Team Rest of World Secure First Ever Victory at Roobet Reyes Cup

This year's Roobet Reyes Cup was a whirlwind four days of nineball. There was some fantastic pool on display, in particular from MVP Francisco "El Ferrari" Sánchez Ruiz, who hardly missed a shot.

The crowd brought the energy to the Makati Coliseum from the start, cheering on every rack. But it was not to be for the home fans, and Team Rest of World (ROW) secured their first ever Roobet Reyes Cup win in style.

Without further delay, here is a wrap-up of what happened over the week.

Day 1

Two matches into the opening day of the Roobet Reyes Cup, the tournament appeared to be following the same script as last year's competition.

Team Asia surged into a 2-0 lead, helped by Albert "The Giant Killer" Januarta's golden break in the team match before Carlo "Black Tiger" Biado and Robbie "The Sniper" Capito produced a dominant display to beat Joshua "The Killer" Filler and Aleksa Pecelj 5-1.

But Team ROW responded strongly. Francisco Sánchez Ruiz crushed Duong "The Martian" Quoc Hoang before the Mosconi Cup pairing of Fedor "The Ghost" Gorst and Shane "South Dakota Kid" Van Boening commanded an easy victory against the young pair of AJ "Starboy" Manas and Albert Januarta.

By the end of Day 1, the scores were level, but the standard and energy had been set for the rest of the tournament.

Day 2

Buoyed by home crowd support, Team Asia went 3-1 up in the team match. But an imperfect jump shot from Robbie Capito gave Aleksa Pecelj an opening, which he converted to win the rack. Everything then fell into place for Team ROW, wrapping up the first game of the night 5-3.

From that point on, almost everything went Team ROW's way, despite the Filipino world champion Biado beating American legend Van Boening 5-3.

Filler beat Capito 5-3 in a messy singles match and Gorst and Pecelj defeated AJ Manas and Duong 5-3. Ruiz and Filler narrowly slipped past Capito and Januarta 5-4 in a tightly fought thriller.

By the end of the evening, Team ROW were 6-3 up and found themselves ahead of Team Asia for the first time ever in the Roobet Reyes Cup.

Day 3

Anticipation was high on Day 3 of the Roobet Reyes Cup in Manila. Would Team Asia regain lost ground, or would Team ROW's winning momentum continue?

As on Day 2, Team Asia took an early 2-0 lead in the team match. But Team ROW remained composed, clawing their way back to win 5-3. Fedor Gorst carried that momentum into the second match of the night, producing a clinical performance to sweep past Indonesia's Januarta 5-1.

Team Asia then fought back in the next match. With the score tied at 3–3, Biado played the red ball onto the nineball, nicknamed the "bumblebee", to put Team Asia 4–3 ahead. Januarta then made amends for an earlier slip-up with his second golden break of the tournament, sealing a 5–3 win and narrowing Team ROW's overall lead to 8–4.

It looked as though Team Asia were back in the contest, and the Manila crowd went wild as Biado and Januarta danced to celebrate their victory.

But Team ROW's quality shone through again in the final match of the evening. Serbian debutant Aleksa Pecelj easily dispatched teenage star AJ Manas 5-1, who was far from his MVP form that impressed fans last year.

Finishing off the third day at 9-4 up, Team ROW looked increasingly confident that the Reyes Cup was theirs to win.

Day 4

History was made on Day 4 of the Roobet Reyes Cup, but the final team match was a scrappy affair.

Sánchez Ruiz made light work of Capito, while Januarta breezed past Van Boening. Next, the world champion Biado did not give Filler an opportunity at the table. At 2-1 to Team Asia, the evening could have gone a very different way, but it was not to be.

Gorst beat Manas before Pecelj overcame Duong in the most tense rack of the match. Sánchez Ruiz was flawless off the break, denying Capito a single shot, and Van Boening lost to Januarta in a messy rack.

Filler then came through another scrappy rack, playing onto the bumblebee to seal the match and spark huge celebrations from Team ROW. They knew victory was in sight.

But even amid the tension, captains Ralf Souquet and Django Bustamante were smiling and chatting with each other, a reminder of the close relationships shared by competitors on the WNT.

With victory now close, Van Boening and Sánchez Ruiz lined up against Capito and Duong in the final match of the day.

Team ROW hardly missed a shot, while Team Asia were far from their best. While Capito and Duong looked dejected, Sánchez Ruiz stepped up to pot the bumblebee, sealing the match and an historic first Roobet Reyes Cup victory for Team ROW.

The Roobet Reyes Cup

What a tournament. Some of the finest pool was played by some of the best players in the world, brought to fans by WNT, title sponsor Roobet, the online crypto casino, and broadcast to the world by ESPN.

While competition was fierce and both sides played quality pool, Team ROW were clearly the stronger side.

This is only the Reyes Cup's third year, but with the WNT team at the helm and supported by Roobet, it is only getting bigger and better. Congratulations to Team ROW for their first Reyes Cup victory.