Junior Drew Pearson organized a campus wide ping pong tournament of 32 players that lasted through January and ended on Feb 7. Senior Voice reporters Megha Ram and Cory McCroskey talked to Person and senior John Mitchell, the tournament champion.

Transcript:

Megha: Hi this is Megha Ram and Cory McCroskey with another episode of Voice Waves. In this episode we will be talking to ping pong tournament organizer Drew Pearson and tournament champion John Mitchell.

Cory: Here we have Drew to tell us more about the Ping Pong tournament specifics.

M: So what made you think of creating the tournament?

Drew: Just playing with my friends just get some other people involved and see how I compare with the other premier athletes at Paly

M: How did it get so big and involve so many people?

D: It turns out to be a very popular sport. If you know anything about anything you’ll play ping pong so a lot of people wanted to join the tournament which was a nice surprise for me.

C: How do you think the tournament went overall?

D: It went well. No one had a default or forfeit or drop out. Everyone got to play their matches. There were a few good upsets that were enjoyable and a lot of nice things like that.

C: Will you planning more tournaments in the future?

D: Yeah, John Mitchell, Peter Wilson and I are thinking of having a tournament of 64 people towards the end of the semester and next year we’re thinking of making a club and maybe having some more tournaments then.

M: Was there any sort of weeding out process and how did you decided who would play who?

D: We quickly got 34 people which was more than we wanted. We wanted only 32 but two more asked desperately and after that we cut it off because we couldn’t afford any more because any more would be too challenging and too many people. We actually had a play in game for the two worst players to make it into the tournament.

M: Where did you guys play?

D: We played all over. It was up to the two guys playing each other to figure out where they wanted to play. We had a lot of houses open if they couldn’t find a spot but most people have a ping pong table so they just played at their own houses.

C: Now with us is John Mitchell, who defeated Drew in the tournament final on Saturday, Feb. 7.

M: How did you first hear about this tournament?

John: It was through drew he organized the tournament and sent me an official invitation to which I accepted.

M: So, with what mentality did you approach each game with?

J: With a cautiously optimistic one, the potential to win every match I play unless its against Sam Wong. I hope to do my best but at the same time I don’t take it too seriously because you know, its ping pong.

C: Will you be entering more tournaments in the future?

J: If I get invited to any more of them, which I hope I will. I assume I would be, but at the same time I think Drew has some sort of vendetta against me now because of the final match. But I hope he is a good sport about it and invites me to more of them. I hope to participate in more in the future.

C: We hope so too. How does it feel to be the Ultimate Champion?

J: It feels pretty good. I think giving Drew a good spanking in the final match is a fun thing, especially after all his bragging. I played some good matches – the one against Yusei was probably the toughest. It feels pretty good but I don’t know how long it will last if there is another one coming up because I will undoubtedly be sought after.

C: Any tips for up and coming ping pong players?

J: I would say you know don’t take it too seriously, but maybe playing tennis as a cross training is a good first step. You definitely need some basic hand eye coordination skills. You could start low in the student center and work your way up to ping pong tournaments and stuff.

M: Thanks for joining us in this ping pong special and make sure to tune in next time.