Hot. Ask any of the players at 3X3 Masters Brussels about the tournament, and they’ll tell you it was hot. We’re not only talking about the weather here, the level of basketball was hot as well. And Brussels lived up to its status as ‘Capital of Europe’. Teams came in from all over Europe to play: Germany, Russia, The Netherlands and Poland among others.
No such international teams in the U13 and U15 categories though, as the local kids showed of their skills and let us know about how much talent is living in and around Brussels. One of those teams high on talent was Armenomy, losing only to Bavi Ballers in the pool phase, but making up for it in the finals, where they beat their rivals from Vilvoorde 12-10. In the U13 category, The nasty Ballers beat Shuffled to get that Bouncewear-coupon.
Part of that Shuffled-team was James Peeters, who showed off his shooting skills in the NBA 2K Shootout Competition. After knocking down 6 free throws (in 30 seconds) in the qualification round, he outdid himself, Andrej (from team Cleveland) & Marie (from team Dees Gurls) with 7 scores in the Final Round.
As always, it was no easy task to get all the way to the finals at 3X3 Masters Brussels. With 24 preregistered Mens teams – divided in 6 pools of 4 teams each – it was do-or-die from the start, leading to some early upsets in the tournament. One of those upsets was made in Pool D, where Puus finished up top, Bouncewear / Open Run Elite 2nd, kicking last years finalists K1X Ambassadors out of the competition.
On the positive side, Team Bronchart (average age 18 years) impressed us all and won over the crowd as they stranded in the semi-finals against Wild Snakes Poland in a close game full of highlight plays. Another young team doing great at 3X3 Masters Brussels: the girls of team ‘2 Hot 2 Play Ball‘. They beat team Trap Queen after overtime to win the title in de 18+ Women category.
A lot of shooters entered the NBA 2K Shootout Competition in the afternoon, but only 3 made it to the Final Round: Terence (Nothing But Net), Hermes (Teameat) & Jérémy (We Dem Boyz). It looked like we would end up in a tie at the final round, until Jérémy knocked down the midcourt shot and then added 2 more to seal the deal. Jérémy took home his copy of NBA 2K15 with proud. Congrats!
The U18 Boys were divided into 2 pools, with 2 teams from each pool going through to the knockout phase. In those semi-finals, QQRT bested Playground Masters and Excelsior got the W against Teameat, propelling both teams into the U18 Boys Final. Both teams played against eachother in the pool phase, but unlike the previous game it was Excelsior who came away with the win in the finals.
It were 2 international teams who made it to the 18+ Men’s final: the Dutch guys from Bouncewear/Open Run Elite got the best of Wild Snakes Poland, beating them 6-10 to take home 1st place.
About an hour earlier, Sjoerd Van Vilsteren had taken the Dunk Champion crown. Let’s see if he can keep his crown at the 3X3 Masters Finals, where we expect him to participate also.
Nice one #dunkcontest #3x3masters
Posted by 3X3Masters on zaterdag 4 juli 2015
A whole lot of great teams played their way to the 3X3 Masters Finals, but no worries if you didn’t make it just yet. You still have 3 tournaments left to get your Golden Ticket: 11/7 in Kortrijk, 18/7 in Leuven & 24/7 in Antwerp.