17 Year Old Ruichao Chen (2654) Top Seed at 2015 Butterfly Aurora Cup

Wilson, NC, January 16, 2015 --(PR.com)-- With 11 players over 2400 and 4 over 2500, the 2015 Butterfly Aurora Cup will be one of the most exciting and competitive tournaments in the Midwest this year. Leading the pack of high level players is 17 year old Ruichao Chen (2654) from Maryland Table Tennis Center (MDTTC). Ruichao started playing table tennis at 8 years old in his hometown of Hangzhou, China. In March of 2014, he came to the US and began competing in tournaments up and down the East Coast and Midwest including the 2014 Cary Cup, 2014 Westchester April, May and December Opens and the 2014 US Open. Ruichao has been quite successful to date, posting only 11 losses (almost exclusively to those over 2550) out of the 78 matches he had played in 2014.

The quiet but tough teenager currently coaches at MDTTC, a Butterfly sponsored club, in the afternoons/evenings and attends English classes in the mornings. In addition to improving his table tennis game and coaching juniors at MDTTC, Ruichao has hopes of staying in the US for college and living the American Dream. However, he’s currently focused on the immediate future, including becoming fluent in English and playing one tournaments at a time. After the Aurora Cup, Ruichao will compete in the 2015 Triangle Winter Two Person Team Event in North Carolina and the invitation only 5 Star North American Tour Finals.

Continual coverage of the 2015 Butterfly Aurora Cup and stories about the athletes will be available at ButterflyOnline.com, or via Butterfly North America’s Twitter (https://twitter.com/butterflyonline) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/butterflytabletennis) pages.

Butterfly is the world leader in table tennis / ping pong equipment and gear. Butterfly will supply professional, ITTF approved Butterfly table tennis tables, net sets, barriers and Butterfly ITTF approved, 3-star balls. The professional tables used at this tournament and on the 2015 Butterfly North America Tour are for sale, reserve one today by visiting http://www.ButterflyOnline.com/Tours.