Just watched the replay. Wowowow, what an amazing match with so many superb rallies! Overall, I liked what I am seeing. Yes they lost this match, but not without a fight and not without significant improvement from their last encounters.
What a shame is that they lost the first game, I thought that had they secured the first game, they might have won the match. Stamina wise, you can't beat the JPN especially Watanabe's lol. Minions has lost most of their power in their smashes in G3.
As usual the defense of the Japanese was extremely solid and even with great attacks. But minions did really well, too, considering. At least it was no longer lopsided games as previous ones. Minions fought back, hard and it was close, darn close... from 0-6, 9-14, 16-18, 19-18 and 19-21. Congratulations to the JPN pair to win the title and by defeating Ahsan/Hendra whom they had negative H2H on the way too.
Marcus did really well and I must say I was really impressed with him. No complaints whatsoever. He wasn't much of the weakest link anymore, minions had worked something out on this issue.
On the other hand, I don't think Kevin was at his best form yesterday as in making too many mistakes (by his own standard). Quite many rushed shot decisions and I don't think he was being disciplined enough at the net haha. What's so hard to be patient like he usually does playing Ahsan/Hendra?
I am disappointed that minions lost, but I am not unhappy with their performances. For a bad match up, they had handled it well. Good body languages, communications and support. And I think they somehow got their confidence back after losing so many times to Endo/Wata. It was as close as it got. I can see minions evolving again after this, to be honest. Having Endo/Wata as a bad match up really turn out to be something positive for minions. If Marcus could keep on improving his front court skill, minions could be a lot stronger and invincible

. As for Kevin, he has become a more competent back court player now. But his issue is always with his temperament and emotion control. His impatience and rushed shot decision on trying to finish rally as quickly as possible might do well for other pairs but not work on pairs like Endo/Wata.
Reaching the finals here and lost narrowly to the pair of their worst match up wasn't a bad result.
Well I am sure minions would come back stronger and more matured. This isn't something that can't be fixed nor not figured out. It could be a new beginning of a new version of minions.

Allow me to show my gratification to Yonex for providing these sleeveless jerseys to minions. It had been a pleasure



Can they keep these jerseys?