Nicolas Cage won an Oscar for "Leaving Las Vegas." This year, you could win a national championship for going there. The US Nationals Table Tennis Championships are scheduled (tentatively, like everything in the age of COVID-19) for July 4-9 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. There, Lily Zhang and Kanak Jha will look to defend their respective singles championships, and a host of more mere mortals will compete in a wide variety of age- and rating-restricted events. While the USATT will be more than happy to take your money at the door, there is now a new way to reserve your place in any number of national championship events. Starting next month, nine states will host State Qualification Tournaments (SQTs). Each event in said qualifiers will offer not only the prestige of a state championship, but also an automatic entry in the main draw of the corresponding event at nationals. The nine participating states are California, Texas, Florida, New York, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Perhaps in a nod to utilitarianism, these are seven of the nine most populous states, with Pennsylvania and Illinois replaced by New Jersey and Massachusetts. (It's all who you know.) If you are a US citizen living in the nonet of anointed states, check on Omnipong via the link below to find your local SQT. For the other 41 states, your money is still good at the Mandalay Bay. However you get there, you can still pull a Nicolas Cage and leave Las Vegas with a trophy.

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