MANILA, Philippines—Team World played with cohesion and precision to down Team Quezon City-Philippines, 7-4, Tuesday and draw first blood in the QC Invasion: Quezon City-Philippines vs the World Grand Villards Showdown at the Trinoma Mall in Quezon City.

Fielding three former world champions and the reigning World Cup of Pool titlist in the opening four-man team event, the visitors thwarted the Filipinos’ rallies to take the first point in the race-to-nine duel.

Former world champions Mika Immonen, Thorsten Hohmann and Wu Chia-ching and World Cup of Pool king Rodney Morris won the lag, ran out the opening rack and then stole the second frame for a 2-0 lead over the team of Efren “Bata” Reyes, Dennis Orcollo, Roberto Gomez and Lee Van Corteza.

Morris scratched on his shot on the black-8 in the third rack—the first of the foreigners’ only three mistakes in the match—and Reyes pocketed the money-ball to give the Filipinos their first point.

They then ran out the fourth rack to tie the match at 2.

But with the alternate-break being applied, Team World quashed Team QC-RP’s momentum by claiming the next four racks for a 6-2 advantage.

The Filipinos took the next two frames and got into the table on the 11th rack, but its difficult layout forced them to surrender it back to the visitors, who successfully cleaned it up for the win.

“We’re able to get our acts together early and that I think was the key to our victory,” said Morris, the Team World’s skipper in the duel presented by Senator Manny Villar’s Villards: Tulong sa Pagsulong ng Philippine Sport and the Quezon City government led by Mayor Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte and City Council Majority Floor Leader Ariel Inton, co-presented by Camella Communities and supported by the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines.

“We started cold and we felt the pressure on our shots,” said Reyes, who missed two shots during the visitors’ mid-game run.

“We didn’t get the breaks of the game because of the difficult ball placements, but we’ll try to get back in the succeeding matches.”

Slated late Tuesday are singles matches pitting Ronnie Alcano against Yang Ching-shun of Chinese-Taipei and Alex Pagulayan against Fu Jian-bo of China and a doubles encounter pitting Francisco “Django” Bustamante and Warren Kiamco against Raj Hundal of India and Charlie Williams of the United States .

The first team to accumulate nine points will win the showdown and pocket the $40,000 top purse.