SEPTEM B ER - OCTOB ER 2016
KI E FE R RAVE NA
S CO U T M AG . P H
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CONTENTS 4
p r o f i l e p a t hra c a dness
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f o o d game day snacks
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profile the alliance e ss a y b o ard games
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m u s i c t o m’s s t o r y
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essay north vs. south
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food vegan food
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scene scout summer camp
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music pump -up playlist
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profile ateneo lady eagles
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ar t + d esign motivation
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o n t h e c ove r je ro n t e n g
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o n t h e c ove r kie fe r rave na
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m a r ke t we ar your pride
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humor comic
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w e ’r e s e e i n g d o u b l e ! You on Team Kiefer or Team Jeron? Pick a side and post a photo on Instagram with the Scout cover you like. Use the hashtags #KieferForScout or #JeronForScout and tag us!
w w w. scoutmag .ph GROUP
PUBLISHER
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IN
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CHIEF
ASSISTANTS
EDITOR
BEA J. LEDESMA ROMEO MORAN Nimu Muallam Grace de Luna Lex Celera Denise Fernandez Patricia Romualdez
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Kristine Crouch, Franco Antonio Regalado, Stan Sy
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
Koji Arboleda, Cru Camara, Rxandy Capinpin, RG Medestomas, Artu Nepomuceno, Patrick Segovia, Tristan Tamayo
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Danielle Chuatico, Martin Diegor
CONTRIBUTING STYLISTS
Vince Crisostomo, JL Crespo, Ryuji Shiomitsu
INTERNS
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Ria Francisco-Prieto
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Alexandra Prieto-Romualdez
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HINGE INQUIRER PUBLICATIONS
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J. Ferdinand De Luzuriaga
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Atty. Rudyard Arbolado
V P/ G R O U P H R H E A D
Raymund Soberano
VP & C HIEF STR ATEGY OFFIC ER
Imelda C. Alcantara
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Chuchi A. Gracia
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Ma. Leonisa L. Gabrieles
HR A SSISTANT
Reynalyn S. Fernandez
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Jullia Pecayo
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Felipe R. Olarte
AV P FO R SA L E S
Ma. Katrina Garcia-Dalusong
KEY ACCOUNTS SPECIALIST
Angelita Tan-Ibañez
SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Thea Ordiales, Abby Ginaga
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Charm Banzuelo, Andie Zuñiga, Sarah Cabalatungan, Liza Jison, Hiromi Jurado
SALES SUPPORT A SSISTANTS
Rechelle Endozo, Mara Karen Aliasas
MARKETING & EVENTS MANAGER
Jellic Tapia
EVENTS SUPERVISOR
Bianca Dalumpines
M ARKETING A SSISTANT
Erle Mamawal
EVENTS A SSISTANTS
Kim Mariano, Merjorie May Young
MARKETING GRAPHIC ARTISTS
Janine Dela Cuesta, Roi De Castro
BUSINESS & DISTRIBUTION MANAGER
Rina Lareza
C IRCUL ATION SUPERVISOR
Vince Oliquiano
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Jan Cariquitan
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Kristine Paz
INQUIRER GROUP OF COMPANIES
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Photography by KOJI ARBOLEDA Styling by VINCE CRISOSTOMO Grooming by BULLET REYES Video by PETERSEN VARGAS
this month on
If you’re not following our site Scoutmag.ph religiously, then why are we even friends? Check out more of Kiefer and Jeron online. BEHIND THE SCENES OF OUR COVER SHOOTS One was a chill rainy weekend morning, and the other was a sizzling hot Friday. Fitting for the two opposites.
VIDEOS ON VIDEOS ON VIDEOS ON VIDEOS!!! We ask your favorite ballers important questions and make them stretch before we start shooting.
@scou t m a g p h s c o u t m a g p h @ g m a i l.c o m
9/2/16 6:47 PM
from the editors
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Le tte r fr o m the E d ito r It has been, at the time of this writing, a little over a week since Pokémon GO finally landed on our shores. Filipinos have waited too damn long for it—trust me, a month after the rest of the world got it is too damn long—and the craze caught on like a plague. (Or like wildfire? What’s the best cliché to use for society-wide crazes?) The hold Pokémon GO has on people is not a generational thing; because of how simple and accessible the game is, I’ve seen the usual kids playing the game (kids who were way too young to be familiar with the Generation I Pokemon they’re catching on their phones), the millennials who are the game’s target market, and even titos and titas keeping up with their young’ins. So the divide the game has spawned is not between age groups—rather, Pokémon GO clearly distinguishes between those who want to have fun and those who don’t want to have fun. And the capacity for outright fun is what separates the higher beings from the grinches in these bleak, trying times full of danger and death and sadness and plain old negativity. When you’ve got bodies falling all around you left and right for the wrongest reasons and your biggest annoyance is seeing people enjoying themselves catching virtual creatures superimposed on the real world via the magic of augmented reality, you really, really need to reassess your priorities in life. In fact, the world would probably be a better place if we were all in the business of fun and games. Playing, if you will. The real world isn’t such a magical place, but guys like Jeron Teng (p. 28) and Kiefer Ravena (p. 34) change the world by having some serious fun—you know, playing around with the highest of stakes. Jeron wants to give it all for his alma mater, while recent college graduate Kiefer wants to represent the country in international competition. They’re two completely different dimensions, but both play on the highest level. Or what about someone like Pathra Cadness (p. 4), who has fun for a living but also wants you to take her seriously as a gamer, because she is actually a good gamer? Or the Ateneo Lady Eagles of volleyball (p. 22), who could still find the fun in playing their sport after falling so short of the championship? I feel serious envy at only being a scribe for their more pleasurable pursuits in life—like why isn’t “games” on my resume and job description instead? On the real, though, don’t ever let anyone take away your fun, so long as you’re not hurting anyone. This world is getting madder and madder by the day, and while we still don’t have a solution to the big problems, the enjoyment you get from the little things is your most important tether to your precious, precious sanity. And if you’re part of the grouch team, lighten the f up. You were not put on this Earth to hate. Now off I go to catch another damn Pidgey.
