Super Cup champ to pocket P.5 million bounty

CEBU, Philippines —  Hefty cash prizes will be given away to the top performing teams of the inaugural Pilipinas Vismin Super Cup set to take off on April 9 in a bubble set-up under strict health and safety protocols.

Vismin Super Cup head of basketball operations Rocky Enghuat Chan announced in a virtual meeting via Zoom recently that the grand champion will pocket half a million pesos, a specially-crafted trophy, and free participation fee for the league’s next confererence. The runner-up will receive P100,000.

For their ground-breaking season, Chan said they target to hit a total lof 12 teams, six each for the Visayas and Mindanao division.

Each division will play in a double round robin elimination, with the top seeds gaining outright seats to the semifinals. Teams No.3 and No.4 will enjoy twice-to-beat incentives over teams No.6 and No.5, respectively. The winners will proceed to the knockout semis. The division finals is a best-of-three series.

The division champions will then clash for the Super Cup Grand Finals, which is also a race-to-2 affair.

Secretary-general in charge of basketball operations coach Chelito ‘Marvin’ Caro said their tournament will run for at least 25 days, with Cebu set host the bubble play for the Visayas division and Zamboanga for Mindanao.

As of now, seven teams have already signified their intent to take part in the community-based cage league that primarily aims to discover talents and give opportunities to players in the provinces.

These are the KCS-Mandaue of Ricky Verdida, MJAS-Talisay, and Lapu-Lapu City for the Visayas, and the Zamboanga Valientes of Rolando “Junnie” Navarro, the Pagadian Explorers of Mayor Samuel Co and businessman-sportsman Rene “Dodong” Pamaran, and two Zamboanga del Norte municipalities in Sindangan of Sonny Diaz and President Manuel A. Roxas of Mayor Jan Hendrick Vallecer.

The league has already submitted the documents and requirements needed to become a professional league and is now awaiting action from the Games and Amusements Board (GAB) headed by chairman Baham Mitra.

Once approved, the Super Cup will make history as the first pro league based in the country’s southern provinces.