Virtual Table Tennis wows in exhibition at Olympic Esports Week 2023
The Singapore crowd was treated to three high-level exhibition matches featuring virtual reality table tennis.
A 17-year-old facing a 50-year-old at elite table tennis very rarely happens.
But that was exactly what was on show at the Olympic Esports Week 2023 exhibition show matches as Virtual Table Tennis put on a show.
There was a busy crowd at Stage 2 of the Suntec Convention and Exhibition Centre in Singapore as the sport, popular in the island state, was displayed in a completely different manner for the first time to much of the watching public.
The rules are exactly the same as real-world table tennis, except for a lack of a physical table, ball and paddles – replaced by virtual reality headsets and consoles.
And they were treated to three fantastic show matches, featuring Antonin "11FR_Anto" Landreau and Karl 'Seldon36' Vast of France, Joe "HurricaneTT" Marlor of Great Britain, and Singapore's Krist "Kristchen" Chen.
The pick of the exhibition matches came in the first round between HurricaneTT, the 17-year-old, and 50-year-old Seldon36. HurricaneTT quickly eased into a 2–0 lead in the best-of-five but Seldon36 kept himself in it to win the last three games against his opponent 33 years his junior.
11FR_Anto, the virtual table tennis world number 2 who saw off Kristchen in the opening round, would face his compatriot Seldon36 in the best-of-three exhibition final. 11FR_Anto defeated Seldon36 winning two of three games (11-5, 8-11, 11-2) to take the match.