p e pi m o ran EDITOR IN CHIEF
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When play and work are one and the same, professional gamer and streamer Pathra Cadness may as well have the best job in the world
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profile
LET’S ADMIT IT: being labeled a geek or a nerd isn’t as bad as it sounds nowadays. Talking about video games doesn’t sound like a foreign language anymore; it’s just a conversation. And the conversations about video games are becoming more and more common. You can thank mobile phones for bringing video games to the mainstream; the idea of casual gaming during coffee breaks is as appealing as it sounds. And where the people go, so does the money. The gaming industry is making bank in almost all of the ways you can look at it, from mobile gaming to eSports. Competitive players train like athletes to be the best at their chosen game, and also get paid like them. Gaming as entertainment has also given way to platforms where people can watch other people play video games. It’s like Mukbang (Korean eating broadcasts) but not weird. And yes, people can earn enough to buy a house with two cars just playing video games for show. But not a lot of people know that. Pathra Cadness does. She’s both streamer and competitive player—streamer being the kind of person that lets people watch her play and competitive player in the sense that she’s currently in the upper echelon of competitive players in the card strategy came called Hearthstone. All you need to know about the game is that it requires a bit of luck and a lot of skill to play, and she’s good at it. Catching the attention of video gaming titans like video game publisher Activision Blizzard and streaming platform Twitch (“I think they made me partner because I am [a popular streamer] in the Philippines”), she may or may not be the type to play video games for a living, depending on how you see her. She doesn’t put on any antics when she streams. “I play Hearthstone almost every day. Sometimes when I’m not streaming I get messages from my fans on Twitter begging me to stream and I give in. But I don’t mind. I love playing!” Pathra muses. She doesn’t put up any antics for her fans to notice her, although she rolls with the light-hearted wackiness of Twitch streams, memes and trolls and all. She uses her background in graphic design and animation to add a little bit of flavor to her streams, and her experience in modeling makes her comfortable in front of a camera. Popular streamers are either very entertaining or very good at the game they’re playing. Pathra is both. She’s easy on the eyes and hard on her opponents, and if you’re having a hard time believing a part-time model is spending hours on camera playing a high-fantasy strategic multiplayer card game, you better look at the world we live in. In reality, looking at the world we live in currently means looking at skewed perceptions of a career in video games and a lack of representation of women in the eSports industry, both of which Pathra is changing for the better. The Manila Major, a Dota 2 tournament hosted locally, had no female members from any of the teams in the qualifiers. Pathra notes that the lack of female representation in the eSports industry is really about putting in the work to get to a competitive level. “I don’t like the label ‘gamer girl.’ There’s no such thing as ‘gamer guy,’ so why call it that?” Despite slow internet speeds and personal hurdles coming her way, Pathra remains hopeful in elevating video gaming, streaming, and eSports for the local scene. She attributes her career as a streamer to her parents’ support, and hopes that people can locally find the enjoyment of watching someone play video games, or playing video games in front of an audience. In person, she beams a wide grin when she talks about video games, and she herself says she can talk about video games all day. Sometimes you don’t even have to put a word in to know that she’s passionate about what she does. You can just watch her on her stream, saying thank you to each person who subscribes to her channel and smiling after getting a kill on Overwatch. But it’s not just passion that got her to where she is today, it’s also discipline. There’s a concept in gaming called the metagame: it’s when you use information outside the game to affect your in-game decisions. The metagame changes as the game changes and becomes more balanced, and players find out what the metagame is to win. Taking games seriously may take the fun out of it for some, but becoming and staying competitive means taking it seriously. Pathra knows this. It is her job, after all. n
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“I don’t like the label ‘gamer girl.’ There’s no such thing as ‘gamer guy,’ so why call it that?”
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EVERYTHING starts with a dream. Clichéd as it may sound, it’s true. Hopes, dreams, and passion are only some of the many reasons on how local semi-professional dance team The Alliance was brought to life. It all started out with coaches JJ San Juan and Andrew Sha’s desire to make the dreams of their fellow dancers come true—to dance on the international stage and represent the Philippines. Founded in 2013, The Alliance is now one of the most sought after dance teams in the country. Fresh from their bronze podium finish at the varsity division of the recently concluded Hip-Hop International 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada, I sat down with some of their members, JC Calderon, Steffi Tolentino, Dan Delgado, Royce Resuello, JP Alcantara, Dae Rondilla, and Jamon Martin as they talked about the journey of the team, from local training grounds to dance stages all over the world. It was a stormy Saturday morning when I met the team. Some were new faces, some weren’t, as two of them were my former dance mates from another group. A long time ago, I was a dancer too. We were all gathered in the holding area preparing for the shoot, while we anxiously checked up on results of the semi-finals of HHI 2016, happening that very moment. They were praying for their teammates representing the varsity division of the championship. The shoot was a breeze. Just as they projected faces on video with those killer moves, they absolutely pulled it off on photograph too. I was mostly excited for the video part, as we made them dance to Drake’s Too Good. And while I watched them move, I was discreetly wiping tears from my eyes, for I was secretly wishing that I could be there, dancing like that again too. After the shoot, we sat down for the interview like friends coming together to catch up. I asked them where The Alliance is now, and how the journey has been ever since they started. “We can’t really say that we’re there yet. Our direction is ‘going there.’ It’s definitely not a golden road. We need to train every day to sync our movements, to put The Alliance personality in our members,” says Jamon Martin, The Alliance’s head of marketing and promotions. In a span of three years in the dance scene, The Alliance has bagged recognition from different dance competitions, locally and internationally. They have been competing in the prestigious stages of the World Hip-Hop Dance Championship, Hip-Hop International, and World of Dance. But all of these don’t just come naturally. It takes a whole lot of work to get to that level. “We do our best every day to improve, to learn and to adapt everything that we can. Dance-wise, life-wise, anything [that we can learn] outside our comfort zones,” Jamon tells me. The Alliance is an open dance team, meaning the members come from different schools, teams, and institutions. They were raised in dance in different cultures and practices, and as a team, they all help each other instill the personality of The Alliance in each and every member. “Every day, we’re learning. We’re improving,” JP Alcantara adds. They share that every single day is a two-way process. Everyone learns from each other. The leaders impose The Alliance personality on the members, while the members, coming from other teams, get to share who they are and where they come from. From there, they create something else, something improved. Struggles aren’t new to The Alliance. Before they can come up with beautiful dance routines, there are lots to go through first. “If we have a competition or any performance at all, the first thing we have to do is to train for it. We have to make new routines. So unang una naming ini-invest is ’yung time namin. Some of us are working. Some of us are still studying. We really have to balance our time and schedule. Even though pagod na from school or work, we really have to do it kasi we committed to it. And we love what we do. That’s what matters,” Jamon says, and everyone agrees--not just for The Alliance, but for every dance team out there. They are all faced with financial, emotional, and other struggles. And I think all dance teams would agree when I say that support is very much needed. “Napapansin lang kami kapag nanalo na. Sana every step of the way, doon ’yung support,” the team pleads. “We hope more people get to accept what we do, and what we dance for. It’s also a matter of a generation relating to another. Maybe they’re still trying to understand that this is something worth supporting, and I guess we just have to wait and continue proving to them that it’s worth it,” says JP. I asked them how all these struggles have made them the dancers, or even the people, that they are today. “I believe it honed
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The Alliance takes an oath to keep the fire of the local hip-hop dance scene burning
your By GRACE DE LUNA Photography by TRISTAN TAMAYO
our discipline more. We were able to improve our time management skills. We learn to set our priorities straight. And ’yung maturity level namin. The youngest members of our team are around 15 years old. When you compare them to other 15-year-olds, they’re different. We don’t baby them; we treat them as equals. And mas na-e-expose kami sa iba’t ibang types ng tao, na-i-improve kami kung paano kami mag-a adjust.” Not every journey is a winding road filled with struggles. As they shared the good points of building the team, I couldn’t help but recall familiar memories from my dancing past. “We consider each of our members as family. We try to connect within The Alliance not just as co-dancers, but also as people, as friends. We also share the same interests, passions. We get along in so many ways and we’re just thankful that we met along the way,” Jamon shares. The team is deeply inspired by a lot of factors, and the people they meet are not an exception. “Now, there are so many emerging good teams coming from the Philippines that are really good and ang sarap ng feeling na ang dami naming napagkukuhanan ng inspiration ngayon.” It’s really not about the competition all the time. It’s mainly more about what they can get from the journey. “We come to The Alliance full of inspiration and hungry to learn more. The team keeps this fire burning,” JP says. In The Alliance, they don’t just focus on honing their dancing skills. “We don’t just train our members artistically. We also train them with moral values. We teach them real life lessons, things they can use in the real world that you don’t learn in school. We don’t just box ourselves to learn just dance. We try to apply what we can learn from the team that’s useful in other situations,” Jamon tells me. In order to send their members to compete abroad, the team organizes a fundraising dance concert entitled #AllianceSendOff to cover the expenses of the team. Aside from being the performers, the team is also in charge of putting the event together, from promotions to stage design, and even up until logistics. The Alliance goes by these words: “We change. We adapt. We overcome.” Jamon explains each aspect of the team’s words to live by: “We change, meaning we change the perspective on how they treat dance. We try not just to box ourselves with the styles that we know already. We adapt to what’s new. We adapt to what the people would want to see. We adapt to everything we learn, inside and outside the team. Lastly, we overcome. For every struggle that we face, we overcome it as a team, as a family.” A message for aspiring dancers, or even dancers who have stopped already, here’s what they have to say: “It has to start with you. Dancing is something you do because you want it. You’re not dancing to impress anyone. You’re dancing because you want to satisfy yourself, your passion, your growth. Kasi ’di ka mag-go-grow sa dance if ’di mo sisimulan sa sarili mo. And sa mga nag-stop na mag-dance kasi ’di pinayagan, wala nang inspiration, may ibang priorities na--once na dancer ka, dancer ka na habangbuhay. ’Di mawawala yung dance.” And by this time, I excused myself, as I could no longer be discreet in wiping the tears off my face. n
(L-R) Makeup for Steffi Tolentino, Royce Resuello, and Dae Rondilla by CAMILLE VILLARUEL. Grooming for JC Calderon, Dan Delgado, JP Alcantara, and Jamon Martin by BULLET REYES.
