A total of eleven teams fought in a survival battle and only one prevailed against the rest. The Digital Central Black Tamaraws proved that their strength and perseverance can withstand anything.
Ernst Cup 2018 concluded with loud cheers and hurrahs from the crowd as the top 3 teams have been awarded. Our CTO & Country Manager, Joy Cuison, boosted the event even more through his quick but energising speech. The CS All Stars dancers made the audience yell louder from their performance.
For two months, our aspiring teams played their hearts out until the championship. Noel, the Digital Central Tamaraws team captain, shared with us their team’s experiences:
“It was not an easy feat to be on top. With the new acquisitions of each team, the competition became tougher. It was a blessing as we did have our core guys still intact. We revamped our lineup by adding another big man, a couple of versatile guards together with the new players from our account sponsor to be able to cope up.”
Their team also experienced a couple of losses and these served as their motivation to do better in the next games. Though they ended up to be on the fourth seed for the playoffs round, it gave them the drive to reach for the championship game.
Noel continued, “We earned the ticket to the finals to be up against the team we haven’t played with during the elimination round (The Falcons). We understood that it is not going to be an easy task to win against them because they have a dominant big man in the middle, a skillful point guard, a deadly shooter, and role players who know how to play. They proved to us during the first two quarters that nothing is going to be easy when you go up against them. The second half proved to be the toughest as we needed to do man-to-man defense. It really took a physical toll on us. Led by our MVP point guard, we managed to snatch the lead from them and kept it until the end of the game. As the final buzzer sounded, the sigh of relief, joy, and jubilation were all written on our faces. Because after the previous disappointing seasons of not making it, we finally did it!”
Landing on the next spot were the ClasG Gray Falcons and winning as the second runner-up were the Yellow Mighty Ducks team.
The prominent players were also recognised during the event. The Mythical 5 were composed of Enrico Acosta, Michael Gomez, Lester Gersani, Reginald Macapagal, and Tom Malit. The Best Center award was given to Joachim Gomez; Ryan Danganan was recognised as the Best Point Guard; the Most Valuable Player of the season was Michael Gomez from the Digital Central Tamaraws.
Ernst Cup is something that Cloudstaffers look forward to every year, and quoting Noel, “It keeps getting tougher and tougher as teams add new players into their rosters.”
Truly, it has been an integral part of our company events because it gives staff an opportunity to connect to fellow Cloudstaffers through basketball. It’s also a way to remind ourselves that great things come from hard work partnered with the strength to endure.
Ernst Cup might just be a game, but it surely made a difference.
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