Once Upon a Time in China

You know those inspiring family movies where a ragtag football/hockey/baseball team, brought together by a common love for one sport, ends up winning first place? They start off rough, they lose badly, they start winning, then there's some sort of conflict (the star player decides to quit, the coach has some family problem that's holding him back, etc.), but they somehow get it all together and amazingly make it to the finals. And then they beat a team made up of players that are bigger, faster, and by all accounts, more skilled than they are. Because they have heart.

My team, Manila Dirty Ice Cream + Boracay Dragons' Dada and Xtian

Our Shanghai story is nothing like that. Haha.

On our first day, we arrived on the gorgeous, drool-worthy fields with such high hopes. We were raring to face off against some of the best in the region; on that day, we were scheduled to play versus Singapore's Freakshow, Beijing's Big Brother, Team Pilipinas, and Hong Kong. Let's just say that non-Philippine teams normally had a height advantage over us...

That's 6'2" Nina from Beijing, with Map--who actually guarded her on the field! Just to give you an idea of how small our female lineup was, I was the third tallest girl!

Our win-loss record at the end of Day 1? 0-4. Our spirits were kind of low so...we (or they) kept the other "spirits" flowing at that night's hall party! Many of the Philippine players were booked at the same hotel, and every night, we would gather out on the hallway to down the bottles of Ginebra Premium that were stashed in our check-in bags. (I merely watched.)

The next day, it was more of the same--our team strangely didn't gel the way we did during our Manila practice sessions. We ended up placing third in Pool B, after a fun-fun game with Singapore's Disc Knights. C'est la vie. We really couldn't expect to dominate considering we had only a few practice sessions, and were from seven different teams back home, all with different plays. On the bright side...

...we got to cheer for the other Philippine teams: Team Pilipinas and Boracay Dragons which placed second and third in Pool A, respectively. Finals match was between TP and Big Brother.

DIC, Dragons, and TP group hug

...I did a proper layout for the first time!!! I was thisclose to catching that disc at the endzone, and was so utterly frustrated that I didn't. But I did a proper layout for the first time!

...I am now in the possession of a pair of magical cleats! TP's Pia couldn't find a pair to replace her old ones, and was thus shoe-less the night before the tournament. I had packed an extra pair, which fit her perfectly. Pia went on to bag the Female MVP award! She was uh-mazing! I am building an altar for those cleats.

With Pia, wearing my prized cleats, after her jaw-dropping finals performance. Notice Putow (in orange) pouring a drink. Free-flowing beer during the finals!

...we still partied like champs.

Nobody parties like the Pinoy disc community. We were the only ones left after the finals, dancing on the ledge, no less! (Don't be fooled by that fake white guy. He's as Pinoy as dirty ice cream.)

...I can check "play at an international tourney" off my bucket list!

So that concludes my Shanghai tourney report. Not entirely an ideal ending, but happy nonetheless--we didn't win, but we had fun. And really, that's more than enough.

Same Old, Same Old (Almost)

Last week's trip #1 took me back to the isla for Boracay Open 2011. Right after my fun run and all my interviews, I did a quick change and boarded a plane! I had no intention of going, since I was missing the Saturday games and Saturday night party (usually the most fun). But two words: Seat sale! So about a week before the trip, I booked me a flight.

It was a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am trip: I flew in Sunday around noon, and flew out first thing Tuesday morning. As in previous years, this trip featured a finals match which included the Boracay Dragons (nine-time champions, if I'm not mistaken)...

Photo from Ian

...a team photo...

...clowning around with my teammates...

Superstar X left his precious jersey to dry near my team. Naturally, we had to take turns wearing it and taking pictures of ourselves in it while he remained completely oblivious.

...my obligatory jumping pic...

This one inspired by Step Up 3

...Sunday-night partying (although, for the first time, I didn't stay out til sunrise!)...

...breakfast at one of my absolute favorite spots, Real Coffee...

Yummy three-egg Jack's Omelette

Yup, pretty much the same stuff as in previous years. The only difference? I didn't have to spend a couple of nights away from this guy...

For the first time, my husband came along! Yay! Thank you, seat sale!

Apollo 10.10.10

This pretty much sums up what happened over the weekend...

My team decided to join Apollo 10, a two-day tournament sponsored by the University of the Philippines Diliman Ultimate Organization (UP DUO). The format? Ten players in the lineup, with only seven playing at a time--NO SUBS, aka savage! Essentially, it's 45 minutes of hell under the sun.

Normally, you're allowed to sub in between points, and our team is used to subbing every two points so that we always have fresh legs on the field. So you can imagine how much fun I had that first game. By the 30th minute, I was on my knees, crawling and screaming for the love of all things good for water.

But I would do it again in a heartbeat!

