A total of 128 players from from 43 nations slugged it out Monday during the first day of the week-long World Ten Ball Championship (WTBC) sanctioned and supervised by the World Pool Association at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Manila.

The Philippines will play in the $400,000-tournament without some of top players in its line up, including Efren “Bata” Reyes, Francisco “Django” Bustamante, Ronnie Alcano, Alex Pagulayan, Robert Gomez, and current world No. 1 Dennis Orcollo who all opted to sit out the event because of differences with organizers.

Left to spearhead the Philippines are Marlon Manalo, Antonio Gabica, Jeffrey de Luna, Elemer Kalaquian, Elvis Calasang, Arnel Bautista, Jericho Banares and Mario Tolentino.