Lien, Speaks! Mulatto wins Zone Cup 2015
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| Lien Verdeprado of Team Mulatto |
The 2nd Zone Cup, organised in Ho Chi Minh City – Vietnam, is known as the best gatherings of ultimate talent from Asia and beyond. After watching team Mulatto’s performance in semifinals of Manila Spirits 2014, the owner of Zone Clothing – Nguyen Vu – was so keen on inviting Mulatto to visit Vietnam as “I was impressed of your playing style with strong team understanding and connection among team players, I want to see it in this tournament not only teams with star players but also teamwork like this”.
As a provincial team, Mulatto can try to afford joining one overseas tournament every year as it is more costly and time-consuming to go outside Philippines. We always select carefully for what will be the tournament for the year and looking for opportunity to visit different countries and expose to different ultimate environment. For this Zone Cup, we did fundraising though the activity of selling Mulatto stocks including “We travel for Ultimate” jerseys and got lots of support from ultimate friends.
Even though Zone Cup only celebrates their 2nd year, it attracts top teams from different Asian countries like Singapore, China, Japan, and Hong Kong with the $3,000 cash prize as well as one of the best fields in Asia. Many participants expressed that “Before the tournament happens, we cannot tell who will be in the championship game. Most teams are sending their best line-ups for this tourney”. Many teams including us registered for this tourney not because of cash prize but for having opportunity to experience one of the highest level of competition in South East Asia, and we’re happy it really delivered.
We started our hard training starting middle of April for our hosting Dabadaba beginning of May, Nationals end of May and Zone Cup end of June. With our loss in championship game in Dabadaba and quarterfinal in Nationals, we had to sit down and review about what we had not done correctly and how to make best use of our team strengths. We had to test different strategies and line-up to find out what worked best for us. Three weeks before the tournament, we trained every night during weekdays and whole day during weekends alternately between conditioning (jogging, circuit and cross-training) and playing (drills, scrimmage, tune-up games). Initially we did not aim to go far in the tourney but we wanted to make use of this only opportunity every year to help us moving to a higher level of ultimate and show them about Philippines ultimate.
As a provincial team, Mulatto can try to afford joining one overseas tournament every year as it is more costly and time-consuming to go outside Philippines. We always select carefully for what will be the tournament for the year and looking for opportunity to visit different countries and expose to different ultimate environment. For this Zone Cup, we did fundraising though the activity of selling Mulatto stocks including “We travel for Ultimate” jerseys and got lots of support from ultimate friends.
Even though Zone Cup only celebrates their 2nd year, it attracts top teams from different Asian countries like Singapore, China, Japan, and Hong Kong with the $3,000 cash prize as well as one of the best fields in Asia. Many participants expressed that “Before the tournament happens, we cannot tell who will be in the championship game. Most teams are sending their best line-ups for this tourney”. Many teams including us registered for this tourney not because of cash prize but for having opportunity to experience one of the highest level of competition in South East Asia, and we’re happy it really delivered.
We started our hard training starting middle of April for our hosting Dabadaba beginning of May, Nationals end of May and Zone Cup end of June. With our loss in championship game in Dabadaba and quarterfinal in Nationals, we had to sit down and review about what we had not done correctly and how to make best use of our team strengths. We had to test different strategies and line-up to find out what worked best for us. Three weeks before the tournament, we trained every night during weekdays and whole day during weekends alternately between conditioning (jogging, circuit and cross-training) and playing (drills, scrimmage, tune-up games). Initially we did not aim to go far in the tourney but we wanted to make use of this only opportunity every year to help us moving to a higher level of ultimate and show them about Philippines ultimate.
We registered in the tournament and came to the training and preparation for Zone Cup as Mulatto Davao, representing Davao and Mindanao ultimate, but we came into the tournament as Mulatto Pilipinas. The whole Philippines including friends from Luzon and Visayas were watching and cheering for us because we were the only representative team from Philippines. In the team, there are representatives from Boracay Dragons, Extreme, and SSG. Our jerseys were designed with symbols of our country and we wore that with pride. Before the quarterfinals, Joie was giving a very touching message “guys, we are playing for our country, friends from all over Philippines are praying for us, regardless how far we can go in the tournament, we have to make our country proud”. That was our mission to fulfill and the championship has showed the best outcome of teamwork and hardwork.
We faced a lot of challenges against strong teams, no battle was easy and no team went undefeated or winless. Among the top 4 teams, three are well-known and long established club teams. We were happy to play rematch game against Whisby Nation in the championships, the team that defeated us earlier in roundrobin game. They have the great teamwork, great spirit and high rank recently in most international competitions. Team chemistry, trust among team members and support from sidelines (and of courses from friends around Philippines) are the key for us to win the battles and we are proud to represent the country. It was our great memory and we hope to see more teams from Philippines in the coming Zone Cup to bring pride to our country.
Thank you, Lien for sharing your amazing journey of becoming one of the elite teams, not just here in the Philippines, but in Asia. Again, congratulations to Team Mulatto Pilipinas for winning the Second Zone Cup!
Until then... More images to share. More stories to tell... It's All About U!
Photos by: Ms. Daisy Jane Cimafranca of Team Mulatto
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