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“Dancing is something you do because you want it. You’re not dancing to impress anyone. You’re dancing because you want to satisfy yourself, your passion, your growth.”
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social cardboard On how everyone could now get caught playing a board game By FRANCO ANTONIO REGALADO I AM PLAYING The Resistance: Avalon, a game about rooting out hidden traitor players from King Arthur’s forces. I am playing Merlin, who knows who the traitors are, but is being sought after by them as well. The player to my right picks a team of three. There is one traitor in there. I want to call him out, but to do so at this point, so close to the start of the game and with so little information, would place too much attention on me, allowing them to guess my identity too easily. Grudgingly, but trying to not let it show on my face, I join in the approval for the team. If the steadily increasing number of board game cafés, board game restaurants, and people looking for copies of The Resistance are any indication, board gaming is more popular than ever. “Board games, like Monopoly or Snakes and Ladders or Scrabble or chess? Isn’t that stuff for, like, bored kids and old people?” is a question I hear often, when I tell people that I play board games, the answer to which is that those four titles are just a shard at the tip of this wonderful, wonderful iceberg that is the board gaming scene of today. Nowadays, board games are as varied as people, requiring you to do things ranging from bidding at auction to declaring attacks against opposing forces to detecting elaborate bluffs and everything in between. Hobby board gaming may look daunting to the uninitiated based on numbers alone: tens of thousands of choices, all varied in how they play and play out; five-minute rounds of rolling a few dice and deciding whether to roll again or not on one end, sprawling maps with fluctuating ingame economies and logistics networks which take half a day to complete on the other. And let’s not forget the cornucopia of mechanics, requiring everything from reading facial cues to risk management to auction timing, possibly even a little to a lot of luck. I am playing Pandemic, a game about a team of specialists trying to contain and cure viral outbreaks all over the world. My role, the Medic, allows me to remove more of a disease, represented by small plastic cubes, from the board, keeping it suppressed for longer. On a hunch, I move into Ho Chi Minh and Manila, two of the most infected cities in the Southeast Asian region, and proceed to clean them up. The next infection strikes... Manila. I breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that my work means that the virus doesn’t spread to any neighboring cities that turn. So what brought this all about? The popular theory is that, nowadays, people are beginning to discover the limitations of technology games, and rediscovering the pleasures of returning to analog. With board games, people can explore and indulge in the nuances of face-to-face communication. Board games provide a necessarily visceral level of interaction: details such as tone of voice, expressions, even one’s ability to hold
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a straight face as you make a move, or try to figure out another’s moves, are always lost in the written medium. This, after all, is communication and interaction in its purest form: both blatant and subtle, loaded with meaning beyond words. This, perhaps, is why game genres such as social deduction and dexterity are among the easiest to teach to new gamers: social interaction, from white lies to suspicion and deduction, is human nature, in a way that long-term strategy, a grasp of mathematical probabilities, an appreciation of thematic elements, and other factors may not necessarily be within one’s aptitude, gamer or not. Same goes with dexterity: that feeling of stacking that one piece perfectly on top of another—Jenga is the most popular example, but I’d recommend Rhino Hero and my personal favorite, Animal Upon Animal, instead—or flicking that wooden disc so that it hits an opponent’s piece at just the right angle (see: Catacombs, Flick ‘Em Up!) brings out such a primal sense of fulfillment that one can’t help but acknowledge such small triumphs with a solid high-five. Truth be told, even more mathematical endeavors, including Power Grid, Imperial 2030, and Agricola, still make use of the interpersonal magic of board gaming, eschewing spectacle and theme for often wide, wide stretches of imagination, suspension—even outright denial—of disbelief draped over competitive probability and risk management exercises, not to mention the simple tactile pleasure of wood, plastic, cardboard, and paper. I am playing Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Rise of the Runelords, a game about fantasy adventurers hunting down monsters to complete quests. I am Sajan, a monk who specializes in boosting his and others’ abilities by casting blessings, a special spell class that makes it easier to overcome different sorts of challenges. On my turn, I encounter the scenario boss, an acid-spewing dragon by the name of Black Fang. I attack, adding a blessing bonus to roll 3d10 instead of 1d6. I need 12 to win. The rolls come up 8, 1, 1, just short to kill the dragon. It retaliates, forcing me to discard cards, and escapes, eating away at the number of turns we have left before we lose. Well, crap. From storytelling to risk and resource management to grand strategic moves, board gaming has come a long way from the Monopolies and Snakes and Ladders-es of yore in terms of game mechanics. Does a game where you hold a hand of cards facing away from you sound interesting? Check out the slow-burning Hanabi and the frantic Bomb Squad. Would you rather toss dice than roll them? There’s instant-classic Tumblin’ Dice and the hilarious Dungeon Fighter for that. Fancy bluffing your way out of an accusation? Games such as Coup, The Resistance, Spyfall, Mascarade, Werewolf, Mafia de Cuba, among nearly countless others in the social deduction genre all involve some form of this. Want to just sit back and
participate in some shared storytelling? Once Upon a Time: The Storytelling Card Game and Tales of the Arabian Nights put a little game into fairy and folk tales, respectively, to the end that winning, that traditional way of enjoying a board game, takes a back seat to creating a memorable narrative.
