MANILA, Philippines -- FIBA on Monday announced that it has signed a partnership with Filipino food chain Chooks-to-Go for the FIBA 3x3 World Tour, the most prestigious competition of the 3x3 professional circuit.

“It is our great pleasure to announce Chooks-to-Go as our new FIBA 3x3 World Tour global partner, host of two FIBA 3x3 World Tour events per year and related qualifiers” FIBA 3x3 managing director Alex Sanchez said.

“This is another step in a great collaboration, which saw Chooks-to-Go manage successful 3x3 competitions for the last couple of years. We can’t wait to host more events and grow the discipline in the Philippines, a country which has been so passionate about 3x3," he added.

The partnership, which runs for five years, will see Chooks-to-Go become a global partner of FIBA 3x3.

Under the terms of the partnership, Chooks-to-Go will be in charge of organizing FIBA 3x3 events in the country and, as well as sending the Philippine representatives to the world circuit.

In the pipeline for the 2022 season is the hosting of the Chooks-to-Go FIBA 3x3 Southeast Asia Super Quest (April 30-May 1), the Chooks-to-Go FIBA 3x3 Manila World Tour Masters (May 28-29), and the Chooks-to-Go FIBA 3x3 Cebu World Tour Masters (October 1-2).

Besides those competitions, teams from Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3x3 will play in at least two more World Tour Masters stops, including the opener in Utsunomiya on May 14, and two Challenger tournaments.

The Philippines has previously hosted two successful FIBA 3x3 World Tour events in 2014 and 2015, and the FIBA 3x3 World Cup in 2018.

"We are truly honored to be given the privilege to be the global partner of FIBA 3x3. We will be their partner in their global activities, especially in Southeast Asia," said Chooks-to-Go president Ronald Mascariñas.

"It has always been our dream to be in a position to support FIBA 3x3 with it being an Olympic sport," said Mascariñas as hosting and joining tournaments in the FIBA 3x3 World Circuit gives the maximum possible federation points to the country.

For the domestic league, Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3x3 is planning at least three Quest level tournaments (level 7).

In preparation for these, Chooks-to-Go will send its first team composed of Mac Tallo, Zachary Huang, Mike Nzeusseu, Brandon Ramirez, and Dennis Santos to Serbia for a training camp from April 1-15.

"Next month, we will be sending our 3x3 pool to Serbia for a two-week training. They will be exposed to the best 3x3 players, Serbia being the number one 3x3 team in the world," said Mascariñas.

"We will be participating in all FIBA-sanctioned international tournaments where we will be invited or where we will qualify to participate. The more international tournaments we participate in, the easier it will be for us to pile up points," he added.

With the Paris Olympics just two years away, FIBA 3x3 head for events and partnerships Ignacio Soriano stressed the urgency to rack up points for the Philippines, which currently ranks 31st in the world.

"I'm very excited to start a new project with Chooks-to-Go and Boss Ronald. We are here to prepare because we have a long season ahead including two World Tour Masters events here. Things need to start to get rolling and things need to go really fast," said Soriano.