The past month has been a renaissance of billiards, a gargantuan jump reminding the world that the best players on the planet are Filipino, male or female. Chezka Centeno battled Rubilen Amit for the Predator WPA Women’s 10-Ball championship (again). Django Bustamante leads a strong Team Asia to a dominating defense of the Reyes Cup against a powerhouse Team Rest of the World. Along the way, AJ Manas upended world No. 1 Fedor Gorst. Then all the stars gathered again for the ongoing Philippine Cup.
In November, the fourth season of the Amit Cup gets underway. After some tremendous struggles along the way, now there is an over-abundance of women pool players knocking on the door to get in.
‘In the beginning, we only had 24 players,’ recalls Amit Cup co-founder and tournament director Ren de Vera. ‘Now, there are so many inquiries, they’ve exceeded the maximum number for our chat group!’
To what do we owe this accelerated evolution? Perhaps it’s because there has been a change in perception. Gone are the days when billiards was considered purely the province of small, seedy, low-class dens of wrongdoing, where everyone smoked and drank, and it was generally unsafe. With the pioneering blaze set by Efren Reyes, Amang Parica, Bustamante and their generation, the sport has become respectable, a family affair even. Venues are bigger, better run and more wholesome.
‘There’s been a shift in the culture,’ explains De Vera. ‘Before, it was considered a place of vices, and women feared for their safety. Now, whole families go to play and make it a bonding experience. There are so many women who play for fun, and a lot of them even have their own pool cues.’
Wisely, event organizers also schedule tournaments consecutively, lowering the cost of traveling to and from tournaments. Most significantly, there is a culture of sharing, of teaching, of sharing wisdom, at a much higher level than found in other sports. And this transfer of technology is even more intense among women.
‘We now have three divisions, whereas before we only had one,’ Ren added. ‘Women players recruit others, and teach them. There is a sense of community, of being part of the sport’s growth. And Rubilen is hoping to organize events in the future where even the best women players will be able to compete here. They have something to look forward to now.’
It is true that Filipinos dominate billiards so much that it will likely never become an Olympic. And that’s okay. When you think about it, the next generations are well on their way to picking up where their predecessors are leaving off, and will continue to kick the world’s collective butt. The future is already here. And whether they admit it or not, the rest of the world is quaking in their boots.