THE Philippines is now ranked at 21 in the latest Fiba 3x3 Men’s World Rankings after the 2019 Chooks-to-Go season concluded last Sunday with the finals of the Magiting Cup.

Now holding 8,156,366 points, the Philippines now finds itself inside the top 24 that is qualified to play in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT), barely a month before the October 31 Fiba-imposed deadline to rack up points.

"All the hard work of our players, our team owners, our staff, and the federation has paid off," relayed Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas league owner Ronald Mascariñas.

This development is a far cry from the Philippines’ rank of 59 back at the start of the year. But ever since the league raised its curtains last February 16, the country's rankings steadily trended up.

The first-ever season of Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3x3 had three conferences, namely the President's Cup, the Patriot's Cup, and the Magiting Cup, all of which had level-seven tournament ratings with level-10 as the highest.

The country also hosted the world's first-ever Super Quest last April, a level eight tourney, and the country's first-ever Challenger tournament last September 7, a level nine event.

Moreover, the club teams from the league competed in a World Tour and multiple Challenger tournaments which included the Doha Masters and Challenger tournaments in Moscow, Haining, Poitiers, Xiongan, Sukhbaatar, and Kaohsiung.

The league is also home to 49 of the top 50 3x3 players in the country and almost 90 percent of the top 100.

Twenty teams will compete in the OQT for the last 4 slots to the Olympics. The three highest-ranked federations would qualify outright to the Olympics with Japan as the host country.

Though the Chooks 3x3 season has already concluded, Mascariñas and league commissioner Eric Altamirano is not stopping to rest on their laurels, with more 3x3 activities in the works next month to make sure that the country’s rank stays within the top 24 before the aforementioned deadline.

"We can't just wait and leave our fate to chance. We have to continue pushing until the goal is met," said Mascariñas. (SunStar Cebu)