Badminton Tournament Update

With images of myself making great plays constantly flashing in my dreams, it was hard to get any shut eye just the night before the tournament. I was up 6am and was gearing to go! This time I made sure I didn't forget to bring my shoes to the tournament site. Once, back in Cebu, I totally forgot to bring my shoes as I was expecting it to be inside the car already where I usually put it. But then I didn't realize that I took it out the night before to clean it and then forgot to store it back in the car. Hence, I had to go back to my apartment to get it, missing my first game, to the angst of my partner. Last Saturday though, no such incident happened. In fact, I was one of the earliest person in the site.

In day 1 of the tournament we were scheduled to play two games. One early in the morning and the next one the last match in the afternoon. We didn't like the schedule at all as we would be spending most of the day waiting! I could have gone to school for my classes and my partner could have gone back to work. Well, in between games, we contented ourselves with watching our friends' games instead.

Battling through the cheap shuttles the organizers made us play with, we managed to score 21 points before losing to our opponents 30-21. It was a disappointing start. However, after having eaten a big serving of spaghetti for lunch and then another bowl of gulami (beef stew with beef strips and noodles) for snacks, we found renewed energy to beat the team from Bukidnon 30-25 in our last match for the day. We we're losing hope to enter the semi-final round as the team that beat us were 3-0 up already, not losing a single game still, and only the top team per bracket gets to qualify. We still have two games to go the following day though, so we thought why not just go the next day and continue playing anyway.

Day 2 started on time as well. It was interesting to see that there were now only half the people there compared to day 1. Well, I guess, most of those who have lost hope went home and decided not to come back anymore. Well, as for us, we stayed for our games and followed the games of the varsity players and the legends like Ronald Damiel and Melvin Llanes. And another interesting match to look forward to was the match between the team that beat us (another team from Davao) and the Bukidnon team that my partner and I beat. The Bukidnon team needs to win this match to force a tie with the Davao team in order to qualify in our bracket. Also, if the Bukidnon team wins and my partner and I win our remaining games, we would force a triple tie in our bracket.

In an exciting match, the Bukidnon team beats the other Davao team comfortably. Which made my partner and I ponder as to why we lost to that team at all! Well, everyone's thinking at this time that it would be the Bukidnon team that would qualify by a win-over-the-other system and I would have been left with a consolation that we were the only team to beat the qualifying team. However, by a stroke of luck and by an unconventional point system method, one of our remaining opponents decided to default out and give us the match, sending our points way over the other 2 teams! Yes! We qualify! We're back on track and on our route to the semi-final round! (^o^)/

In the semi-finals, we face another out of town team. This time we were outclassed and lost the match in 2 straight sets. As a consolation, our opponents went on to win the tournament. If only we got to play any of the other 2 teams from Davao who qualified in the semi-finals, we would have had a better fighting chance. There was no price for 3rd place so the game to break the tie between the semi-final round losers was no longer played. That would have been an interesting match just to see how we would fair with the other team.

Sometimes, talent alone will not get you the trophy, you need a considerable amount of luck as well. hehehe (^o^)/ Well, on to our next tournament ...

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