/SYS.
LSD won MS/MD/XD at WTT CS Almaty 2024, MS at WTT CS Macao 2024, MS/XD at China Smash 2024, MT/XD and reached the MS F and MD QF at ATTC 2024. Before finishing in MS SF at WTT CS Montpellier 2024, he also took part in MT of the National Championships 2024 but chose to sit out.
All of the above occurred back-to-back in the last 2 months.
XP beat F. Lebrun and Moregard before losing to eventual winner LSD at China Smash 2024. Losing to LYJ at ATTC 2024 and eventual winner F. Lebrun at WTT CS Montpellier 2024 were within reason.
It comes down to WCQ, LJK and LGY, but the latter two are on the way out, so the real concern is WCQ (losing to Moregard at Paris 2024), which is not surprising as I
cautioned ahead of Paris 2024.
On the women's side, an
A- team was dispatched for ATTC 2024 but WMY's taking a leave left behind a vaccum that exceeded the capability of an underprepared CXT to fulfill. As noted, 天時、地利、人和/right time, right place and right people and 時也、運也、命也/time, luck and fate. We all knew Kim Kum Yong, Pyon Song Gyong and Cha Su Yong were no chopped livers after Asian Games 2022 and Paris 2024, distracting CHN in the same manner as IND did at WTTC 2024. Harimoto donned the new role of Hurricane 2024 and Hirano, Hurricane 2017 showed up again to wreak havoc, completing what they failed at WTTC 2024.
WYD losing to Harimoto and Kim Kum Yong and CXT losing to Hirano, Harimoto and Goda hurt a lot but is bearable as they are also on the way out. Unlike XP, Shi Xunyao and Kuai Man losing to DHK (WS and WT bronze) and SYB, respectively, are bigger problems. QTY, as the 6th player on the team, losing to Harimoto was inevitable.
