Filbasket goes international with Malaysia pocket tiff

ANTIPOLO — Filipino hoops league Filbasket is set to go international as they hold the Filbasket International Championship - Malaysia 2022 tipping off Sunday.

Presented by Sportsclick, the tiff will feature 10 teams from the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei in a week-long contest to be held at the Stadium Bola Keranjang, also known as the MABA Stadium in Kuala Lumpur.

Kuala Lumpur Aseel, who participated in Filbasket's most recent tournament, enjoy home court advantage with fellow Malaysian teams Harimau Malaysia and MBC Basketball Club.

The Philippines will be represented by the Pilipinas Aguilas, BGC Builders and the Makabayan Warriors.

KL Aseel's participation in Filbasket earlier this year, according to league founder and CEO Jai Reyes, played a big role in pushing Filbasket to go outside of the Philippines.

"Well, after our first two tournaments locally, we really saw KL Aseel who was carrying their national team players, really saw an opportunity overseas. We had a lot of invites of our teams there, they wanted to join." said Reyes.

Other teams include Indonesia's Bumi Borneo and Elang Pacific Caesar, Singapore's Adroit Sports Association and Pegasus Brunei from Brunei.

The format of the pocket tournament will group the 10 teams into two pools of five teams that will go head-to-head in a single round robin.

The two top teams from each group will meet in a one game semifinals on October 29 and then a championship game on the 30th.

Losers of the semifinal will play in a third place game on the same day.

Meanwhile, teams who do not reach the semifinal round will meet in friendlies from October 28 to 30.

Filbasket is set to stream all the games live on their Facebook and YouTube assets.