MANILA, Philippines — In order to motivate the players and take their preseason league a little more seriously, the Shakey's Super League (SSL) Unity Cup is offering a P1 million cash prize for the eventual champ.
The runner-up will bag P600,000 while the third-place team will pocket P300,000 in the 17-team field tournament which begins on September 25.
The other playing dates are September 26, 27; October 9, 10, 11, 23, 24, 25, and November 6, 7, 8 13, 14, 15, 20, 22, 29, and December 4 (if necessary).
"How else can we make it more exciting," SPAVI President and CEO Vic Gregorio said during the tournament launch at the Shakey's Quezon Avenue branch Wednesday.
"How can we help more, how can we excite the team, the efforts of the schools. Let’s just make sure we do it right. We do give the best benefit we can to our stakeholders. But we have to abide with regulations and we have to be always fair in our operations and execution of the league
"This is to make sure that the schools will have an extra motivation, motivation to give it their best to take this pre-season tournament even more seriously and we believe the amounts that we just shared should be able to provide some support and help to their programs or to maybe have fun with your celebrate with your teams."
Five-peat seeking NU Lady Bulldogs are the favorites to win the title and that P1 million especially with their fiercest rivals De La Salle Lady Spikers not competing in the other tournament.
NU is in Pool A with San Beda University, Arellano University, University of Perpetual Help and NCAA champion Colegio de San Juan de Letran.
Newly crowned SSL National Invitationals champion and last year’s Unity Cup runner-up University of Santo Tomas, College of Saint Benilde, Jose Rizal University and Mapua University are bunched in Pool B.
Pool C is composed of Far Eastern University, Ateneo De Manila University, Emilio Aguinaldo College and San Sebastian College-Recoletos while Adamson University, University of the Philippines, Lyceum University of the Philippines and University of the East, which makes a comeback after skipping last year’s edition, are in Pool D.
The top two teams of each pool will advance to the next round, where they will be divided into two groups for another round-robin play.
Points earned by each team in the preliminary will be added to the round to determine their rankings in the quarterfinals.
The top two-ranked squads after the round will have a twice-to-beat advantage in the crossover quarterfinals.
Both the semifinals and battle for bronze are knockout affairs, while the championship is a best-of-three series.
The tournament’s unique all-to-play format is still in effect, where all players on each team’s game roster must see action.
