Summer Smash Episode 8- Reflections
SUMMER SMASH
Alex Boyajian
9/9/202312 min read
Last week, a Champion was crowned, Michael Scarlett dominated the defending champion, Armen Boyajian, to become the second Chaotically Intolerant Classic Champion. This week, in the final episode of Summer Smash, everyone comes back to reflect on the last 9 weeks of play including a major announcement from Commissioner Alex Boyajian. The Boys of Summer are back! 7 Players square off in a high stakes Table Tennis tournament, the second annual Chaotically Intolerant Classic as they all try to take the trophy back from defending Champion Armen Boyajian. Commissioner Alex Boyajian, reeling from his loss in the 2022 Championship, is learning to balance his duties as Commissioner while keeping his game sharp for his own title run. This season features 4 rookies, including Michael Scarlett, who enters the playoffs on a 21 game win streak which includes sweeps of Armen Boyajian and Alex Boyajian. Starring: Alex Boyajian Armen Boyajian Lleyton Verheul Kevin Steinfeld Jaxon Greer Michael Scarlett Ivory Upchurch Produced by: Tyler Cook
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foreign
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to grade myself and and my season
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you know idle winning record
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wasn't by much I mean I made a large
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step back you know if I graded my season
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last year
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I I probably would have given myself
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like an a you know you get swept in the
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in the title but you go to the title
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game right you go undefeated you win the
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golden paddle that's a great season
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right you you go and you lose in the
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finals but you still make it out of the
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semis
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um this year a huge step back I mean
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not as good I mean a bad record
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um you know I didn't barely sneak in I
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definitely made it you know
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um but
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I would say
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I would say I would give myself probably
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around a c minus didn't make it you know
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I didn't make it out of the first round
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I didn't get swept which was nice
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it's nice to win one in the playoffs you
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know win a game in the playoffs but I
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didn't get swept
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but that's that's not what I'm I'm not
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not working for that I'm not working to
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to just win one playoff series I want to
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win the whole thing
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backs against the wall right
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he was just playing really well at that
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point in time
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it was very exciting
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well Kevin does really well with is he
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doesn't give up on the play
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it's a better player
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it's a little bit of a gust of wind
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Just Clips it
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table
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so if I would grade myself based off of
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everyone else I'd give myself like a d
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because you know I was on the lower end
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of things but if I was creating my own
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performance how I felt about how I
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played I'd probably give myself like an
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a
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um just because
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especially if you compare my performance
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from you know game one week one to my
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final game of the tournament it like I
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think the difference is crazy especially
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just with that um
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I think it's like a backhand serve that
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I was trying to do against Ivory a bunch
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like
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that alone I think makes me like a
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decent competitor especially going into
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next year
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um if I can just get some free serves on
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people like I think that would
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completely change where I played or
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where I was in the standings and stuff
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like that I just had nothing like that
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going into it so
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um
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I think I
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drastically improved during this and so
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I'm extremely happy with how I played
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you're kidding dude get that cheeky
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stuff out of here
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oh my God you're no Armin you know me
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that was a good game
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let's go dude I was popping off right
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there now you work
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man I think I played really well
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um obviously there are some of the
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the 2-1 games I wish I could have just
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closed out to be 3-0
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and like other than me getting
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completely dominated by Michael
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I would I would say I played pretty well
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I would give myself like a B plus or
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something like that
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um
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but yeah some
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needs to change I need to keep improving
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because obviously we've all played each
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other now we kind of all know each
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other's game and I don't want to come
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back into this playing the same way and
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then have that get taken advantage of
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because people were putting in work and
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I just stayed the same skill level
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and obviously I'm gonna need to keep
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improving to take home the title but
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foreign
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that's all that matters in the end
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week one I didn't play Angel or Leighton
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so that was a tough one you know playing
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a lot of people who
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who were better than me
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um still won one game you know had a few
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close ones you know that's probably
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d-minus D at best winning only one game
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uh week two you know shout out Angel and
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um beat Kevin in a game which that was a
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big one for me
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um I'd say that performance you know
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four winning four losing five I'd say
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that's a solid C maybe maybe C plus
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because of the games I lost were still
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pretty close
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same with week three one four you know c
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c plus
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um and the champion championship match
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um
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for the uh
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the quarterfinals
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I don't know I'm giving myself better
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than a c plus I'll go
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I won't go a because if I did an a that
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that'd be like at least getting to the
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getting to the top two but
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um I'd say around a b you know
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um
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made it through the wild card and my
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games against Armin were very close I
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think you know 21 17 21-16 you know a
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little bit better and those could have
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gone either way
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um so
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I'll say a solid B so overall maybe
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around a c but
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Improvement that's all that matters
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if I had to give a letter grade I would
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say like a c probably just because you
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know a lot of the Winds came against
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just opponents that I should be beating
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in uh I think I you know I was happy
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with my results against Alex in the
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regular season because we had a lot of
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close games and he's a very good player
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and I was able to close those out but
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yeah other than that there wasn't really
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much success you know I beat Armin in
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one game out of three but he still took
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the series
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uh you know
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yeah I'd say c
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maybe maybe C by this you know I should
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have
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been I feel like I should have been able
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to take
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you know at least one game out of seven
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from Michael but uh it didn't happen you
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know so
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yeah C minus is a figure that I hope to
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hope to improve upon that you know next
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year
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thank you
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foreign
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how are you going to prepare for next
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year
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practice more against my donkey son
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and remember to work on some weaknesses
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of Michael's because he's the real
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competition for me
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all the others still aren't real
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competition but
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um
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he's going off
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don't look at us okay
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all right
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at all
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foreign
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it's I'm probably at the Pinnacle of my
