Power-Up versus Strykers in finals

Power-Up and the Strykers will meet for the championship of the 2020 Rocball tournament today at the Marianas High School Gymnasium in Susupe. (Contributed Photo)

The 2020 championship for the CNMI’s indigenous sport of Rocball would be played between Power-Up and the Strykers today at the Marianas High School Gymnasium in Susupe.

Strykers advanced to the best-of-five Micronesia Rocball Championship against Power-Up after beating previously undefeated Laly Four in the semifinals, 2-1.

The Aces came very close to knocking Power-Up out of the championship series in their third game loss by 42-41. Power-Up had to come from behind in Rocball’s quarter/set system to win the game and forge the championship matchup against Strykers. The score was Power-Up 2, The Aces 1.

In the semifinals of this year’s championship games, the Strykers edged out Laly Four in 2-point serves, 22-21, as neither team scored a backcourt 2-point play and the Strykers outscored Laly Four in 3-point goals, 7-5. Both of these teams were scunked in the semifinals or lost a set with zero points scored. The Strykers scunked Laly Four twice and The Aces scunked Power-Up once.

The Rocball championship games will be held in the MHS Gym starting today, Jan. 21. The staring time for the games will be at 11:45am until 12:30pm and possibly longer.

Strykers are made up of Isaac Balbin, Raylyn, Ian Kaniki, Lawerence Laniyo, Rotsed Fabian, Kirro Williams, Melvin Menchor, and Able Amu. Power-Up players, meanwhile, are Jerico Castro, Wency Castillo, Madellen Narciso, Nilo Calimay, Ariel Moises, Futima Monterubio, Jasper Perez, and Daniel Park.

Teams that include a girl on court to play are allowed six players. Teams that don’t have a girl playing are only allowed five players, according to Rocball founder James Feger.

He’s calling it the Micronesia Rocball Championship “because there are a lot of players from the different island nations in Micronesia playing on the different teams.”

This year’s 2020 Rocball tournament had 10 teams and they played in a round-robin, three-game elimination system. A team that lost three games was eliminated. The names of the teams were GTA (Get That Ace), Strykers, The Aces, Power-Up, Infinity War, WBI (We Beat It), Wanpipty, Riot, Laly Four, and Play 5. The semifinals started two weeks ago and ended last Wednesday. Power-Up won 2 out of 3 against the Aces and the Strykers won 2 out of 3 against Laly Four.