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Neves rules Battle of the Champions
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Posted on Oct 28 2011
By Roselyn Monroyo
Reporter
Reporter
Bryan Neves bested 15 other cue artists in the VFW Post 3457 Battle of the Champions 9-Ball Tournament held early this month at the VFW Post 3457 in Garapan.
Neves was undefeated in five games in the culmination of the four-month competition to claim the championship trophy and the top purse of $100.
A victory in the first round against Fred Robiego moved Neves in the next phase where he was pitted against Ron Chisato. Neves won his second match to advance to the winner’s bracket quarterfinals against Patrick Cepeda, who prevailed over Rico Montano and Erwin Gomez.
Neves notched his third straight triumph with a win over Cepeda and marched into the semifinals versus Rolly Villanueva. Villanueva made it to the winner’s bracket semis, following a string of victories over Taylor Watanabe, Robert Sanciangco, and Mark Butac. However, Villanueva’s run ended in the semis when Neves won their pairing to clinch the first finals berth.
Villanueva fell to the loser’s bracket and failed on his bid to barge into the championship game anew after bowing to Butac. Butac kept his hopes alive for the second and last championship slot after beating Watanabe. Next up for Butac was Cepeda, who ousted Montano in the other playoff pairing. Butac won his second game in the loser’s bracket after downing Cepeda and arranged a rematch against Villanueva for the last championship ticket.
Butac continued his recovery with a win over Villanueva, but settled for the runner-up honors and the $70 cash that went with it after falling to Neves in the finals. Villanueva and Cepeda ended up in third and fourth, respectively, and went home with $50 and $20.
Meanwhile, VFW Post 3457 has started another leg of Battle of Champions qualifiers last week with Jerry Soriano winning the first event.
Soriano prevailed over Cepeda in the finals after bowing to the same foe in the winner’s bracket semis. Soriano pocketed $35 for topping the first qualifier, while Cepeda got $20. The series of qualifiers will last for four months with the 16 weekly winners gaining slots to the Battle of Champions. Competition organizers would like to thank Pacific Amusement and Budweiser for supporting the tournament.
