Wow, so every year there is a USA Nationals for table tennis. For the past...As long as I can remember, it's been won by people who've been playing for years and years...people who are over 30 years old...So 6 of the 8 top players in the U.S. decided to boycott the event this year because they said the $3000 prize money was not enough (it's actually not after you count the airline fee to Las Vegas, the hotel stay, and the price for the event itself). So who wins it? No other than an acquaintance of mine named Michael Landers.

This KID is 15 years old and is USA national champion! Don't get me wrong though! He is really good but it's just VERY funny and somewhat encouraging to see such a young person win. Just to give you a hint of how well he did...My rating is 1908...His rating is 2377 (the higher the better), and that's BEFORE the nationals. He beat two 2500 players which means he will probably shoot up to 2500 making him a 15 year old who'll be top 25 in the U.S. Holy crap! Check out the list of previous US national champions here, NONE OF THEM WERE UNDER 20 WHEN THEY WON I DON'T THINK LOL.

I find it no surprise that Jack Baker (right), some bar/pub (call it what you will) player, won the $100,000 hardbat classic which I posted about not too long ago. He's from England and attends the University of Southern Alabama, and why am I not surprised he won? Well because he's unrated. Did you know there are ratings for table tennis players who attend tournaments?

My rating is currently 1815, and for the Hardbat tournament, the rules were "If your opponent has a rating that is 1000 points or more higher that you, you get a 17 point handicap". Can you believe that? So pretty much there was no hope for the professional players to begin with, considering that all these "basement players" could just come in and beat the pros starting out with 17 out of 21 points.

Are you aware how much effort it takes to get 4 points when your opponent has to try to get 21? It's like running a 25 meter race with a professional athelete, but the twist is that you get a 20 meter head start. Yeah...That is almost the perfect analogy... Oh yeah...Did I mention that the first place prize was $100,000 and the second place prize was a measly $5000? Yeah....Rigged much?