Brothers Zain and Mustafa Syed faced off Sunday for the final spot on the boy's table tennis team heading to Halifax for the 2011 Canada Winter Games this February.

With his tie-break victory, Mustafa clinched the final spot on the three-man squad, with Ehsan Edrees finishing first and Alex Zheng finishing second after the weekend's U-18 boy's table tennis trials at Whitehorse Elementary School.

Table Tennis Yukon (TTY) held the trials to pear down the team from six players to three and two alternates, spots snatched up by Zain Syed and Kyle Gonder.

The tournament consisted of three separate round robins over three days.

Each of the six players competed against each other the three days. Following each round robin, points were tallied to form rankings.

Zheng, who went 5-0 for top spot after the first day, was given six points. The last place finisher after the first day was given one point.

Zheng dropped with a 3-2 record the second day as Edrees went 4-1. Mustafa closed the gap with a 4-1 record but finished second after losing head-to-head against Edrees.

"I started off really well and then I just did horrible,” Zheng said. "I got tired; I have low stamina.”

TTY president Dave Stockdale said the tournament was structured that way to avoid upsets.

"Sometimes in a one-shot tournament, one match, then a player can come in and upset a favourite in that situation, and when you're trying to select your best team, you want somebody that's consistent,” Stockdale said.

"If you beat a guy three times, you're obviously better; even if you upset him three times, you're obviously better than he is.

"It's a pretty good indication of who is the overall more talented player in that situation.”

Keeping the intensity level high in Whitehorse can be tricky because the players are so familiar with one another, Stockdale added.

"The trouble here is, it's the atmosphere in which you're playing. These kids all know each other, there aren't many trying out, most of them know where they stand in this situation, so it doesn't get tense.

"If somebody new walked into the club, who was a good player that you didn't know, you never played before, then the anxiety level would go up because it's an unknown.”

Stockdale and coach Kevin Murphy will look to up intensity levels over the next few months by bringing in coaches from Outside and bringing the players to the Richmond Olympic Oval in Vancouver, home to a new table tennis centre, for intensive training.

"Because in this environment, playing each other all the time, you don't get any better,” Stockdale said.

"Here, the kids are very relaxed, and unfortunately you don't get the intensity.

"We've had it a few times, when kids realize that if they lose this game, they might slip out of the top three and not make the team.

"I don't think that registers with a lot of them.”

The hope for the future of the team is to expose the players to competition used to constant intensity.

"They learn through osmosis when they go to tournaments,” Stockdale said.

"Particularly these younger kids, they see some of the better kids trying something and they try it themselves. It just grows like that.”

Both Zheng and Mustafa agreed there's work to be done.

Zheng said he'll look to improve the troubled parts of his game.

"We're probably going to start off with the basics, forehand and backhand,” Zheng said.

Edrees added, "It's good to start off with the basics first, because if you don't have those, then everything's going to fall apart.”

The key, Stockdale said, is to work from the basics up to intensive competition.

"Four hours a week is really not enough,” he said. "I know kids who go swimming five days a week, but we can't get the space or the commitment, really, to get kids to come out five days a week. It's a little bit much to expect, especially when they're involved in a lot of other things as well.”

But the beginning of the program is promising, he noted.

"I'm very pleased with the way kids have played,” Stockdale said. "It's always good to have a tournament, because kids improve in that situation. Overall I'm extremely pleased with the situation.”