by Chris Chua
Playing for Super Bueno has already come full circle for me during Manila Spirits this year. It was one hell of a ride!
Going into Spirits last year, I kinda felt lost on what my aspirations are as an Ultimate player. I wanted to play with my friends. I wanted to become a bigger contributor to a team. I wanted to be a part of a team that won the big one and so on.
Being the “by default” captain of our Toda HK team last year made me realize two things: 1) I missed playing with some of my close friends and 2) I have what it takes to lead a group of Ultimate players.I knew that I had to prioritize.
Spirits 2011
Since some of my friends have merged with Bueno for Spirits last year, I felt it was the right fit for my goals even if it means swallowing my pride and accepting that I wouldn’t be enjoying as much winning as before. And it also came with a lot of consideration due to Bueno’s history, but at the end of the day, we’re really just one community. Everybody will love everybody anyway.
Right away, Jody and I realized that Bueno was a fair team. Given the size of the roster, the captains had means to subsidize a portion of the registration fees of those who won’t get to play much but still trained hard and wanted to be a part of it. Let’s call them Reserves.
I started out as a reserve, a role which I happily accepted despite my experience because I knew I could still contribute on or off the field. Fortunately, my play during that weekend was good enough to slowly earn a spot as a D line handler. The subsidy went away though, but I wasn’t complaining.
There were a lot of adjustments that had to be made during that tournament, resulting to a losing record.But I could see the potential in a lot of those games. The team managed to defeat two foreign teams and keep games close with local teams.
Road to Nationals 2012
After playing for K3 during NYL 2012, we went back to a defeated Bueno, whose first Pool A experience resulted to a last place finish. Saddest part is that it was K3 who made a come-from-behind win against Bueno to determine the bottom two spots. Yes, we all had bad tournaments.
With Goma going on a hiatus after being the NYL coach/captain, Benny asked me to help out in coaching the team and putting a system in place. This is the time we started training hard with the goal of qualifying for Nationals. This was also the time when people started hanging out and bonding more due to the Monopoly Deal fad.
We lost in the finals of the DLSU Canlubang tournament in March, which gave a lot of exposure to our young players. Then used M&M 1 to develop players further, especially our girls who made a good showing.
The team was indeed ready for Nationals, but lost the qualifying game to Bitag, which has always been a tough match-up. Qualifying through the back door wasn’t really the plan, but the team took it anyway by shaking off fatigue to win the 4th (vs Xavier) and 5th (vs K3) games of the day. The team was at an all-time high after that and I thought it was the biggest achievement of the year.
Nationals 2012
The team played up to its potential during Nationals, but the competition was just too good. We ended up winless after the tournament, but still proud of the contributions of everyone.
Considering that some key players missed out on Nationals, Bueno relied mostly on its organic players to give other teams a run for their money, including an almost epic come-from-behind win after going down 3-9.
The team even had a couple of games wherein it was leading 6-3, only to lose by universal point. It was a heartbreaking tournament, but we all had to take it with a grain of salt and be glad with the fact that the team’s short game and zone defense are getting better.
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?Not exactly.
Post-Nationals “Depression”
Instead of keeping the momentum going, most of the players relaxed after Nationals. Some due to stress, some due to having a sense of achievement already I guess. Some new players came, some old ones left.
I felt more stressed than ever to keep training going despite not having an ideal number of people and consistency in attendance. It was so hard running a training program and looking for progress with different people showing up every time.
It showed during Summer League as the team finished 12th out of 16, with a lot of players missing out on crucial games. From an all-time high to rock-bottom, I felt I failed as a coach/captain. It was time to call a team meeting.
On a rainy Tuesday night, the team set some goals until next year and everybody laid out how they wanted to achieve it as a team. Sadly after that, attendance barely improved and I was getting concerned by the day with Spirits fast approaching.
Enter the Beer Barkada et al.
PULL 2012 opened doors for the team to have a bigger pool of players for Spirits, despite a disappointing finish from the merged team between Bueno, Brawlz, and Hasta.
Brawlz players continued to train with Bueno even after PULL and were absorbed for M&M 2, the tournament before Spirits. The team started hanging out more after training, with the usual suspects inventing the NoM (No or More) craze.
This is probably my unhealthiest preparation for any tournament so far, but it has also been the most enjoyable. Going home at 4am on weekdays after drinking countless bottles, chatting a lot, and eating a lot of grub is insane! The good part about it is that we became a more bonded team and even players who do not hangout a lot, started joining as well.
By start of M&M 2, we were able to form a strong team on paper for Pool B Open, but clearly not much chemistry yet. The team could only manage a third place finish, but the boys were getting there.
Attendance started going up during M&M 2 all the way to Spirits. While it wasn’t much time to prepare, the team made the most of it by also training during weekends. The team also got a boost when Cayo and Migo decided to join, giving the team experience and a solid short game.
Going into Spirits this year, I was confident that we’ve trained hard enough and ran through what was needed to give a good showing.
We started in the bottom 11 out of the 43 teams, but winning all 3 games (Kayu, SLU, and Big Eyes of Vietnam) during pool play gave the team a chance to crossover to the Middle 16 bracket. A good short game mixed with solid zone defense is what did it for us, despite not having the killer instinct to finish strong during games.
The crossover game against Karma was probably the most special moment of the tournament as the team considered it a high-stakes game. It wasn’t exactly the win that made it special, but the manner of how it was achieved.
Under pressure situations before, the team normally struggled to keep a positive environment. But for this game, everybody was intense but supportive of one another. Every point scored was met with “bonggels!”, every defensive effort was met with the sideline cheering one teammate’s name, every turnover was met with encouragement.
I barely even played that game as I was seeing my teammates, my friends grow right in front of me. For the first time, our man-to-man defense was tight against strong competition. Even when Karma was closing in on our lead, everybody didn’t stop wanting it. Everybody loved everybody. It was the best feeling in the world.
Our Pool D quarterfinal match-up the next day was a tough one against Gardeners. Going down early 2-7 made us temporarily forget the formula that brought us there in the first place. It was hard getting people to be more positive with the team trailing like that. However, I’m still glad the team was able to recover its bearings and tighten up its defense, allowing us to threaten the game a bit until the final tally, 7-10.
Back-to-back games didn’t do us a favor as we lost the next placing game to Nagayak of CDO. The game was neck-and-neck until soft cap was called and several errors were made on offense, ending the game at 5-8.
After two disappointing losses, the team was determined to finish strong and it did just that by racing to a 9-1 lead against Kimchi of Korea. Even if killer instinct wasn’t applied again, everybody stepped up and used the same positive environment throughout the game.
Staying positive under pressure is probably the biggest breakthrough for the team in this tournament. This is what I consider “the biggest achievement of the year”.
Moving Forward
It’s now time to pass on the torch to other very capable bearers as Benny and I had to sacrifice some things to be able to coach and lead this team.
Goma and Ipe did a great job helping us out for Spirits, as did Bok. And they will be taking a more active role going forward (with our help of course). I hope this experience will inspire our players to keep on wanting more out of this sport and more out of this team, rising above personal limitations.
Our games have shown that we can achieve so much as a team, as long as we keep on improving together and keep on having confidence in each other.
The fire has been lit again, guys. Let’s keep it burning this time.