I am playing Lords of Vegas, a game where the players are developers trying to turn the Las Vegas strip into the gambling capital it is today. I am short a million dollars to build a new casino, so I gamble at a neighboring casino, hoping to win enough to give me an edge over the others. I bet two million, and roll two dice: a combined result of 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, or 12 means I win, with the 2 or 12 forcing the house to pay me double my bet. The dice come up 2 and 1. I use my cash, along with my winnings, to build a new casino along the edge of the strip, and pass the turn with only one million, but a potentially lucrative chain of space-themed casinos. Life is good, for the time being. Fortunately, it seems people are beginning to catch on locally as well. At least five gaming cafés opened in Metro Manila in 2015. Several places have evolved past their origins as Magic: The Gathering stores and tournament venues, branching out into hearty meals, gourmet coffee, trained game coaches adept at giving game suggestions and teaching game rules, and steadily growing library-slash-collections for visitors to peruse. Game groups have sprung forward as well. Almost every city in the metro has a local game group or two, with regular meet-up sessions, coordinated either through text or through Facebook, for their gaming fix. The inherently social and physical nature of board gaming as a hobby coaxes this sort of interaction; the solo genre of board gaming—yes, it exists—is a small niche, with games almost always requiring player counts of two or more to pull off their magic. The best part of all this is that there are now so many entry points for anyone who wants to give board gaming a try. Hitting up a nearby board game café and joining a board game group online are the usual options, but events such as gaming meets, and game store appearances in geek conventions, and the like, are all awesome opportunities to get into this wonderfully social hobby, which Quintin Smith, one of my favorite board game reviewers, describes as one of the best ways to sit down with people and talk without everybody needing alcohol. I am playing Spyfall, a game where one player plays a spy, and tries to guess a secret location known to all players, while the other players try to guess who among them is the spy. Our secret location for the round is “the beach.” I look to my right, and ask my friend, “What do you wear to this place?” He smiles, and answers, “Rubber shoes, of course!” I notice his hands fidgeting. n
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The differences manifest in ever ything from behavior to clothing to language— markers of culture that somehow form enough to make a difference worth noting. Notions like people in the collective South are more chill compared to the North, people in the South sound more conyo, South people have better parties, and so on.
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we the north, Finding out the difference between North people and South people from someone who is neither
I’VE BEEN STAYING in Quezon City for six years and I still feel like I don’t know much about where I live. I feel like Mega Manila is this massive chunk of land that stretches from Alabang all the way to Fairview. Manila is the place with the tall buildings and wide, airconditioned malls. Manila is the place where all the trains are while road traffic moves at a snail’s pace. Manila is the place where all the universities and big jobs are, the place where you can make it big. Manila, the grimy, beautiful, big world that’s huge enough to be named in all the world maps. So it was weird to me that there’s an idea, a concept, a phenomenon about people having characteristics based solely on where they live: things like a Makati boy, a Quezon City girl, an Alabang boy, and so forth. The Alabang boy always keeps a pair of Ray Bans on the dashboard of his new car, and is almost always dressed for the summer heat. The Quezon City girl is a stickler for time because of the heavy traffic that is on almost every single road she passes. And so this whole thing coalesced into something bigger, for better or for worse: the birth of the person who’s from the South or the North. There exists an imaginary line drawn across Mandaluyong and Pasig that divides Mega Manila into two distinct boundaries. The North has Ortigas, the bulk of Quezon City all the way up to Commonwealth; the South goes down to Makati, Taguig, Pasay, and finally the two sides of the Alabang-Zapote road in Muntinlupa and Las Piñas. The differences manifest in everything from behavior to clothing to language—markers of culture that somehow form enough to make a difference worth noting. Notions like people in the collective South are more chill compared to the North, people in the South sound more conyo, South people have better parties, and so on. Someone asks, “Are you from the North? The way you speak is very kanto but also conyo.” It’s interesting and weird to me not because I think they are valid stereotypes but because such stereotypes exist in places that are relatively near each other. I’ve heard of stereotypes about people living in the Cordilleras and stereotypes about people living in the Visayas, but stereotypes about people living in Manila? Like people that live two hours away from each other? Born in Baguio and raised in different areas in Cavite, I didn’t have a clue about any of that. When I first moved to Quezon City for college, I was shocked to the core about the differences in culture. From the way people spoke to the way they acted to the places they went, I was a different breed and so were they. Manila was and somehow still is a stranger to me. I don’t know what malls were before they were malls. I don’t have a childhood restaurant aside from fast food joints, and I don’t have memories of the cities with tall buildings before there were tall buildings. I’ve
never had Sundays chilling with my family in Greenhills nor Saturday afternoons roaming around Glorietta. I didn’t fly kites in what is now BGC, before the land was developed. The fresh air in the South is what I had always assumed air smelled like. A study called “The Cultural Construction of Self and Well-Being: A Tale of Two Cities” focused on two cities in the United States—Boston and San Francisco—and examined them in terms of social norms and psychology. The findings were that the two cities were both the same, but had very different histories. These differences, the paper notes, come out in banal ways, like stereotypes. Quezon City was envisioned by Manuel L. Quezon as the new capital of the country as Manila became more crowded. Alabang prospered in the late 1990s and changed from a farming district to a bustling financial and residential hub. Makati is eclectic in the city because of the influx of people that work there, as well as its colorful history as both a marker for commerce due to its closeness to Manila in the colonial period and a marker for change from the many demonstrations in the business district before the People Power Revolution. Today, Manila is still the capital and Quezon City the biggest in terms of population density. Alabang is still a strong financial hub, with its neighbors in Cavite and Laguna following in urban development. Makati still holds its reputation as a city that can make it all happen thanks to its Make It Makati campaign. Quezon City is also becoming a vibrant city of progress based on its antisexual harassment laws and its initiative to add culture to the city with events like the QC Film Festival. Aside from the history of the city, we can look at our own personal history for answers: our childhood hangouts, our family lunches, our places of excitement and our places of rest. Municipalities become cities, towers are getting closer to the clouds, and more people cross the street every day. In the wake of globalization we see the world getting smaller and smaller; when I go to other countries I still feel like I’m still on the same plot of land on different ends of the earth. So is there really a collective North and a collective South? Is a person from QC different from a Makati boy? Yes and no. Climate, geography, and living conditions all factor in on the differences but what’s most important is history—history of the city and history of you and the city. Nobody can take our experiences from us. The stereotypes reflect on something deeper about our local contexts, and it would be wrong to attribute who we are solely based on where we live. Sometimes “Town” can mean Alabang Town Center, and sometimes it can mean UP Town Center. Sometimes the toll booths are better than the traffic lights. Sometimes a day in Tagaytay can beat a day in Bulacan. Sometimes, I feel like a North boy. The differences don’t really matter to other people. What matters is what they mean to me. The world is beautiful that way. n
By LEX CELERA Illustration by MARTIN DIEGOR
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14 music
every song a sculpture
Tom’s Story’s instrumental rock introduces us to a world without words By LEX CELERA Photography by CRU CAMARA
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FERVENT but not aggressive, playful but not meandering, and entirely serendipitous, the music of Tom’s Story is a shower of golden flecks of rhythm. The progression of their songs can lull you into the comforts of a familiar, recurring beat, then quickly unfold itself with a crackling burst of guitar and drums that surges through you like a sonic boom, then takes another step back, and repeats. The band doesn’t bend genres as much as it borrows from them: emo, post-rock, and math rock, to name a few. But Tom’s Story doesn’t really try to pigeonhole themselves into a label. “We don’t really like to put our music into one specific genre. We’re really just an instrumental rock band,” shares Tom Naval, bassist and one of three members that form Tom’s Story, alongside Gabba Santiago on guitar and Degs De Guia on drums. Their inspirations are a mixed bag: Circa Survive, Toe, Enemies, John Mayer, and Chon. When asked about what they’re listening to right now, each of them also gave
