May 9, 2018
The first round of the playoffs is in the books and the semi-finals are looming large over the consciousness of the league, but we still have one final thing to wrap up from our regular season – our MVP and Best New Player announcements!
Our Spring 2018 Best New Player Award goes to Charlie Hyde of Multi-Balls Deep! In nine appearances, Charlie went 25 for 33 for a win percentage of .758. His 25 wins ties the mark for most wins in one season, set by last season’s Best New Player Award winner Jonathan Illig. Charlie went 13/16 (.813) in doubles and 12/17 (.706) in singles, as well as going 16/19 (.842) at home and 9/14 (.643) on the road. Charlie caught fire early in the season, where he embarked on a 13 game win streak that lasted from week two until week six. This streak was the third longest of all time, a feat that has also been matched by Jeff Hart and Jonathan Illig (who also put his streak up in his Best New Player Award winning season). Charlie also had a home game win streak that started week one and ended in week seven that also lasted thirteen games. He was most dominant this season on Guardians of the Galaxy and No Fear, where he combined for 13 wins out of 15 attempts this season.
Our Spring 2018 League MVP is Ken Martin of Wink Wink Nudge Nudge! In nine appearances, Ken won in 21 of his 26 attempts for .808 win percentage. He won 11/15 (.733) in doubles and 10/11 (.909) in singles, the latter of which was the best percentage in the league of any player with at least ten attempts. He also went 11/14 (.786) at home and 10/12 (.833) away, the latter again being the third highest away win percentage (behind Ivan Gwynn and Jeff Hart) in the league this season. Ken won games on fifteen different machines this season, which is the most of any player in the league and tied for third most all time. Ken won three player of the week awards this season, making him the second player in league history to pull off the feat after Spring 2017 League MVP Andy Cobb did the same in that season. Ken currently has an active 11 game win streak at Blackbird Pizza, tying him with James Adamson (11 wins at Ship Ahoy) and Andy Cobb (11 wins at Ground Kontrol) for longest active win streak at one location.
Congratulations to Ken and Charlie!