Recently, Matchroom revealed on their social media account the signing of the whole team of Marboys. The players included are Carlo Biado, Johann Chua, James Aranas, Jeffrey Ignacio, Bernie Regalario, Kyle Amoroto, Marvin Asis and Jeffrey Roda. These are eight of the current and future stars of the Philippines, Regalario being the youngest at 19 and Biado the oldest at 40. These names will become constant fixtures in all Matchroom events and will be representing the Philippines in international tournaments bar visa issues. As some fans aptly put, they will be Philippine Invasion 2.0 as homage to the original Filipino invasion in the American pool scene in the 80s and 90s which was led by Efren Reyes and Jose Parica.

As exciting as this news has been, we cannot help but wonder what more can we get from this team signing. Certainly, pool is an individual sport but what if we make it a team sport at the same time? Think of Mosconi Cup but bigger. And instead of it being country representation only, how about making it club representation? The Philippines does not only have the Marboys Billiard Club, it also has other pool halls. You have The Bull sports bar and 3Cushions sports bar for example. Vietnam has the Peri Pool team and a great number of pool clubs all over their country too. We have seen the beautiful pool halls in Indonesia like the Carabao pool hall and Mantra pool hall during the two week stretch of competition in that country. Aside from Asia, there are great pool clubs in the US and Europe too that can host their own team as well.

Team competition can go side by side with individual tournaments. It will add more value and entertainment to the WNT tournament calendar. Imagine 5 on 5 short Mosconi-type tourneys and home and away events. Mosconi is already the most commercially successful pool event every year and with Matchroom at the helm, there’s a pretty good chance for a successful team/club tournament.