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music 15
different answers. Tom has Elephant Gym and Death Cab For Cutie, Degs goes for Into It Over It and You Blew It, and Gabba shares Tycho, Enemies, and Totorro. It’s no surprise that they each have different tastes. They are different people, after all. But where does the cohesion come from? What holds the narrative threads of Tom’s Story? The answer, as cheesy as it may sound, is friendship. Tom, Gabba, and Degs have been childhood friends since they were in grade school in Colegio San Agustin, Makati. “Degs and I have been classmates since Grade 2, and we’ve been classmates with Tom since Grade 6,” says Gabba. They’ve had their fair share of hobbies, but he shares that music is what really what stuck with them between the tail end of their high school years and their freshman year in college, circa 2010. “We just played covers before. Si Tom kumakanta pa nga noon, eh.” Over the years the band has solidified their sound sans vocals, and has been a constant presence in the local gig circuit. They’ve played internationally and have opened for visiting indie acts such as Silent Scenery and Anechois. Their self-titled debut album released earlier this year is a testament to the band’s talent; each song from the 10-track album stands independently from each other. “The first album is really just a compilation of songs over the years,” Tom quips. At times ambient, sometimes groovy, sometimes ethereal, the music of Tom’s Story traverses through transitions and build ups with finesse. But the band’s music (and almost any band for
that matter) is best heard live. When a band has a vocalist, you normally find yourself fixated on the frontman, reading the lips to follow what is being said. But with music such as Tom’s Story’s, it is possible to sing along to songs with no lyrics. Tom mentions that the band can play without him or Degs but not without Gabba, and for good reason. As the guitar riffs play you will find yourself singing-shouting to each unmistakable, distinct strum. The songs (Anchors is a personal favorite) sculpt impressions, moods into your psyche, while the songs themselves are sculptures—structured and aesthetically pleasing to the senses. In short, their music is a real trip. And so are Gabba, Degs, and Tom. As serious as they play their instruments, you can tell they’re having fun when the play. How else could they make such groovy music? When asked about memorable gigs, they’re quick to reply.“We’ve actually just had a memorable one a week back,” Tom shares. “There was a few seconds of no electricity in the venue but Degs just played like it was nothing. When the light came back, we just picked it up from there.” Of course, they also list down their album release in Route 196 with Autotelic, Musical O, and tide/edit, which they also consider their dream lineup to play with. Right now, the band is going steady. Tom is busy with his on-the-job training while studying Mechanical Engineering, Gabba has just graduated, and Degs has a full-time job in a startup. They have their busy months when it comes to playing in gigs, but they find time to rest. In their early 20s, they don’t look like they’re in a rush. “We’ve been composing songs, conceptualizing,” Gabba shares when asked about their second album. The band notes that first albums are for the band, while second albums are for their fans. With that, we’ll keep it chill and just wait. n
The songs sculpt impressions, moods into your psyche, while the songs themselves are sculptures—structured and aesthetically pleasing to the senses.
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16 food
powered by plants If you’re a fitness buff thinking about going vegan, you can take the leap by staying with these familiar flavors By KRISTINE CROUCH Photography by PATRICK SEGOVIA 1. To make the peanut sauce, sauté the garlic and ginger (this will bring out the flavor of the peanut sauce). Blend or mix together all the ingredients until smooth. Set aside in a bowl. 2. To make the wraps, cut all the veggies into thin strips. Dip the rice paper sheets one at a time in warm water so they soften, then arrange your vegetable fillings in the middle. Fold over two ends and wrap it up like a burrito, making it as tight as possible. 3. Serve the rolls with the sauce and enjoy!
½ cup lentils Extra virgin olive oil 1 onion 1 stick of celery 1 carrot Sea salt Black pepper Dry oregano 1 cup tomato sauce ¼ cup red wine 9 oz noodles (you can use soba as a gluten-free option) Vegan Parmesan (optional)
FRESH SUM M E R ROLL S WITH SPIC Y GARLIC PEAN UT SAUC E
ROLLS: 1 cup cooked vermicelli (rice noodles) 5-8 rice paper sheets 1 carrot 1 avocado 1/3 cucumber 1 cup fresh basil 1/2 cup cilantro 5-8 kale leaves 1/2 red pepper
1. To make the donut holes, grind all the ingredients into thick, moist dough in a food processor. Roll into balls and place in the freezer until firm. This should take about 20 minutes. 2. To make the glaze, melt the coconut oil on low heat, turn off the heat then whisk in the syrup and vanilla. This will only take a few seconds until the ingredients combine, resulting in a caramel-like consistency. 3. To put it all together, dip the solid donut holes into the glaze, covering each one completely. Put them back in the freezer until the glaze has hardened. Repeat until all remaining glaze is used. Store the donut holes in the fridge for up to a week. You might need to re-whisk the glaze when re-dipping.
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LENTIL BOLO GN ESE
PEANUT SAUCE: 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 tbsp. chunk of ginger, peeled and finely chopped 2 tbsp. each of tamari, maple syrup, and lime juice Chili powder, to taste 1/3 cup peanut butter 1/3 cup water (more or less as needed)
1. Cook the lentils and the noodles. Heat some oil in a frying pan and sauté the onion, celery, and carrot (finely chopped). Add sea salt, black pepper, and oregano to taste. Cook over medium heat until golden brown. 2. Add the tomato sauce and cook for five minutes more. 3. Add the wine and cook until the alcohol evaporates. 4. Blend the lentils using a hand blender or a food processor and add the mixture to the frying pan. Stir well. 5. Serve the noodles with the Bolognese sauce and some vegan Parmesan cheese on top (I like to use nutritional yeast flakes or ground up cashew nuts). 6. Add oregano to garnish (optional).
GL A ZED C HO CO L ATE DON UT H O LES DONUT HOLES: 1 cup rolled oats 1 cup walnuts (preferably soaked for 4 hours in water then rinsed) 1 cup dates 1/4 cup cacao powder 2 tbsp. coconut oil Pinch Himalayan salt GLAZE: 3 tbsp. coconut oil 2 tbsp. maple syrup (or coconut syrup) 1/8 tsp. vanilla powder
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18 scene
this one time, at scout summer camp
Trisha O’Bannon & Rob Cham
Timo and Kara Pangilinan The Ransom Collective
Our second birthday was our most lit birthday party yet LAST July 23, millennials from here and yonder made their way to the Samsung Hall in SM Aura to celebrate Scout’s second birthday. Because we wanted to recreate a night out in the woods (but couldn’t actually get out into the real woods), we converted Samsung Hall into a spacious, photo-op worthy camping ground, complete with tent, bonfire, and game booths for the ultimate fake camping experience. Scouts all over were given a copy of the July-August issue of Scout with Yassi Pressman on the cover, along with gift certificates from McDonald’s, free booze care of Asia Brewery, a Motorino giveaway courtesy of Satchmi, and our awesome new Scout notebooks. If that wasn’t enough, there were also stickers, button pins, and the cool AF Scout drawstring bag. An all-star line-up of local bands rocked the main stage all night: Ang Bandang Shirley, The Ransom Collective, Tandems ’91, Jensen and The Flips, Cheats, Autotelic, Fools & Foes, Oh, Flamingo!, Tom’s Story, Run Dorothy, and Extrapolation. Meanwhile, those looking for something a little more chill (or turnt, depending on what you wanted), a DJ lounge comprised of the city’s promising musical artists provided music ranging from trap to soulful RnB to hip-hop. The line-up at the DJ Lounge was a tour de force of the finest young talent: DJs Out Of Scratch, Xtina Superstar, Asch Catabona, Like Animals, and Arthur Tan, MCs Curtismith and Ninno Rodriguez, and singer Olympia. While waiting in between sets, attendees were free to roam the camp grounds to play in the booths or take photos. It’s safe to say that each person who attended #ScoutSummerCamp was a happy camper. The Scout Summer Camp was made possible by McDonald’s Philippines, John Robert Powers, our official beverage partners, Asia Brewery Incorporated, Brew Kettle, Summit Water, Vitamilk Philippines, Sunkist Juice Philippines, and Nestea. Big thanks as well to our official media partners Preen Online, INQUIRER.net, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inquirer Megamobile, Inquirer Super, Radio Republic, Indie Manila, Amplify.ph, Philippine Concerts, ClickTheCity.com, When In Manila, Manila Concerts Scene, Days In Wonderland, and ETC. —LEX CELERA
Photography by BIANCA ARREOLA, CHOLO CARDENAS, REASON FORTUN, JUNESSA RENDON, PATRICK SEGOVIA, and TRISTAN TAMAYO
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Curtismith and Scout Graphic Artist Grace de Luna
Sud Ballecer Autotelic’s Josh Villena
Wanda Chen
Koji Arboleda
Out of Scratch
Fools and Foes
Billie of Oh, Flamingo! gets our love for Mcdo
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scene 19 Onesies are the coolest Throwing big smiles for the camera
Enjoying their Brew Kettle beers!
