Philippines on pace for 3×3 Olympic qualifying tourmanent
Chooks to Go Magiting Cup champions. CHOOKS TO GO PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines is getting closer to making it to the Olympic Qualifying Tournament after it rose to no.21 in the Fiba 3X3 Men’s World Rankings with 8,156,366 points after the Chooks to Go Pilipinas 3×3 season ended on Sunday.
The country is now inside the top 24 and would need to maintain its no.21 spot until Oct. 31 to ultimately qualify for the OQT.
“All the hard work of our players, our team owners, our staff, and the federation has paid off,” said Chooks to Go Pilipinas league owner Ronald Mascariñas.
In February, the Philippines was ranked no.59 in the world but that seeding gradually improved after the league opened on Feb. 16.
The first Chooks to Go Pilipinas 3×3 season had three conferences, the President’s Cup, the Patriot’s Cup, and the Magiting Cup, all of which had level-seven tournament ratings with level-10 as the highest.
The Philippines also hosted the world’s first Super Quest in April, a level-eight tournament, and its inaugural Challenger tournament on Sept. 7 and that was a level-nine event.
The league’s clubs were also able to play with some of the teams competing in a World Tour and other Challenger tournaments including the Doha Masters and Challenger tournaments in Moscow, Haining, Poitiers, Xiongan, Sukhbaatar, and Kaoshiung.
Chooks to Go Pilipinas 3X3 also has 49 of the top 50 3×3 players in the country and almost 90 of the top 100.
There will be 20 teams competing in the OQT vying for the three slots in the Summer Games, host Japan has is already qualified, while another spot would be up for grabs in a Universality OQT.
Though the Chooks 3X3 season is over, Mascariñas and league commissioner Eric Altamirano are planning to hold more 3X3 activities in October to protect the Philippines’ ranking in the top 24 until the Oct. 31 deadline.
“We can’t just wait and leave our fate to chance, we have to continue pushing until the goal is met,” said Mascariñas.
