Highway to Hell by AC/DC. It was repeated so much it stuck with me.
There was a straightforward reason why he got traded - on the last weekend of the regular season with his team still in contention, he wasn't in the mood to play matches and that set his team back completely and left the order in shambles with 2 now playing 1, 3 now playing 2 etc. He was open to playing on Sunday after the team was already eliminated. Obviously, you have ruined your relationship with the coach when you pull a stunt like that.
To be fair, he might say he was injured. But regardless, it ruined the team's chances.
Yeah, and that's only one of the examples of a recurring issue. There was one weekend where he didn't make himself available to play for no legitimate reason and Portland was dominated in all three matches including one near sweep (1-20 versus Carolina) that put them in a massive deficit to overcome, the final weekend was icing on the cake.
If there were a Most Improved Player Award, I can't think of anyone better than Nikhil to give it to. He's become the Paddler's de facto ace player and is #6 on the Power Rankings. Effective doubles player and has been great in the Golden Game.
I think Duran would also have to be in that discussion. It is also impressive how Nikhil has managed to maintain his level as a student at a demanding college, while many others have been unable to do so. Obviously being just miles from 888 helps in that regard though.
A big part of the reason is that Hong Lin is simply a higher level player than Omoda is.
Though I agree that Hong Lin is a better player, Omoda should be high enough level to get 1 game out of 6. She got swept in both of their matches. In fact, Omoda's only losses in the singles matches this season were the 2 to Hong Lin. She is 8-2 and technically has the highest Spindex rating among females at 2613.
Extra frustrating for Portland as they were trying to make playoffs this weekend after Texas already clinched. Portland would have been in a good position for the playoffs since Chicago and Texas will be missing Mo and Amy. Now, Bay Area will likely secure the second West playoff spot and knock Portland out at the final March 21-23 weekend in NJ, and play without Lily and Jouti.
Just watched the GG draft. Putting out Haocheng first was certainly a decision. Putting Kotomi on McBeath actually wasn't a bad idea. Lillieroos if he was smart (he isn't) would have used Wei Wang as a counter pick to Hodaei or Kasahara who aren't great against choppers - Jorg put out Hodaei first, but you could see him literally trying to hold his smirk in when Lilleroos handed him the Jeet counterpick on a silver platter.