Jack Alindahao, Nikki Ruiz and Lorenz Namalanta Bringing out the hugot for that sweet Mcdo goodies
Oh, Flamingo!
#SkrrSkrrTheBear
Jachin Manere
John James Uy and his crew dress up for the occasion
Ryuji Shiomitsu enjoying the camp with his squad
Sarah Carlos
The Scout editorial team: Lex Celera, Romeo Moran, Grace de Luna and Denise Fernandez
Camping in is the new camping out
Juancho Trivino and Louise delos Reyes
Jensen Gomez of Jensen and the Flips
We had merch up for grabs and buns c/o Mcdo
Girl Scouts in full regalia
Gather ’round the campfire
Olympia
What’s cooking, good looking?
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20 music
#workmodeon
GRACE DE LUNA, graphic artist
On My Grind (Tunji Ige) Smooth sounding hip-hop always sets my mood. Actually, anything hip-hop sets my mood. Get Busy (Sean Paul) Throwback songs do the trick for me. Work (Rihanna feat. Drake) Of course, how could I not include this?
Baby I’m Yours (Breakbot feat. Irfane) Sometimes, you just need something groovy to get it going. Pressure (Paramore) This song makes typing on my keyboard feel like I’m banging on the drums.
go hard PEPI MORAN, features editor
Welcome (We Gotta Go) (Black Milk) The first thing you gotta do is to convince yourself to get moving. We gotta go, man.
p u m p up the volume Need to get hyped? Take it from Team Scout and pull up these playlists to blast
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‘Till I Collapse (Eminem feat. Nate Dogg) When we’re talking about pump-up songs, this track can’t not be in the conversation. It’s a classic. Control (Big Sean, Kendrick Lamar,
Jay Electronica) Three straight verses of flames. Sometimes I need that kind of verbiage to light a fire under me.
Victory (Diddy, The Notorious B.I.G., Busta Rhymes) I have a huge thing for posse cuts, but this one is relatively underrated in the entire catalog. The Rocky sample that serves as a backbeat already fires me up by itself. The Fire (The Roots feat. John Legend) They used this one in the Creed training montage. I feel validated whenever I walk to it.
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party pregame LEX CELERA, editorial assistant
Broccoli (D.R.A.M. feat. Lil Yachty) It’s weird, the booming bass is nonexistent, but it’s a good starter because it’s so damn catchy. New Level (A$AP Ferg)
Take it up a notch with this banger. It’s fuego, fam.
What (Playboi Carti feat. UNOTHEACTIVIST) It really sounds like one long, catchy hook, and it sustains your excitement. Mercy (Kanye West feat. Big
Sean, Pusha T, 2 Chainz) Classic in terms of bangers. One verse in and you’re hyped. L-l-llamborghini Mercy...
Strive (A$AP Ferg feat. Missy Elliot) A$AP Ferg deserves another track in here, and this song in particular is a bit radio-friendly so you can use it to transition to EDM.
anti-morning blues DENISE FERNANDEZ, editorial assistant
Stronger (Kanye West) Overrated, but still one of the best Kanye songs for me. It instantly makes me feel like a badass. Two Weeks (FKA twigs) This song is so empowering for women, and I think FKA twigs is one of the most important female artists of this generation. Sweatpants (Childish Gambino) “Don’t be mad ‘cause I’m doin’ me better than you doin’ you.” These lyrics are EVERYTHING.
Born Hater
(Epik High) Whenever I hear this song, I always have this uncontrollable urge to round up my own squad of rappers to diss anyone who tries to bring us down, much like its amazing music video.
The Greatest (Raleigh Ritchie) My friend once called this the ultimate irresponsible frat boy soundtrack but I think it’s the greatest, lol.
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Interview by ROMEO MORAN Photography by RG MEDESTOMAS Styling by EDLENE CABRAL
The Season 78 Ateneo Lady Eagles aren’t sweating their championship loss. At all.
show me how you play
22 profile
“The best moment [I’ve ever had] on court—I think it’s really the first ever championship when I was in college. But you know, best moment every time is when you’re not getting a point, you huddle at center court and you still have your teammates, you still have each other.” alyssa vald ez
FOREVER 21 jacket and swimwear, GTW by SM shorts
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profile 23 GTW by SM jogger pants and top, NIKE sneakers
“Knowing when to put volleyball first, when to put studies first, when to put families first, when to put your teammates and friends first [is the most important part about being a student-athlete]. It’s just a juggling act. I don’t think there’s a perfect studentathlete out there. But we try naman to give time where it’s needed.” amy ahomiro
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24 profile
ADIDAS jacket and shorts, FOREVER 21 swimwear, CONVERSE sneakers
“What I learned from being with my teammates is you gotta love what you have. You gotta accept it. For sure you’ll have teammates like, ‘Ugh, hate her!’ but in the end you realize, ‘Oh, she’s cool! I like her.’ In the end, you gotta love your teammates and you gotta love what you do.” p ong gay gaston
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“Patience, I think, is one of the important values you have to instill within yourself, so that your teammates can get it from you. Before, I didn’t get to play much. Just wait for the time your coach trusts you and just keep going. Keep going no matter what.” mae t ajima
ADIDAS jacket and skirt, FOREVER 21 swimwear
Hair by VENER TORRES, RUBEN ESTEBAN, and ALVIN ANOS for BENCH FIX Makeup by APPLE FARAON and JORENCE DELIMOS for MAC COSMETICS
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26 art + design
Words from Fergalicious by Fergie. Artwork by PATTY FERRIOL for Scout
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28 on the cover
OXYGEN shirt, FOREVER 21 T-shirt
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on the cover 29
a shield of green and white Jeron Teng is a great basketball player, but he had to learn a whole ’nother game as he emerged as a crossover local celebrity
By STAN SY Photography by KOJI ARBOLEDA Styling by VINCE CRISOSTOMO
IT’S A CLEAR Friday morning in Makati, only made special by the fact that Jeron Teng is walking in the Scout offices today. He saunters in calmly, but his mere presence draws all eyes in the conference room towards him. He says hi, makes eye contact, and shakes hands with familiar faces as he quietly takes a seat on one far end. It’s a far cry from how we normally perceive him on the court. On the hardwood, Jeron is one of the UAAP’s most recognizable faces, anchoring the De La Salle Green Archers as the team captain for the third year in a row. He’s known for being one of the most intense players in the college ranks, often shouting on the court to communicate, a scowl occupying his face in between. It’s a swagger most would often call cocky and arrogant, but it’s one that has undeniably helped him get to where he’s at right now. On this day, while he’s hamming it up for our cameras, he’s not Jeron Teng the basketball player, the captain. He’s just Jeron Teng the man. He’s just playing himself—the 22-year-old Tsinoy guy who is as chill as 6-foot-2 guys come. He’s not shy about being a Batman geek or playing Dota 2 in his spare time. He’ll tell you that he prays novenas and visits Chinese temples on the day of a big game. As he’s being shot, he’s asked which song he’d like to lip sync and dance along to. He picks Drake’s One Dance, a popular if not unsurprising choice. The song begins and Jeron starts to dance, unabashedly looking silly in the process, while immediately establishing a level of comfort among people he barely knows. He doesn’t just lip sync along to Drake, he actually sings—proving that his talent belongs better on the court than at the KTV bar. But it’s way more bearable than other people who would have gone pabebe or pa-cute the moment the cameras start rolling. Watching Jeron play to the camera so comfortably says a lot about how far he’s come as a popular figure at 22 years old. I watch him and remark that this is the same guy who once put up 104 points in a high school game for my—our—alma mater, Xavier. This is a dude who, for the most part, had similar experiences growing up in a Chinese-Filipino all-boys’ school. But this is also a guy who’s had a spotlight on him as early as his teenage years.
