What is the T2APAC League? [Rules and player list]

The T2APAC (Asia – Pacific) League is a new type of table tennis competition that offers an astonishing prize pool of 1.75 million dollars. It features a unique set of rules(in detail below) that promises to make the sport more exciting and bring in a new wave of fans.

The matches are held in The Pinewood Studios in Johor Malaysia in custom built cavern slash match arena that gives the event a very fresh and unique look.

You can watch the event live on TV in various parts of China, live on the internet, or view it on Youtube whenever you desire.

The teams and league structure

Each team is named after their coach. There are 4 teams, each made up of 3 men players and 3 women players. 6 players per team, 24 in total. There will be 3 types of games played: Men’s single, women’s single and mixed team. The league will take place over 7 rounds from June to December 2017.

Here are the teams and the coaches:

Team Jörgen PERSSON

Mattias KARLSSON, Sweden

Jun MIZUTANI, Japan

JOO Se-Hyuk, Korea

DING Ning, China

Suthasini SAWETTABUT, Thailand

Bernadette, SZÕCS, Romania

Team Michael MAZE

Timo BOLL, Germany

FENG Tianwei, Singapore

Aleksandr SHIBAEV, Russia

Hina HIYATA, Japan

CHEN Chien-An, Taiwan

YANG Haenun, Korea

Team JIANG Jialiang

Vladimir SAMSONOV, Belarus

WU Yang, China

Tomokazu HARIMOTO, Japan

JEON Jihee, Korea

CHUANG Chih-Yuan, Taiwan

Matilda EKHOLM, Sweden

Team ROSSKOPF

Dimitrij OVTCHAROV, Germany

Paul DRINKHALL England

Elisabeta SAMARA, Romania

Georgina POTA, Hungary

CHENG I-Ching, Taiwan
SHANG Kun, China

Official T2APAC Teaser Trailer

So what are the rules?

The first and most important thing about the T2APAC is that the matches are time-based. The players must win as many matches as they can within a 24-minute time limit.

Here are the other rules:

There is no deuce. The first player to reach 11 wins (you win at 11 – 10).
If a game has started within the last 2 minutes of the match the first player to reach 5 points wins (called a Kill zone game)
If a game has started before the last 2 minutes and is still in progress when the timer stops, the player with the most points wins.
Each game won is added to the team’s total
Only one time out per match is allowed
Every two games the players have a one minute break and switch sides

T2APAC is a refreshing new take on table tennis. Its time-based format that is so popular with other sports like football of basketball is perfect for broadcasting on TV. This, coupled with the celebrity player lineup will popularize the sport as a whole and appeal to the younger generation of fans.

If this news got you in the mood for some table tennis games with friends but you don’t have a decent racket anymore, then take a look at our very comprehensive guide on the best table tennis paddles of 2017. I’m sure you will find one that is perfect for you.