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ping pong game right now uh I don't
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think I've
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ever played any better ping pong in my
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life but then again I as I said I've
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never actually competed in ping pong
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um there's
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it's like a part of the tennis competing
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boat that I go back into and you know
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once I get in that competing mode my my
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game goes up
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but also accredited it towards
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playing practice matches against Canada
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up at FSU and uh against my little
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brother too we have a Outdoors ping pong
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table that's fun uh my older brother too
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great great at ping pong maybe better
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than me but probably not
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so yeah
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I'm at the top of my game and I'm only
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gonna keep getting higher so yeah I'm
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excited
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yes sir
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that's what I'm talking about let's go
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dude
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absolutely go off yes
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oh my gosh
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I love you too
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let's go
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if I had to grade the tournament
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you know on a a through f scale
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I would
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to be honest I would give it like a c a
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c a dead in the middle like 75 see
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you know
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I'm I'm also like my the world's biggest
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critic
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for myself I don't I don't give myself
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any
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I'll give myself any leeway when it
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comes to stuff I'm I'm learning how to
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do that you know
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part of it
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is again learning to go with the flow
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and and learning how to do things
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um
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there's a lot of improvements that could
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be made there's a lot of improvements
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from last year the production quality
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was was you know probably 10 times
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better I mean we had a real camera
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versus two GoPros uh
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you know a camera that I use to to film
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The that podcast episode and my iPhone
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that's 10 times better we had a real
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camera and we had a a 4K
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drone courtesy of Tyler
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um
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we had
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10 I mean it was it was insane the the
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different level of competition I was
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very I was really happy with that I
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thought I can build on that for next
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year so much
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um I think I need to ask a little bit
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more out of the players just just
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getting hyped up getting you know
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I don't know what I could do I'll have
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to figure that out but just getting more
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emotion I think I need more kind of
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commentary from people but having a
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venue for the championship I think is
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important
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might be a little ambitious but maybe
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next year I'd you know I'd like to have
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a crowd have an environment
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um an excited environment rather than it
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just being quiet you know
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um
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that would be that that's kind of a more
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ambitious goal that might be for the
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year after that
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um but definitely having an indoor
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venue next year I think the outdoors
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truly affected the play
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I think it had a negative effect on the
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play I think
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I think we have a lot closer games
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if we are not dealing with the wind
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because the breeze although it's small
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it has a large effect on the ping pong
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ball I don't think we see as many sweeps
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I think it's a lot more competitive on
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tournament day because it it truly was a
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lot more competitive during the regular
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season we have a kind of a passive goal
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of 12 to go up from 8 to 12 this year
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and we have an ambitious goal to uh to
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go up to 16. I'm really not sure what I
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expect for next year
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um I'm gonna work hard this off season I
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don't think I worked hard enough in the
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off season
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I'm gonna work my ass off this off
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season I really want to win this thing
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because this is my tournament I think
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next year's gonna be a lot better I
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think we we were a lot better this year
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and I think next year is going to be
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even better I'm excited for next year
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I'm really excited for next year I think
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we'll be able to make about a B plus
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you know I want to thank everybody
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um
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everybody who is involved in this
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everyone is watching right now
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I just want to thank you guys
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um you know
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you guys are part of the reason why we
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make this I enjoy doing this this is
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just something I enjoy it's stressful
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but it's it's also it gives me purpose
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um you know everyone sees the
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professionals right you get to see
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professional ball players or baseball
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players basketball players football
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players get to see everyone who's the
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best at their sport but not a lot of
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them have personality you you also get
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to be an armchair quarterback when you
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watch the NFL you get to say oh I could
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have made that threat no you couldn't
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have no none of us could have we
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couldn't have made that though I do it
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all the time I say that to myself all
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the time
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this one you can actually be an armchair
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quarterback and say why would they hit
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that shot that's a terrible shot
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I think that's a great aspect to this I
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like that
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um
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but again I think I think I would just
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say
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thank you to everybody out there
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we might be small but you know we're
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growing I want to say thank you to all
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the players special thank you to Tyler
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um I've known the guy since freshman
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year of high school he's he's a great
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guy great person in general and dude he
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worked his ass off and I appreciate him
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to no end
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um
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I hope he's gonna want to be involved
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next year and the year after that I hope
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I can I can give the guy a job
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um
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you know at least keep him involved for
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as long as we do this and hopefully I we
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keep doing this and I appreciate all the
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guys who played
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and the guys who played in the past you
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know what
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this is this is a journey and they're
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all a part of it now you know they're
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they're all a part of this journey
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and we're gonna make it
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so thank you and
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um you know I'm real excited about next
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year
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we are establishing
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um kind of a new a new governing body
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to play Under
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I'm thinking this might be my last year
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as commissioner as I am a player
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I want to be able to focus on being a
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player I'm I'm obvious I would be head
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of the players union we're establishing
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uh chaotically intolerant Table Tennis
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League caloric intolerant table tennis
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as as the entire league and just
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tournament day is the chaotically
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intolerant classic so think of there's
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the NFL you have the Super Bowl Major
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League Baseball
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the World Series
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um National Basketball Association the
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NBA Finals that type of stuff
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um