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30 on the cover
UNIQLO jacket, FOREVER 21 pants, NIKE shoes
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UNIQLO jacket and shirt, OXYGEN pants
on the cover 31
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32 on the cover
“[My cockiness] is just being proud of who you are and where you came from. It’s not being mayabang, it’s just being proud of who you are.”
To try and make him more comfortable to open up to me, I bring up my Xavier roots and attempt to strike a connection with him. He seems relaxed as he starts answering my questions, never failing to make eye contact. I ask him about the perception that both Xaverians and La Sallians have a reputation for being cocky. Because he attended both schools, it seemed fitting to ask him about that branding. He actually acknowledges the label, but says it’s a misconception. “It’s just being proud of who you are and where you came from,” he shares. “It’s not really being mayabang, it’s just being proud of who you are.” As a Xaverian, it’s not hard to relate to what he says. When you grow up in a privileged environment like that, it’s really difficult not to stand out. But with that comes the scrutiny, especially from people we have already made assumptions about based on what’s on the outside. I ask him how he came across to his eventual friends when he entered La Salle. “They’d say at first, they thought I was arrogant, but once they meet me, it’s really the opposite,” he relates. He acknowledges his oncourt swagger, saying, “Maybe I’m cocky on the court, but outside the court, I’m not. It’s just part of my game, to be cocky, to be confident in what I do.” There’s a laid-back aura surrounding Jeron as he talks about his experiences in high school and college. He doesn’t have the angst of someone who feels like he has a lot to prove, despite the pressure he feels to win one more championship for La Salle. But he also doesn’t give off a sense of entitlement, something that those outside the limelight can easily spot in those in it. I ask him about having reached celebrity status, which in itself, is a very vague concept nowadays. In a world where any Tom, Dick, and Harry can start a blog or Instagram account that goes viral, any savvy social media strategist can have hundreds and thousands of followers within months. But that still doesn’t beat being a recognizable face on television with endorsements left and right and a love life that the public actually pays attention to. Being a 22-year-old in college can be one of the most liberating experiences of one’s life, especially if you fit the profile of an upper-tomiddle class male who can go around and do whatever he pleases. Sometimes, that involves just getting out of bed, putting on a hoodie and a pair of shorts, and going out just because you can. But for Jeron, that’s not an option. Since he and his siblings began to get easily recognized in public, his mother has urged him to fix up before stepping out. “My mom would always tell me, ‘You must look presentable, especially around people,’” he shares. Jeron recalls realizing he hit that level when the bashers started popping up online. But he also wonders at the futility and pettiness of it all. He asks, “If they don’t really like you, then why would they waste their time going to your profile and checking your pictures?” I ask about the meanest things his online critics have said about him. He addresses the question with a level-headed response: “When they say bad stuff about
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me, that’s their opinion, and people have different opinions. But I don’t like it when they make up stories just to try to destroy you.” He speaks from first-hand experience when he mentions that the bashing has affected his personal life, particularly in dating. When asked about how his celebrity status has an effect on his dating game, he says that it isn’t easy because of the pros and cons it brings. “With dating, of course, there’s stereotyping of basketball players. People stereotype basketball players as womanizers, playboys,” he laments. “But I’m not like that. It takes time. I just really have to prove to the girl that I’m not what people say I am.” He shares that it gets worse when the stories make their way to the family members of the girl he’s seeing, which makes it more difficult for him. That said, Jeron has a very interesting take on overcoming the hurdle of his celebrity status as a supposed dealbreaker. He compares the experience of committing to a lady to that of committing to his chosen sport. “With basketball [as a career], the girls will have an idea how determined and dedicated you can be. You’re committing to the sport. So for me, if you really love something or somebody, you’ll do whatever it takes,” he says. “I really love basketball, that’s why I really work hard for it every day. I make sacrifices. I take care of my body, I don’t have vices. If you like a person, too, you’ll do the same.” As a student-athlete, Jeron wants to be defined by his drive to succeed and how he uses it to get what he wants. He calls basketball his passion and likens it to Kobe Bryant’s own obsessive desire to succeed in the sport. “If you really love your sport, it means you’ll do whatever it takes to succeed, even if it includes sacrificing your time with your friends,” he says. “And if you really love something, you’ll keep working hard.” He understands the pressure of this year being his last chance to take home a UAAP Championship and cement his legacy. “I want people to remember me as someone who gave my all for La Salle,” he shares. “Hopefully win as much championships as I can, give everything I got for the school.” My biggest takeaway from spending the morning with Jeron Teng is the revelation that being a celebrity entails putting on different masks for different occasions. On the court, he’s the vocal leader who exhibits a lot of swagger because he has to be. Off it, he does a total 180 and gives off a chill vibe. When he’s around people who have to work with him to get their job done for the day, he’s cooperative, easygoing, and generally light to be around. When he’s got his downtime, he’ll joke around or fiddle with his phone. There’s an unwritten social contract between a celebrity and the public, in which by attaining celebrity status, one forfeits the right to a degree of privacy. Some celebs would willingly bare as much as they can about themselves on Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat. But it’s always interesting to watch young people navigate through this popularity. Whether he chose to be one or not, Jeron Teng is, for all intents and purposes, a celebrity. He just happens to know where his off switch is. n
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bet ween the earth and sk y Fresh out of college, Mr. Phenom himself Kiefer Ravena faces two paths: turning pro, or proudly representing the Philippines in international basketball
By STAN SY Photography by KOJI ARBOLEDA Styling by VINCE CRISOSTOMO
THE PERIOD between graduation and your first day at your first job can be a very interesting experience. For most fresh grads, this is the time when they get to explore all their career options. Some get courted by this and that employer, with different benefits to choose from for each option. Others weigh their choices by turning to factors like proximity from home, commute expenses, long-term growth, and so on. For one Kiefer Ravena, his post-graduation choices are simple: play full-time for Gilas Pilipinas to represent the Philippines in international competition or play full-time in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), where he can follow in the footsteps of his father, former PBA player Ferdinand “Bong” Ravena. Kiefer’s decision comes at a very interesting time for local basketball, when the local basketball governing body, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP), and the PBA are currently working out how to have a set roster that the country can readily deploy for international tournaments, after the FIBA changed its annual tournament dates. Those changes led to the formation of the Gilas Cadets, a squad composed of the Philippines’ top up-and-coming prospects, including Ravena and Gilas 4.0 members Bobby Ray Parks and Troy Rosario. Both the SBP and the PBA have already agreed to let these incoming PBA rookies get drafted to a mother team, which will own their rights while they play for Gilas, only returning to their teams when the SBP releases them to the PBA. As it stands, Kiefer hasn’t made a definite choice between Gilas and the PBA. While he is eyeing a career in the pros, he understands the value that comes with suiting up for Gilas Pilipinas. “With Gilas, I think that’s the highest level of competition you can already get when it comes to basketball,” he says. “Playing in that kind of team, that’s your end goal besides playing professionally. Representing the country, that’s the highest honor you can already get when you’re a basketball player in the Philippines.” Every fresh graduate—or anyone being pirated, for that matter—with several job offers on the table knows how nerve-wracking it can get to have to choose between potential employers. Kiefer’s situation is no different, with him calling the situation
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“Once you get called [to play for the country], I don’t think you even have to think of playing.”
