Unexpected team pulls off big event; the Ateneo Cup is born.
A Mobile Legends tournament was not an unfamiliar sight to the Ateneo Hearters, but the Ateneo Cup was something new, something big.
Back in December, the Ignatian Servant Leaders Council gave a daunting task to each and every organization to come up with a way to raise funds for the upcoming GradBall for the graduating Grade 12 students.
There, a strange but synergetic collaboration was made between the Sacred Heart School Esports Association (SEA) and the Knights of Loyola (KOL) as they pushed for a Mobile Legends Tournament, open to all.
But this idea of a huge tournament never came to fruition. With the Corona Virus spreading far and wide, the school could not afford to open the gates of the school to strangers from wherever. The protection of the students came first.
This setback did not stop the leaders of the two organizations though. Christian Omandam of SEA and Marc Salomon of KOL fought hard to hold a tournament and raise funds no matter what.
Meeting after meeting was held and members from both organizations racked their minds as to what was the next best alternative.
True enough, an idea was born: An All-Star Mobile Legends Tournament for the different houses of the Senior High School: Faber, Loyola, and Xavier.
From there, members from the collaborating organizations scrambled to make the necessary preparations for the upcoming event.
On February 21, history was made as the Ateneo Cup took place in the Virginia Chiongbian Theater. The venue was packed with students from both Junior and Senior High attending the event as a result of their shared love for Mobile Legends.
The event itself did justice to the amount of people who attended the event. The matches between the houses were heated, only to be ignited further by the bombastic commentators John Ungab and Victor Revilla.
The cries of the commentators coupled with the screams from the audience allowed for the energy of the event to go through the roof, a testament to its success.
In the end, House Faber claimed victory as they defeated both House Loyola and House Xavier. The Php 9000 prize pool was shared proportionally among the three houses.
The Ateneo Cup was an event born of a strange combination of organizations, but it was one of those weird pairings that one would think would be bad but is actually quite good. It was through the passion of the members of both the organizations in the preparation and execution of this event that contributed to its success. Without said passion, an event as successful as the Ateneo Cup would not have come to be.
