MR suffers devastating loss in the Ultimate Ping-Pong Challenge!
Our poster/belt seen here in the hands of the enemy.
Table tennis players the world over will be talking about last Thursday night’s game between Melamed Riley and Recess Creative for years to come — or at least the next 45 seconds.
With what started off looking like a clean sweep, Melamed Riley quickly nabbed the first three games of the tournament. Celebrations were short-lived though, as it quickly became clear that Recess Creative was just starting to get comfy on the MR table.
Game four was tense from the opening serve. Recess star players Chris Jungjohann and Chad Milburn knew they had to go to work — and work they did! MR’s Darin “Sniper” Hintz and Brian “The Rash” Kowalczyk had a slight lead when the momentum began to shift. In fact, the Recess crew began singing the Game of Thrones intro in unison just before capturing their first win of the tournament, which seemed to spur something inside of them.
Chris Jungjohann fuels up.
After the victory, Recess Creative managed to pull off a huge upset by shutting out longtime Melamed Riley ping-pong veteran Rick Riley and his young protégé, Patrick “The Frenzy” Bensi, 11-0.
Still, MR thought they had the tournament in the bag when they brought back “The Dream Team,” Joseph “The Reach” Hughes and Nicole “Quiet Storm” Melville. Unfortunately, an incredibly close match went to Recess, forcing a decisive game seven.
The Reach in action.
The MR team tries to minimize casualties.
Just before the game, Melamed Riley met to decide which pair would face Recess Creative’s best — Chris Jungjohann and Chad Milburn. MR decided on poised veterans Darin Hintz and Joseph Hughes. From the beginning of the final bout, it was apparent that Jungjohann and Milburn were determined to capture the tournament championship. At the end of the night the chemistry between the two MR elites just didn’t jive. Recess wound up taking a commanding lead midway through that ultimately led to their victory in The Ultimate Pong Challenge of 2012.
All was not lost, however. The night was full of laughter, fun, and excitement, and we were glad that the tournament lasted a full seven games. We’d like to thank Recess Creative for coming by and participating in this awesome event. And of course, much love to Mr. Jim Bird, who catered the entire evening using his amazing Vitamix® machine to create some tasty hors d’oeuvres.
At the time of this article’s writing, Recess had their championship belt and poster displayed on their website. Little do they know, Melamed Riley is planning on taking it from them in an inevitable rematch.
Cheese!