“life-changing.” He admits to considering how his decision affects not only himself, but his family and his country in the long run. But he acknowledges how having a stable support system around him has been helpful throughout this time. “My dad’s been in the PBA, so I guess that’s one advantage that I have—having a lot of people, knowing what it takes to go there and what’s best for me. So I guess I’m thinking about it really hard, since once you make a decision, that’s it,” he says. Kiefer’s also had the benefit of watching history play out before him through the first incarnation of Gilas Pilipinas, most of whom took a detour from their professional careers to represent the Philippines first. He sees the opportunity with Gilas as a privilege, saying, “Once you get called, I don’t think you even have to think of playing.” Though that time in local basketball was far from perfect, he recognizes that whatever setbacks players like Chris Tiu and JVee Casio went through were ultimately nobody’s fault. “Playing for the country, I guess people see different things. People have different opinions,” he relates. “The mainstays of the first Gilas Cadets program really blossomed to become great PBA players as well. I guess that’s also a lesson that I took into consideration. Look at them now with the exposure they got. So, you have to see the positive thing about this upcoming program.” Most young adults facing a decision of this magnitude would be overwhelmed by all the different factors and emotions coming into play. Throw in the experience of not making Gilas Pilipinas’ final 12man lineup in last July’s FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament here in Manila, and you’d have expected a competitor like Kiefer Ravena to have a huge chip on his shoulder. But he doesn’t see that experience as a shortcoming on his part. Rather, he looks at it from a realistic point of view, exuding a calm and rational aura that belies his youth as he reflects on that experience. “Sometimes, if you overthink, or if you expect too much, if you don’t get that, you get disappointed. Sometimes, people even say it’s a downfall of their career that they got cut,” he shares. He reveals that it was the first time he got cut from any team that he played on, calling it “a humbling experience [because it was] for the country.” That being said, he understood where he fits in the larger scheme of things. “I’m the youngest on the team,” he says. “Lot of learning to do, a lot of improvement to do. It doesn’t mean that [I’m] not ready. But it’s probably not [my] time yet.” Having to choose between two jobs is not unlike being courted by two potential lovers. Both situations present their best foot forward, but you won’t really know what you’re getting yourself into until you make a choice and actually jump right in. But the process of choosing—as any beautiful girl will tell you—can actually be fun. Kiefer himself enjoys that pressure and relishes the opportunity, saying, “Not a lot of people get to that stage, so you have to grab that [opportunity].” Those windows don’t really last very long for athletes. Famous players like Pau Gasol, Manu Ginόbili, and Tony Parker—whose international careers have lasted as long, if not longer than, their NBA careers—are more of exceptions than the norm. And that’s why if Kiefer chooses Gilas, he hopes to stay there for “as long as [his] body can.” He admires Gilas veterans Ranidel De Ocampo, Jayson Castro, and Gabe Norwood, who really did their best to balance their commitments to Gilas, their mother teams in the PBA, and their families. There’s a deep respect for the game of basketball rooted in Kiefer’s words, something he picked up from the elder Ravena, who spent 13 years playing in the PBA himself. According to Kiefer, the biggest lesson he’s learned from his father is, “It’s already a game, don’t play around,” pertaining to how one shouldn’t disrespect both the game and one’s opponents. “It’s hard, that game. When it’s quarreling with you, it’s hard,”
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Kiefer shares. “You don’t know if it’ll ever come back to you. That’s what he always reminds us and I guess we carried that on to the future.” You see it in the way he approaches his rivalry with La Salle Green Archers star Jeron Teng, someone Kiefer grew up with through the game. “It’s actually funny, we laughed about it because sometimes, the game gets overshadowed. Kiefer-Jeron is all you see, but my teammate’s scoring 20 points already!” he laughs. But now that Kiefer’s graduated from the Ateneo, that arc will have to take a break since both he and Jeron will be playing in different leagues, at least for one year. Not that he won’t miss it. “I have something that I’ll definitely miss: competing against one of the best college players,” he admits. “It just brings out the best in you, what to do to improve yourself, that you can compete, and at the same time, he’s my friend. I won’t lose to you just because you’re my friend.” Turning pro brings about multiple possibilities for Kiefer Ravena’s career. We’ve seen generations of Ateneans and La Sallians eventually uniting as professionals to play for championships in the PBA. Kiefer and Jeron might just follow in their footsteps. “The rivalry stops right there when we become teammates,” Kiefer shares. “Sometime eventually, we’ll be playing with the national team together, so it’s just a rivalry in the sense that there’s always competition between the two of us.” But ultimately, even though he sees rivalries as something he can’t control, it gives him the drive to compete and want to be the best. “There’s some baggage in facing them. That’s your rival already,” he says. “For the shallowest reasons, it’s the definition of a rival, there’s just this angst every time you face them, you really just want to beat them.” And then there’s the idea of playing for his dad, Bong Ravena, who is currently an assistant coach with TNT Katropa in the PBA. TNT is most likely going to pick in the middle of the first round in the upcoming draft on October 30. Kiefer confesses to being excited about the thought of potentially playing for his dad because for starters, he’ll get to save on transportation expenses—something you may not expect to hear from a pro baller. But more than that, he finds the idea amusing, sharing, “It’s funny because actually, he has never coached me in any team.” He foresees a professional boundary to be established between player and coach, but after that, he says, “it’s back to father and son,” citing the Los Angeles Clippers’ head coach Doc Rivers and his son, guard Austin Rivers, as an example. Right now, Kiefer is taking his time and using it to continue improving his game, while having fun in the process. He’s spent several weeks in the U.S., training and even playing in the Drew League (a pro-amateur summer league in the States), in an attempt to get signed by an NBA team. As of this writing, his U.S.-based agents are arranging for him to be invited to work out for several teams there. By the time you read this, things might have changed. Kiefer might skip out on being part of Gilas 5.0 altogether as he pursues his NBA dream. Or he could be back in the Philippines working out with the national team. Or he could be in line to get drafted in the PBA. The fact that he even has these options in front of him says a lot about how he’s really taking his own advice for other young players to heart: sacrifice, dedication, and discipline—ultimately revealing the maturity in him. Kiefer Ravena has his entire life ahead of him, and at the same time, he realizes he hasn’t got everything figured out just yet. At this moment, he’s at a crossroad, with a life-changing decision to make in a few weeks’ time, and whatever he chooses, it’ll have a significant impact on Philippine basketball and on his own career. But with a good head on his shoulders, at least he’ll know not to make a big spectacle out of it with Quinito Henson on live television. n
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wear with pride
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Take your cue from the 2016 Olympics and wear those pieces with honor, loud and proud
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