ANONG RITUAL MO? BitPinas Interviews Axie Open Manila Winners: Spamandrice, Martinsuuuu

The Axie Open Manila 2022 (AOM22), which is part of the recently held Philippine Web3 Festival, concluded with a total cash prize of around ₱7 million for the winners among the 256 players who joined.

Spamandrice of Qu3st, the tournament champion, brought home ₱1.5 million after winning against his guildmate Zaratustra. While the third placer was Martinsuuuu of JMWildcards.

Check out the BitPinas event thread of Axie Open Manila here.

Interview: Spamandrice

In an interview with BitPinas, Spamandrice revealed his preparations and rituals before joining the tournament: 

“Lots of coffee, lots of prayers, and overall practicing with my teammates at one night, and spending the whole season playing, experimenting what’s wrong, what’s right and bringing a really good line up.”

While Martinsuuuu emphasized that the key to surviving this day-long tournament is to have a strong body resistance against pressure, nervousness, and tiredness: 

“Proper healthy lifestyle. ‘Wag magpuyat, at ‘wag masyadong mag-overthink, focus sa game at ‘wag kabahan.”

[“Proper healthy lifestyle. Do not stay up late, sleep early, and do not overthink the situation. Just focus on the game and do not let nervous eat you.”]

Spamandrice admitted that all the players showed excellent performance and gameplay, and thought he was just the luckiest one to get the trophy.

“If you’re a beginner, you can do anything the same (as I did), just put (in) time. My whole life has been dedicated to (playing) Axie (Infinity), like every single day, a lot of my time is spent playing it,” he advised the beginners. 

Spamandrice was also a Top 8 player in the recently concluded Axie Cabanatuan LAN tournament. 

And when asked, where will he spend his tournament prize? Spamandrice answered, “You know, Axie makes me truly happy, I don’t need materialistic things I wanna keep playing I wanna keep enjoying the game I’ll go shopping in the marketplace later.”

Inteview: Martinsuuuu

Meanwhile, Martinsuuuu, who celebrated his birthday a day prior to the tournament, was the lone Filipino left for the AOM22 Top 8 players. 

His story in getting the third place was so wholesome. It is after his competitor, Elahzul of MMG, surrendered during the fourth game, which made Martinsuuu win for the best of 5 series. 

Elahzul, after surrendering, expressed his wishes to Martinsuuuu saying: “Happy birthday, Martin. This is my gift for you.“

Being the last Filipino standing in the tournament, Martinsuuuu acknowledged that there was no disadvantage to the Filipino players during the AOM22:

“For me, wala, kasi originally, (sa) Axie (Origins), talagang nagco-compete kami sa mga leaderboard ranking. Nagkataon lang din talaga na yung mga Pilipinong kasali rin felt short, got unlucky din, kaya natalo sila at nalaglag.”

[“For me, there was no disadvantage. In Axie Origins, it is the Filipinos that really compete in the leaderboard ranking. It is just that the Filipinos who joined this tournament felt short and got unlucky, which is why they did not win.”]

Axie Open Manila 2022 is the first Axie tournament that Martinsuuuu joined. Which, according to him, became an advantage fbecause his competitors did not know his playstyle and techniques to counter.

The third-placer extended his wish for the game developers to further improve the rage comp, saying that by the “(sa) end ng season ng era, ‘yung mga rage comp (sana yung mabago). (It is time to) start to experience new things, ‘wag nang paulit-ulit. As you can see in the tournament, medyo paulit-ulit yung mga laban, halos pare-pareho ng comp.”

[“After the end of the season, I hope that the rage comp will be upgraded. It is time to start experiencing new things, so that last season’s experience will not be repeated. As you can see on the tournament, the games are quite similar to each other, almost the same comp for each player.”

In his closing remarks, Sky Mavis Co-Founder Jeffrey Zirlin, also nicknamed  “Papa Jihoz” by Filipinos (a reference to “Papa Jesus,” who always hears their prayers), thanked the Filipino Axie Community for their support of the NFT game.

“The energy here in the Philippines is amazing. We all know that Axie and the Philippines are inexplicably linked, we grew up together. The energy from the community is super strong, it’s been a hard time for the crypto (and) web3 space recently but, being honest, being here really allows us to push forward and gain that strength that we need,” Jihoz concluded.

To end this article, here are the messages of SpamAndRice and Martinsuuuu to the Filipino Axie Community:

“To everyone in the Axie Community, thank you so much for all the support. Whether you support me or you don’t. It gives me energy im just so grateful for you guys in this community.” – Spamandrice

“Yung message ko sa mga gustong mag-start (maglaro) ng Axie, do your own research. If you don’t have enough money, try to apply to a guild, to a team, or to a person or manager who can afford to buy Axies to help you contribute to the game and also earn while playing.” – Martinsuuuu

[“To those who want to start playing Axie, please do your own research. If you do not have enough money, try to apply to a guild, to a team, or to a person or manager who can afford to buy Axies to help you contribute to the game and also earn while playing.”]

This article is published on BitPinas: Interview: Axie Open Manila’s Spamandrice and Martinsuuuu

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