At the first edition of this event in the TV studios of ABS CBN in Quezon City, Manila / PHI, the Team Philippines with Efren ’Bata’ Reyes, Francisco ’Django’ Bustamante, Antonio ’Nikoy’ Lining and Warren Kiamco met the Team Europa with Mika ’The Iceman’ Immonen (FIN), Marcus ’Napoleon’ Chamat (SWE), Niels ’The Terminator’ Feijen (NED) and Ralf ’The Kaiser’ Souquet (GER). The game was 9-Ball in races to 7 – the format was each player from the Philippines versus each player from Europe. The two best players of each team were qualified for the semi-finals to determine the individual winner of this tournament.

After a 3-1 lead of Team Europe during the first day, the host team could equal the score during the second day (6-6). On day three, the team competition could already had been decided, but the suspense remained intact. Only the spots for the semi-finals for the individual competition were determined. On the host side, E. Reyes (4-0) qualified before W. Kiamco (2-2), who surprisingly managed to leave F. Bustamante (2-2) behind. On the European side, the group winner was M. Immonen (3-1) before R. Souquet (2-2). The team competition on day three was at a score of 9-7 for the Philippines and Team Europe needed to win both semi-finals. This was achieved in a very impressive way. Immonen defeated Kiamco 11-7 and Souquet managed a 11-6 success over the popular local hero E. Reyes. After the defeat of Reyes, the audience was stunned. Their absolute no. 1 only played the “small final” for the third rank and all newspapers and TV stations were shocked. Team Europe had equalled at 9-9 and due to the European final, automatically won the team competition 10-9. After the win of the Mosconi Cup in December 2002, this was another major success for Team Europe.

In the small final for the third rank, Reyes won clearly 11-5 against his country fellowman Kiamco. The final was to become a nerve-wrecking fight for both the players and the audience. Neither Immonen nor Souquet committed too many mistakes and the match went back and forth until the score of 11-11. A scratched break offered the opportunity to the Finn to take the 12-11 lead. In the next rack, both players committed on mistake each and Souquet could equal at 12-12. In the decisive 25^th rack, 3 balls were pocketed at the break and the rack was open to be run out by Souquet. But an unbelievable position error on the 3 ball made all hopes vanish. A successful massé shot made this hope come back, but only for short. The following jump shot on the 4 ball was totally missed and Immonen had ball-in-hand with four balls remaining on the table – he didn’t let the victory slip between his hands. Promoter and co-sponsor Aristeo P. Puyat talked about a memorable final which did not deserve a loser, but, as usual in sports, there can only be one winner.

In spite of the very bitter defeat and another missed attempt to win a tournament in Asia, I certainly won many new fans in the Philippines and I am already looking forward to my next year’s appearance in this billiard mad country.