The Chooks World Tour set to commence in Doha

Pasig Chooks and Balanga Chooks together with Philippine Ambassador to Doha H.E. Alan L. Timbayan

The Chooks World Tour has its first stop, bringing back the Philippines into the FIBA 3x3 World Tour Masters in Doha, and Bounty Agro Ventures, Inc. boss Ronald Mascarinas believes in what the country can do in the competition.

"Having been with these guys since February, I honestly believe that our players have superior skills. However, we need to play disciplined and smart basketball with no individualism at all," said the sports patron. "If they do this, I am confident that we can come out on top in Doha."

And the country is ready, sending its top two teams in the Chooks Pilipinas 3x3 to participate in this two-day tournament.

Pasig Grindhouse is rebranded as Pasig Chooks for this tournament, which they earned by topping the Chooks Pilipinas 3x3 tournament back on April 7. They are composed of the quartet of Joshua Munzon and Taylor Statham, joined by a couple of reinforcements in Nikola Pavlovic and the newly-acquired Angelo Tsagarakis.

Pasig's campaign starts at 1050pm against host side Katara, which features Qatari youth 3x3 standout Bobo Magassa. They then follow that with a matchup against the top-ranked 3x3 team in the world, Liman, although the Serb side will not have the 2nd-best 3x3 player in the world in Stefan Stojacic.

The Kings are joined by their friendly rivals, the Bataan Risers, who as 1Bataan Risers made it to the finals of the Chooks-to-Go 3x3 Asia-Pacific Super Quest. The Risers will be known as Balanga Chooks for this tournament. They are retaining the quartet that participated in the Super Quest: stalwarts Alvin Pasaol and Leonard Santillan, Vigan Baluarte's Karl Dehesa, and newcomer Travis Franklin.

Balanga is scheduled to face Wuxi Challenger champions Riga at 950pm, followed by their matchup against Moscow Inatomo at 1135pm.

Chooks Pilipinas 3x3 league commissioner Eric Altamirano believes both teams are more than ready to test their mettle against some of the world's best in 3x3 basketball.

He shares, "Given the short time of preparation, I was surprised with how intense and how focused the players are. They were so intense that there was a lot of frustrations shown and some flare-ups. We expected that because they want to win and they really want to have a good representation for the country in the World Tour."

Altamirano also gave his thoughts about the opposition Pasig and Balanga will be facing in the tournament.

For Pasig, he says, "We know that Liman is one of the top teams in the world but we don't know anything about Katara. They're the host country. That is the one thing they will have going for them, the support of the home crowd. But we are also hoping that we get the support of the local Pinoys there."

For Balanga, Eric adds, "Those are two tough assignments. But what I like about Bataan is yung puso nila. They never back down. They seem to be the underdog but they don't show it. They never give up."

In the other two groups, Pool B will have the second-ranked team in 3x3 in Novi Sad, Super Quest champions Tokyo Dime.EXE, and host squad Doha. Pool D will have the two Slovenian sides, Piran and Ljubljana, as well as University of McGill-Mount Royal of Canada.

Only the top two of each group will advance at the knockout rounds the next day.

The Doha Masters champion will take home $30,000, while the first-runner up nets $20,000. Top five finishers will receive $12,000, $8,000, and $5,000 respectively.

Aside from the main competition, there is a shootout contest with $5,000 at stake, and David Carlos is set to participate in the dunk contest on Day 2.