CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The 14th Annual Research Park Table Tennis Tournament took place on Tuesday, June 17, and Wednesday, June 18, 2025.
A Research Park favorite, the Table Tennis Tournament brought together 64 participants from companies across Research Park. Players took part in two intense days of round robin matches and bracket play in three categories: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Champions were crowned in each bracket, points were awarded to top-placing players, and the top-scoring company won the coveted Golden Paddle.
The Synchrony Emerging Technology Center emerged as the Golden Paddle champion for the second year in a row, marking a shift from Yahoo!‘s 10-year domination of the tournament. Yahoo! came in second and the AGCO Acceleration Center came in third.
In the beginner division, Weston Walker (AGCO Acceleration Center) claimed first place, followed by Kush Patel (Synchrony) in second. Yuxuan Chen (PrairieLearn) and Devin Patel (Synchrony) tied for third place.
The intermediate category was led by Jakub Slomczynski (Yahoo!), who took home first place. Charlie Liu (Synchrony) earned second, while Abhjit Kannepalli (Synchrony) and Minjae Jang (COUNTRY Financial DigitaLab) shared third place.
The advanced bracket saw Asim Chitre (Synchrony) securing the top spot. Venkatarama Sooriyakumar Ramakrishnan (Yahoo!) finished second, and Neelan Coleman (Yahoo!) and Yong-Bin Kim (Champaign Caterpillar Innovation Center) rounded out the podium in a tie for third.
“The atmosphere is really phenomenal,” Tommy Miller, a Research and Development Intern at Mondelēz International, said. “Everybody’s clapping, cheering for the people playing, teammates or not. The game’s really fast-paced and I’ve lost the games I’ve played, but I’m having fun.”
The tournament also handed out 10 company and individual superlative awards.
Mondelēz International won Team Spirit and Yahoo! and COUNTRY Financial won In It for the Long Run. Kush Patel won Biggest Comeback, Yong-Bin Kim and Yuxuan Chen won Best Sportsmanship, Yuxuan Chen and David Lomiashvili (Identomat) won Early Bird, Roy Taylor won Fan Favorite and Dustin Mayfield-Jones (EnterpriseWorks) won Most Entertaining to Watch.
“This is a really good event to know other companies in Research Park because I work for Caterpillar, but other than Fire at Five, there are not many interactions that I can have with other companies like Yahoo or Synchrony,” Kim, a Senior Data Specialist at Caterpillar, said. “When I was playing in this event, I had a lot of good conversations with other players. We had so much fun and I had some great moments, I was laughing, smiling.”
More photos from the event can be viewed in the Research Park media gallery and on the Research Park Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook pages.
Learn more about the event on the Research Park Table Tennis Tournament page.
To participate in similar events, visit the Research Park calendar.
