THR: As an actress, is it hard to have Shae hold her own with Tyrion, who is such strong character?
Kekilli: Acting for me is like a ping-pong game. That’s the secret of acting. When you have a really good actor, I always want to be as good as he is or she is. Peter gives me the ball and I just want to return it to him.

Marty Reisman once explained the connection between playwriting and table tennis and now we’re learning why so many TV shows and movie sets have ping pong tables on set: it’s not just for the brainstorming or the relaxation, but ping pong is actually a metaphor for good acting.

Via Medium

Each year the NBA figures out who gets the first pick in the draft based on a complicated series of ping pong balls and lottery numbers. From our post 2 years ago:

The short version of the lottery is ping pong balls are randomly drawn through an awesome machine and some team wins the lottery and everyone else has to pick later (which works out sometimes).

The long version of the lottery is that ping pong balls are numbered and drawn in a specific order. Each team has a list of sequences that vary in length, with worse teams receiving more sequences, and when your sequence comes up, you win. The lottery is conducted behind closed doors for sequestered representatives of teams, the media, and NBA Officials as well as an accounting firm (usually) to verify the results. These people can watch the lottery but are completely cut off from the outside world until the official announcement is made on TV.

Last night the Cleveland Cavaliers, who basically have lived in the lottery since LeBron left, won the lottery and are still deciding what to do, but congrats to the city of Cleveland (and probably Nerlens Noel of Kentucky who Cleveland will probably pick or trade the rights of).

This only spells great things for the ping pong prospects of Cleveland and the Cavs owner Dan Gilbert who is already helping revitalize Detroit through table tennis.

One quick ping pong tangent about the lottery last night, the Orlando Magic came in second in the ping pong ball lottery last night, but their good luck charm Pat Williams had a “pixie dust encrusted ping pong ball” as a good luck charm:

Today, Just for Men joins the party.

Just for Men helps men from getting grey hair, and the new product they’re pushing is Autostop a beard/hair product that stops changing color at the right time. Just for Men may not be the first men’s hair product to use ping pong in their commercial, or the first men’s hygiene product to incorporate table tennis, but something about those Warren Buffet-esque paddles (or Chanel) makes us happy.

Let us know what you guys think on facebook, twitter, and google plus?

The win was a huge upset and was Taiwan’s first gold medal in the World Championships EVER (the country started competing in 1985).

Via the Taipei Times:

“This is an important milestone in our table tennis history,” Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association secretary-general Chen Ching-yen said.
Chuang and Chen Chien-an toppled their formidable Chinese opponents, Ma Lin and Hao Shuai, 4-2 (9-11, 12-10, 11-6, 13-11, 9-11 and 11-8) to secure the title.
Taiwan’s previous best result at the event had been a silver medal won by Chen Jing in the women’s singles 20 years ago.
“This is the first time in our history, so this is a good result,” said 32-year-old Chuang, a veteran player who ranks sixth in the world. “We played well and did very well tactically, both serving and receiving.”
Chuang was full of praise for his 21-year-old partner, Chen Chien-an.
“I think [he] is a very tactical player, he’s powerful and I play well with him,” the right-hander said.

Ma Lin is now quitting the Chinese National team as a result, “I think [I] will quit the national team of China because at my age I have to rethink my career and my life, but for now I don’t have any exact information. I don’t have the exact plans.” Ma Lin is only 34.

The loss prevented China from getting its eleventh consecutive doubles title at the World Championships.

Don’t feel too bad for China though, they won everything else at the World Championships (sound familiar?).

You can check out some of the (not-so-exciting) “highlights” below.

• Find Table Tennis Nation on facebook, twitter, youtube, google plus, and tumblr
• PaddleYou is on twitter, pinterest, google plus, and instagram
• Degree Deoderant thinks you should do more by playing ping pong at lunch
• Google let us play Breakout in an image search
• Microsoft thinks ping pong is best enjoyed while playing the piano and holding the paddle with your butt
• Soccer superstar Neymar is not a table tennis whiz
• Powerful Yoga redefined how to make a funny ping pong commercial

Thanks for your support of Table Tennis Nation and PaddleYou. Have a great weekend.

Powerful Yogurt “Ping Pong Man” by TDL Soundtracks from TDL Soundtracks on Vimeo.

The ad by New York agency The Vidal Partnership encourages you to find your abs using Powerful Yogurt–a yogurt with extra protein. This is basically the Orange Caramel “Lipstick” of ping pong ads. We’re speechless.

If nothing else, look at all the awesome GIFs that come out of 30 seconds…

These are hilarious. Right? It’s not just us?

Would you rather play ping pong with your abs like Powerful Yogurt thinks you should, or with your butt the way Microsoft encouraged it?

Via Vimeo

In a new video, Neymar tried his hand at table tennis and while his feet are quick on the pitch, but his hands are slow with a paddle, and his ball skills are great on the field, but not on the table.

Via Give Me Football

Butt ping pong is nothing new, neither is the combination of piano playing and table tennis, but thanks to a new Microsoft Windows 8 ad campaign called “Training Camp.”

Who knows if or when we’ll see the ads on TV, but at least we can enjoy(?) piano butt pong for the moment.

Via WebProNews

The Google version of the game isn’t particularly hard but it is pretty fun. As you pass each level, Google does a new random image search and uses the preview images as the bricks you’re trying to break.

We’re not sure if this is as cool as Google’s Hurdles game, but we’re giving away a free paddle to the top score of the day. Facebook, tweet, or google plus us your top score and you could win.

We’ll start things off with a nice 1395. Make sure when you send us a screenshot of your score you include the link in the image.