After failing in his mission to bring the World Cup of Pool back to the Philippines and taking much of the blame for it, world no.1 Dennis Orcollo vowed to bounce back and resume his winning ways to reap more honors for the country.
His next target: the 2008 Guinness 9-Ball Tour Grand Finals on October 24 to 26 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
“I'm very disappointed that we weren't able to fulfill our mission of winning the World Cup, and I blame myself for it,” said Orcollo, who made a couple of unforced errors that doomed his and teammate Francisco “Django” Bustamante's bid as they succumbed to a 9-6 defeat against the eventual champion American pair of Shane Van Boening and Rodney Morris in the semifinals of the event held in Rotterdam, Holland.
“With that, I promise to improve my game even more and I'll do my best to win more titles for our country,” added the 29-year-old stalwart of the star-studded Bugsy Promotions of businessman Perry Mariano.
Orcollo has so far won four major titles this year – the 2008 Quezon City 9-Ball Championship, the All-Japan Open, the Qatar International 9-Ball Open and the Guinness Tour leg in Guangzhou, China – to more than validate his tag as the world's best cue artist today.
After the Guinness finale, he will join forces with seven other top Filipinos pool masters in going up against a group of topnotch international players in the Q.C. Invasion: Quezon City-Philippines vs the World Grand Billiards Showdown slated on December 2 to 4 at the Trinoma Mall.
There, he and Bustamante will have a chance to exact revenge against their World Cup tormentor, in particular, Morris who is part of the Team World in the event organized by Quezon City Council Majority Leader Ariel Inton and supported by the Quezon City government led by Mayor Sonny Belmonte and Senate President Manny Villar's Villards: Tulong sa Pagsulong ng Philippine Sports.
Besides Orcollo and Bustamante, the other members of the Team Quezon-City Philippines are former world champions Efren “Bata” Reyes, Alex Pagulayan and Ronnie Alcano, as well as 2007 World Pool runner-up Roberto Gomez, and former Southeast Asian Games multi-gold medalists Lee Van Corteza and Warren Kiamco.
Also bannering the international selection are former world champions Mika Immonen of Finland and Thorsten Hohmann of Germany.
The Q.C. Invasion is also supported by the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines (BMPAP), the Quezon City Tourism Council, Puyat Sports, Bugsy Promotions and the Negros Billiards Stable..