My Apollo 10 top 10:

1. We divided into three teams--two in the open division, and one in the newbies division (meaning, eight out of the ten players haven't played in any PUA tournament). Our Warriors B team (aka Barracks), with a record of 2-1 on Day 1, moved up to Pool A!
2. Our newbies team pretty much massacred all the teams they met and made it all the way to the finals!
3. My team (Warriors A, aka Marines), had a 1-2 record on Day 1--this, after playing against the No-Mercy Shark team (made up of some of the best male college players in the country) and Spuck U (another team with young lungs, young legs, and girls that moved like boys. Fast ones!).
4. Went into Day 2 thinking we had a chance at making it to the Pool B finals...that is until our game started and there were only four of us (I was the only girl) playing against seven!
5. ...BUT we scored the first point despite being down three players! (Guess who scored? Tee-hee.) Our players started to trickle in as the game progressed. By half time, we were complete. And we won! Personal highlight: I scored around three points.:) And I said that whatever else happened that day, I was happy enough that we won with four people on the line at the start of the game. To quote Fel, "Nakapag-1 versus 100 na rin tayo!"
   
6. We won the semis too! Personal highlight: I scored a few more points. Yay!
7. We fully expected to meet our friend Spy's team in the finals. But, surprise surprise, they lost to high school team Xavier! So much for our well-laid plans. Spy's quotable quote, after sitting out of the semis to supposedly rest for the finals: "Mas mabuti pa palang pagod sa finals kesa hindi umabot!"
   
8. Before our big finals game, we watched our newbies' finals game. They lost, but they put in a valiant effort--they were playing four girls and three guys versus the other team's standard four guy-three girl ratio. And I gotta say we had the louder cheering squad.:)
9. We lost in the finals versus the kiddies. Sigh. We just couldn't figure out how to shut down their O, and it was too late when we figured out how to work our own O. I did score five out of our six or seven points. It was kind of nice and also rather embarrassing when the Xavier sidelines applauded me and gave me verbal pats on the back as I exited the field.
   
10. Several of the Warriors got awards! Fel was our pool's MVP, JM and Edith (who played splendidly!) were in the Pool A Mythical 7, our turbo-charged Lem was Newbies MVP, newcomer Cams was part of the Newbies Mythical 7, and Czar was best defensive player across all pools! Unbelievable! I'm so proud of the way our teams performed!
    

All in all, a pretty great tournament! Even my aching joints agree.

Roaches! Roaches! Roaches!

I only saw this on video before--the Roaches getting hyped up before the finals, chanting, "Roaches! Roaches! Roaches!" Never thought I would be a part of it. Truth be told, I got goosebumps!

So I went back to the site of last year's last hurrah, an epic trip which was an awesome end to my life as a single girl. While last year, I went mainly to party, this year, I went mainly to play.

The Shindig is an annual national tournament, and this time I played for defending champs Roaches (aka Chupacabras), named after the little critters running around TS (homebase of many of the player-climbers). A little ironic that I played with them considering I'm deathly afraid of ipis! I had played with some of them previously in Boracay and in the recently concluded Malakas at Maganda league.

Yes, there were the usual crazy parties, and I only got a total of two hours' sleep the whole time I was there. But I'm probably the only one whose fondest memories of Dumags 2010 don't involve partying or inebriation. The main highlight of this trip was winning my first national championship, shared with Vismin team KKK. (We were up one, it was getting too dark to play, people were getting hurt, and the two teams agreed to be joint champions before anyone else got injured.)

A Grand Slam moment with our trophy

I got yelled at on the field (stupid stupid error), and had a few drops in the eight games that I played. I've been playing a few years but I've seriously still got a lot to learn--and I've gotta learn not to choke (har). On the flip side, I also had a few points, so yay. What I like about playing with the Roaches is that I don't have to be a handler, and can focus instead on being mid-long. (Highlight reel: One of the teams we played against pointed out that I scored more points than their whole team combined. This little, er, feat earned me a free jersey. In all fairness, it was the first game of the day, and I was probably the only one on the field who was sober!)

I'm also proud of the way my regular teammates played--three other players from the Warriors joined the Roaches. Leahleur contributed her handling skills, I heard Yelle scored quite a bit on the first day (I missed it because of work), and Fel was part of the Mythical 7! Woohoo! Our other teammates Czar and Jacq, who played for our sister Manila team, did really well too--it was especially thrilling to watch Jacq contribute so much to her team. I remember introducing her to ultimate in Indonesia three years ago, as we played a fun-fun game on the beach. She's come such a long way since then, evolving into a highly competitive, talented player, definitely one of the Warriors' go-to girls!

It was an absolute delight to play with the incredible provincial teams, who have improved so much in a span of one year. One team in particular, Loktonz (sorry, not sure how it's spelled), nearly gave me a massive heart attack by almost eliminating us in the quarters! I was touched when they said that they really wanted to play against the Roaches last year, and were just honored to be able to play against us this year.

With my Dumaguete team and KKK

Honored. That's exactly how I felt to be welcomed into this team, to be able to share the stage (field) with some of the best players in the country. Being part of this team, in possibly my last national tourney, is a fitting way to say goodbye to Dumaguete. A true last hurrah.

Hurray for Dumags!

Will have a more detailed post about my weekend trip to Dumaguete soon. For now, let me leave you with a little something, c/o our supporters during our finals game...

Thank you, Philippine Ultimate Ahasssan, for supporting your fellow players from Manila! You guys rock!:) (Photos taken by Fel's mom. Thanks, Tita!)