Vicious: Fight Club 2019
After my trip to Maasin, Southern
Leyte last April 6-7, I found myself waiting at the airport for my delayed
flight to Manila on April 12th to cover Sid Vicious’ first-ever ultimate
tournament, The Vicious: Fight Club. It was a late addition to my already crazy
April schedule, but having the chance to cover a tournament in Luzon is always
a weekend to look forward to, especially that I only get a chance to travel
there during Manila Spirits and Cabalen Ultimate Open. So, this one’s kind of
new in a very familiar venue (Alabang Country Club). Though the flight was
delayed for an hour and a half, everything went smoothly (even the traffic) the
moment I arrived at the Capital.
The games started early on a
bright and sunny Saturday morning, though some of the top teams were nowhere to
be found during the weekend, there were still a good number of teams who
participated and some of the brightest stars like Derek Ramsay and Angelique
Cortez showed up to support The Fight Club.
There were a lot of exciting teams in the
mixed division like the Minions from Subic, Warriors of Manila, and the most
seasoned team of the tournament, For Old Times Sake, just to name a few. But I
was very impressed with the Single Gender division which was composed of High
School teams and players. Okay, I have to admit. A few of them aren’t the most
athletic and skilled young players that you will ever see, but they sure do
have the most important ingredients to become great players in the future. They
were very disciplined. Very smart. They listen to what their coaches ask them
to do. THEY KNOW THE RULES. A very passionate bunch of young men and women.
Every team has a system of their own. Always looking for a better play than
just hucking it away in the endzone. They work together as a team, and that
makes them dangerous all weekend long. They may not have the athleticism like
some other players, but they sure do have the discipline and the knowledge of
the game, which is very important in ultimate. It sounds cliche now, but I will
still use it, anyway. If these kids will keep on improving year after year, and
we just hope that the fire in them continue to burn when the right time comes,
then the future of Philippine Ultimate is way brighter than we think it would
be.
Day 2 was pretty much the same as Day 1. It
was scorching HOT. But then again, the games were more intense and exciting as
we were closing into the final rounds. The men’s HS finals was dominated by OG
Team B, as the HS Women’s division, ended in an exciting fashion as team Pisay
controlled the fight against Team MC. The Ysa Chua- Andre Vibar led Xavier
Ultimate won the pool B mixed finals against Barangay Ultimate.
In the early part of the main
bout, the game was controlled by the veterans, For Old Times Sake (FOTS) with
Derek Ramsay, Evan Boucher, and Gerson (Just Gerson) leading the way, FOTS
looked unstoppable. But Team 22 who were composed of players from Young/Bad
Blood, Pancake, Sunken Pleasure, Alpha, Vicious and more, wouldn’t go down
without a fight. The team patiently worked together to cut the 3 point lead
down, tied the game, and took the lead in the later part of the championship
game of Pool A. Though the game was so exciting and intense, the display of
SOTG from both teams was on another level. It was actually quite impressive to
see and witness it in person. You can never go wrong on a high spirited
championship game.
There was a quick hold up in the
last few minutes of the game, which I honestly have no idea what it was about because I thought FOTS already won the game. But again it was resolved
immediately and the game went on. The disc was turned over, Team 22 worked
their magic all the way to the endzone for the score and won the game. 22 is
the First ever Vicious: Fight Club Pool A Champions.
The Young bucks of Vicious did a great job in
organizing their first ever Fight Club. It was a lot of fun. The AAU
livestreams were awesome (Thanks, Cassie). They even thought of creating their
own ads for their sponsors to make it more interesting and fun when you hear
it on the PA system. I'm sure they had some challenges along the way, but it
seems like they managed it well, nonetheless. Congratulations, Vicious! I am
really excited to see what's going to happen in the future Fight Clubs. I'm sure
it's going to be a hit.
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