The Nationals 2017: The City of Waterfalls... Number One In the Country for Men's and Women's
There's this calm before the storm feeling, weeks before the Nationals this year. But when Saturday came, it seems like everything changed all of a sudden. From the very first pull of the first set of games, the teams showed up with authority, letting everyone know that they all deserve to be there, at The Bantug Lake Ranch in Bacolod city for the First Annual PFDA Men's and Women's National Ultimate Championships.
Twenty teams total, Eleven for Men's and Nine for Women's division from all over the country were given the chance to showcase their talents and represent their region in this PFDA historic event. It was exciting. It was Intense. It was Physical. The games were close. Multiple universal point finishes. Lot's of Callahan's.
It's the Nationals, alright!
The Women's division was stacked with great talents from all over the country. Names like, Nina Buenaflor Javier, Ysa Chua, April Adalim, Sheila Gascon, Len Piquera, Tin Garcia, Alex Castro, Gabbey Rodil, Angelique Cortez, Oli Ty, Cess Trinidad, put Cha Gutierrez and Jo Civil in the mix and we have a star studded Women's division. The pretty tough and strong ladies seriously put on a great show all weekend long. The games were heart pounding that I think I spent more time covering their games than the Men's.
The Women's championship game between The Amazons of Iligan City and Iska of Manila (Sunken Pleasure W) ended on a very exciting note. The Amazons dominated the whole game with April, Len and Jana Claire controlling the field in the early stage of the game, but the women's of SP bounced back with Tina Resch, Tin Garcia, Jam Macaraeg, Gabbey Rodil and Alex Castro working together, cutting the lead down and giving us a battle. But the Amazons were just too tough to handle in the end, giving Iligan its first taste of the championship.
No Xtian. No Dada. No Tajji. No Derek. No Jammel. No Jlo. No Bolantoy. No Botchok, not even Panoy. The brightest stars of Philippine Ultimate were not in the limelight for the very first time in the history of the Nationals. But the likes of Bruno, Oyok, Ronan, Alod, Heyman, Bullet, Ian, Will, Matt, Maki and Tisoy took over the fields of Bantug Ranch, making this year's Nationals the most well balanced. You never know who will win the whole thing. The games were so intense that I only gave myself a couple of minutes break before I head back out again so I wont miss a game or two. It was all worth it.
There are a lot of fantastic games all weekend long, but there's something about the Nationals that it always saves the best for last. Visayas and Mindanao took center stage this time. It's Cebu versus Iligan. Niño's goes head to head with Iliguns. The two provincial teams reached the championship round by defeating two manila juggernauts, Isko (Sunken Pleasure M) and Vicious in the semis. Niño's look determined to spoil the Iligan celebration as they gathered a decent amount of lead in the early stage of the game. But Iliguns patiently worked their way with finals MVP Ian Capor, together with Alod, Wilbor, Chuby and Ronan, keeping the game close, making the first ever Men's Nationals championship a nail biting grudge match. With no time remaining and darkness was about to eat everyone up, the game went into Universal point, winner take all battle.
The marshals did their best to maintain order, but the crowd was uncontrollable, trying to break free while the boys from Iligan worked the disc down to the end zone. Ninos did everything to defend for the last time. They never backed down from the challenge, giving Iliguns a hard time to convert in soon to be dark Field 1. I was on the other side of the field, trying to snipe the disc between the players and the crowd who are now in the middle of the field. It was chaos. I can't see anything but heads from the crowd. I tried to go a little forward to capture the game winning point,but the moment I lift my camera up, we already had a new champion. Team Iliguns won the first ever Men's National Championship, putting their city on the map and the right to call themselves the number one team in the country in both Men's and Women's division.
"Both teams deserved to be in the finals"
"Amazons and Iliguns. Wow! They both deserved the championship title"
"Now the ranking is in order. Seems legit to me!"
"It only shows that Iligan definitely has some of the best players in the country"
These are just few reactions that I gathered during the weekend.
Handwork, Sacrifice, Passion, Love for the game, Team work, Believing that anything's possible wins championships. Iliganons did all that.
They believed that they can do anything no matter how tough their situation was.They believed that even they are outnumbered they can achieve their goal. They believed that if they trust each other, they will go home in the city of waterfalls with not just one trophy, but two.
Congratulations, Iligan!
This only proves that there are still a lot of great talents out there that we haven't seen or discovered yet, and the best way to see these athletes in action is to bring Nationals to a city where these hidden talents can soar and dominate.
Trust me. They are out there.
Even though we don't have the best players in the land this year, We still managed to witness a National tournament to remember for a very long time. Big kudos to the PFDA board and to all who helped out making this tournament a big success this year.
The big stars will be back with a vengeance next year....
Who will conquer the battlefields in the 2018 edition of the PFDA Men's and Women's National Ultimate Championships???
Better Get Ready.
Until then... More Images to Share. More Stories to Tell... It's All About U!
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