Manila Spirits 2017: Pain Is Not An Option.
I was very relieved Sunday night when I found myself still standing after three days of shooting. I wasn't 100 percent physically coming into Manila Spirits weekend, to tell you frankly, but I guess the years of working in harsh conditions here and abroad paid off every time I feel 70 percent. Just like Love, mental toughness always win.
A week before the tournament, I developed two tiny boils just under my tummy where the waistbands of my underwear rub my skin. Yes, that painful area. (I know, I am not supposed to tell the nasty details but hey, it's my blog. Wink! Wink! If you don't know what boils are..... Google it!) Every day, the pain just gets too intolerable every time I walk, and even sitting is hard to handle. Not a single person knew about this that weekend except for a couple of my crew in AAU. I think that is the best way to handle it so that everyone can still focus on the job and be in tip-top shape.
The registration night in Parque Espana went smoothly with plates of pizza and buckets of beer being served, top it off with some epic out of tune videoke battles, it was a good night for most of us.
The next morning while everyone was lacing up their cleats, I was taping up my boils with clean bandages, making sure that it won't irritate and burst out a mess while I was shooting. But the teams were ready and the players were all set. It is time for Day one!
It was definitely a good Day one with foreign teams like Black Flag, Mixed Nuts, Ninja Cowboy Bears and Shiok dominating the fields. But the one big realization that I had was, you cannot do it all in one day by yourself. You don't expect yourself to photograph a thousand photos while you are doing Live streaming at the same time (Well, maybe you can if you have a tripod for your phone, BUT I DONT!) Though, I didn't reach my target number of shots, there were at least 300 people who watched the games online in the comfort of their homes. And I think that's a win right there.
The boils finally burst up and the pain was unbearable (Okay, I will not tell you how nasty it was when I woke up, but yeah. It was pretty bad). I tried to keep my focus because there´s really no reason for me to make any excuses not to work 100 percent. Especially on Day 3. Every step feels like I was being stabbed by a huge needle in my belly and the sun was not helping either. I hid all the pain under my face mask and suck it all up. Tried to stay away from all the conversations on and off the field and just keep my line of sight to find the action. Luckily, Day 3 was full of it.
Filipinos are finally catching up to the rest of the world as some of the Local teams showed great Ultimate all throughout the weekend, We may still be behind in some aspects of the game, but the Pinoys are getting there. Boracay Bandits went on to defeat the giants as they used their speed and Bandits System to reach the Power Pool finals beating Black Flag in the quarterfinals and the Furuzawa, Cupcake, Lisa Pitcaithly powered Mixed Nuts in the semis. Mulatto of Davao City used their wits and teamwork, defeating Shiok in the quarters and dominated a strong team in Vicious Mob to reach the Manila Spirits power pool finals for the first time. The recreational pool is also dominated by Filipino teams as Team Utog also reached the finals to play against The future of Sunken Pleasure, Sunken Pleasure Black. SP Black has a wild and inspiring Manila Spirits story this year. From their last game of Day 2 all the way to the finals of Day 3, their games are all universal point wins. During the Rec Finals, they were down, 10-4. They worked together as Sunken Pleasure always do tie the game at 11 and won the game in-universe point 12-11. I talked to a few SP players during the weekend on how injuries plagued the whole team, Xtian and Popoy were out, and I believe Pao, Anjo and some of them are still nursing old injuries. I told Popoy and Moe, “Maybe there´s a reason for all of these, maybe something good might happen by the end of the weekend.” Though Sunken Pleasure Orange and White did not make the cut, Sunken Pleasure Black carried the SP banner on their backs and won the trophy in the Rec Division. I was right. Congratulations SP Black!
Are we seeing a healthy rivalry here? I sure hope so, because it's going to be a great show that even the Bay Watch lifeguards, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or the Pepperoni Pizza guy do not stand a chance to prevent the epic battles that these two will show the world.
The single-gender season is about to begin. See you in Malaybalay, Bukidnon this December!
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