Saltimate Tres: Salt City Is Sweeter Than You Think
The weather was cool and mostly cloudy, as Day 1 of Saltimate Tres was about to begin last Saturday. The 16 teams from all over Visayas and a few guests from Mindanao was a perfect number of teams for a growing tournament in this simple town of Maasin. As expected, Day 1 kicked-off at a very easy pace for most of the participating teams, but you can easily determine which teams will go all the way to the last rounds of the tournament.
Though, the games were obviously dominated by Teams like Mohawks of Tagbilaran, who played their first game with only 6 players. A strong ringer team that was composed mostly of one of Tacloban’s best teams, DBN. Team “Oldies But Goodies” who were composed of, you know – OLDIES. Then, a younger generation of ultimate players from Bohol who call themselves “The Mercenaries” who wowed everyone with their athleticism and age (15-16-year-olds). Of course the host team, “Maasin Pirates” that is always a dangerous team to play against with when you have Jayke and Japhet in your line-up. You can’t easily weed out the rest of the pack, as most of the teams have their own bag of tricks to win a game. Sadly, the champion team of last year was not here to defend their title. That simply means the Saltimate Crown is up for grabs.
Everyone was greeted by tons of rain showers on Day 2. Now that the fields were a little smoother than Saturday, the players went out flying and charging every bid that they could possibly handle. I wrapped my camera with my trusty garbage bag and went out on the muddy field to enjoy the day with these daredevils. It was quite a lot of fun shooting under the rain again.
The action kept on improving by the minute as we were closing into the elimination rounds. Now with a decent number of players in their line-up, team Mohawks began to rally up. Giving everyone a hard time. Team Ringers with Noel, Kim, and Russel are in control, managed to defeat the Dada led “Oldies But Goodies” in the semis. Mercenaries had a huge chance of moving on to the championship round, but their more experienced Ate's and Kuya's knocked them out in a very tight defensive battle in the semi-final round. Giving Mohawks the chance to go head to head with Team Ringers in the finals.
We are down to our last day and under this dark cloudy skies, the championship game of Saltimate Tres has begun. It was an exciting game in the beginning, but team Mohawks showed its teamwork and dominance as Jordan and the rest of Tagbilaran’s finest worked together to put on a huge lead and sealed the win! The Saltimate Tres Pool A Champions are Team Mohawks.
Maasin is much sweeter the second time around. Their outstanding hospitality the moment I arrived in Cebu, all the way to Hilongos and Maasin city. The help that they showed me from the start of this trip was beyond awesome. This year, they are definitely at the top of my list of cities that hosted really comfortable trips for me. To the people involved, I truly appreciate all the things that you did for me, and for making this tournament a much more improved than last year. Even the socials night was a lot of fun.
I genuinely had a great time in Maasin this year.
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