Atlanta Blazers land Quadri Aruna with No. 1 MLTT draft pick

Quadri Aruna’s name went first off the board, and Major League Table Tennis made the message plain: the Atlanta Blazers were not just drafting a player, they were betting on a global name with real pull. Atlanta used the No. 1 pick in the Season 4 Draft on April 30 to land the Nigeria star, giving the Blazers a headline piece built for wins, visibility and a bigger stage.

The selection carried more weight than a routine roster move. Aruna arrived as a three-time Olympian, a five-time African Cup winner and a seven-time African champion, and the International Table Tennis Federation said he became the first African to reach the men’s world top 10 on May 3, 2022. In a league still shaping its identity, that kind of résumé signals ambition. MLTT is not only looking for promising names; it is trying to position itself as a destination for established world-class talent.

Atlanta’s front office also made a practical call. Head coach Koji Itagaki said the Blazers wanted a player who would compete in all 18 of the team’s Season 4 matches, and Aruna’s commitment to that workload appears to have helped seal the deal. In a team league, availability matters almost as much as ranking points, and Aruna gives Atlanta a reliable top-end presence across the full schedule.

The draft itself underlined how competitive the market had become. MLTT said there were 24 selections across five rounds, with the first three picks in each round determined by the April 7 draft lottery using weighted reverse-record odds. Atlanta became the first team in league history to win the No. 1 pick in multiple drafts, and Aruna became the fourth No. 1 selection in MLTT Draft history, joining Enzo Angles, Liam Pitchford and Yuya Oshima.

The rest of the opening round reinforced the league’s international reach. Texas Smash took Takuya Jin second, Florida Crocs selected Omar Assar third, Bay Area Blasters added Antoine Hachard fourth and the Los Angeles Spinners chose current world No. 22 An Jaehyun fifth. Li He became the first woman picked at No. 6, and Portland ended the round by adding 2025 U.S. Open champion Minseo Oh.

MLTT said its Season 4 candidate pool included 71 players rated above 2400 on SPINDEX, with 54 men and 17 women, plus 16 Season 3 full-time players who returned to free agency. The league has also leaned into scale before, noting that its 2025 draft pool represented 45 countries. With 10 teams, a 15-week season across 10 U.S. markets and matches built around singles, doubles and the Golden Game, the Blazers’ pick of Aruna fits the larger plan: make the league feel bigger, sharper and more international from the top of the draft down.