Portland’s major league table tennis team prepares to serve this weekend

There are just 10 teams that fall under the umbrella of Major League Table Tennis nationwide, and the Portland Paddlers are one of them.

They are scheduled to play this weekend against the Los Angeles Spinners, the Chicago Wind, and the Carolina Gold Rush at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. This weekend marks the third week of the 15-week-long tournament, which will run from March 20 to 22, 2026.

The Portland Paddlers, made up of professional table tennis athletes from around the world, won two of their three matches they played last month in Pleasanton, California. For the last two seasons, the Paddlers have placed third in the West Division of the league, which consists of five teams in total.

MLTT was founded in 2023 by Flint Lane, a software entrepreneur and table tennis enthusiast. It’s the first professional table tennis league in the United States.

In a city where the Blazers, Thorns, Timbers and even Pickles usually reign supreme, the Portland Paddlers fly a little more under the radar. But as the team’s third season kicks off, it’s clear that table tennis has grown more popular in recent years — and one Paddler player has a hunch as to why that is.

Hampus Nordberg, a Portland player drafted from Sweden, thinks the 2024 Paris Olympics helped catapult table tennis’s popularity around the world — especially through the success of Truls Möregårdh, a Swedish professional table tennis player who won silver in the men’s singles event in last year’s Olympics.

When building the Portland Paddlers’ eight-person team last year, Nordberg was Coach Christian Lillieroos’s number one pick in the draft. Nordberg is one of two players from Sweden on Portland’s team, which also includes two players from Korea, one from Japan and two from the United States.

On a given weekend, four of the 10 MLTT teams will meet in a city, with each team scheduled to play another team throughout Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Lillieroos chooses six players from the Paddlers to play one match per day over the course of the weekend, and MLTT rules mandate that at least one of the six players needs to be female.

“It’s a very special, special league to play here in the U.S., and I’ve been enjoying it a lot. A fun and new crazy experience,” Nordberg said.

The standard match format for MLTT totals five games: two singles, one doubles, and then two more singles.

The match culminates in the Golden Game — a high-stakes finale where each member of the team rotates in every four points, with each team racing to win 21 points. It’s “a massive drama” that’s vastly entertaining for the audience and a complete crowd favorite, according to Lillieroos.

Nordberg described the Paddler’s first match last month as “a good start.” He’s been practicing table tennis six or seven times a week, in addition to running and weight training — dedicated and grueling preparation.

“My joke is always that the only thing you need to be good at in table tennis is you have to be a professional bodybuilder, and a marathon runner, and a chess player, and then you become a good table tennis player,” the team’s coach said.

Lillieroos is feeling optimistic about this weekend’s matches.

“I believe that we have a very good home court crowd, and I think that’s gonna help us,” he said.

For those hoping to attend the Portland Paddlers’ matches this weekend, tickets are available online.

“Think Out Loud” host Dave Miller spoke to Hampus Nordberg and Christian Lillieroos about Portland’s Major League Table Tennis events. Listen to the full conversation: