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Table tennis was believe to have high society origins. Dating back to the Victorian era, upper-class Victorians were thought to have invented table tennis as an "after-dinner" game. It was a genteel alternative to the more physically exerting lawn tennis.
Instead of using equipment used today, the Victorians would use whatever was lying around. This included a cork for a ball, a cigar box lid for a paddle, and even a line of books for a net.
Table tennis started becoming more serious by the early 1900s. it was by 1926 that the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) was formed after meetings within Dublin and London. By 1988, table tennis made its international debut as a world renown sport in the Seoul Olympic Games.
Since then, the game has gone through major changes and progress in terms of playability and worldwide repute of the sport. Game equipment eventually modernized to specialized paddles made of either wood or carbon-fibre coated with specifically designed rubbers modified for the sport itself. They even started using a ball!