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How the Ateneo vs La Salle war extended to Twitter

Kaye Cabal

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How the Ateneo vs La Salle war extended to Twitter
Who were tweeting during the Ateneo vs La Salle UAAP Season 78 first round duel?

MANILA, Philippines – Who remembers the basketball game last Sunday, October 4, at the Mall of Asia Arena?

It’s a match that La Salle certainly remembers but which Ateneo would rather forget. On social media, however, the UAAP rivalry between the two schools was captured on Twitter. And there are visuals to show for it.

Last Sunday, the Blue Eagles and Green Archers faced each other for the first time in the ongoing 78th season of the UAAP (University Athletic Association of the Philippines).

Ateneo was leading by as many as 15 points until DLSU surged back to eventually take down the Blue Eagles, 80-76. (READ: HIGHLIGHTS: Ateneo vs La Salle (UAAP Season 78) 

While we all know that each Ateneo vs La Salle game is an ultimate crowd-drawer in the UAAP, the crowd extended to Twitter.

Looking at Reach, Rappler’s social dashboard, we tracked tweets containing any of these following keywords or hashtags: UAAP Season 78, UAAP78, DLSU, ADMU, Ateneo, La Salle, Animo, One Big Fight, ADMU vs DLSU, and Ateneo vs La Salle. All tweets sent from 3:30 pm until 7:15 pm of October 4 were monitored.

In a span of 3 hours and 45 minutes, these preset keywords and hashtags pulled in a little over 40,000 (excluding retweets) from over 17,000 unique Twitter accounts.

Distribution of tweets over time. Screengrab from Reach

These keywords generated over 405 million impressions during the ballgame.

Below is the visualization of the estimated number of impressions (in millions) recorded since the start of the match until the final buzzer, and what the Twitter users were talking about at that time.

Impressions generated by the keywords over time. Screengrab from Reach

Top Twitter influencers

Out of 17,000 unique Twitter accounts, Reach was able to identify a total of 44 top Twitter influencers during the Ateneo vs La Salle duel.

These 44 influencers were categorized into 3 – those who were tweeting about DLSU, those who were tweeting about ADMU, and those who were either neutral or tweeting live updates during the game (including media organizations).

Fifteen Twitter influencers leaned toward DLSU: @lahzuhlpls, @AnimoNation, @jeronteng, @joshuatorralba, @GaryValenciano1, @abymarano, @JulianMauricio, @LaurenceMrcd, @AmapolaGuerrero, @ejdano_cr7, @rchll_, @fangirl041, @donkingmamac, @cj899, and @vsglovers.

Meanwhile, 9 Twitter influencers were for ADMU: @kieferravena, @BruceScwayne, @arvintolentino5, @chelin1092, @arismanalo, @chefedward, @Alyssa_Valdez2, @aaalyssuh, and @BlueEagleNation.

Another 20 Twitter influencers were members of the media, news organizations, accounts tweeting UAAP updates, or commercial brands.


What were these social media influencers tweeting about? What role did each of these Twitter accounts play during the Ateneo vs La Salle social media conversation? 

Aside from categorizing these top accounts according to which university they were rooting for, Reach was also able to group these accounts into 3, depending on their roles:

Broadcasters

These broadcasters helped reach a wide audience during the Ateneo vs La Salle game. Some of these accounts were also mentioned by different Twitter users thus extending their audience reach.

Ateneo’s star guard Kiefer Ravena was mentioned 258 times during the game, excluding the retweets. This made him one of the broadcasters despite not tweeting within the specified time frame.

Another example is La Salle’s Joshua Torralba, who was tagged 251 times.

Below are the top tweets mentioning Ravena and Torralba:


La Salle’s Jeron Teng, one of the most influential Archers both on Twitter and on the court, tweeted before and after the game.

 



The following broadcasters posted about De La Salle and its victory: 






Commercial brands such as Chowking and Cherry Mobile were also tagged as broadcasters. The latter did not tweet about the game but was mentioned by Rappler. Cherry Mobile powered Rappler’s coverage. 

Chowking was quick to take advantage of the opportunity and posted a disclaimer before the start of the game. “We’re taking one step ahead to inform you that we also have nothing to do with it, should the results of the Ateneo – La Salle game be rigged. That’s a promise,” the hilarious tweet said.

 

(In fact, when Gilas Pilipinas lost to China in the 2015 FIBA Asia gold medal match, Filipino netizens “blamed” Chowking in an attempt to make light of the situation and heartbreak.)

Linkers

Our linkers helped expand the conversation by bringing their own communities into the discussion. While most of the linkers were sports media personalities, there were also Ateneo and La Salle fans who tweeted about the game to help amplify the topic to their networks.

For instance, this UAAP 78 account tweeted a photo of actress Jane Oineza watching the game with Teng’s siblings. Tweets like this pulled in the fan base of Oineza in the Ateneo – La Salle Twitter community.

 

Blue Eagle Nation Twitter account brought in a solid Ateneo community through their tweets, including this throwback photo of 5th year players Ravena and Von Pessumal.

This fan account for Ateneo star Alyssa Valdez harnessed the Ateneo volleyball community during a basketball game. A few hours before the Ateneo vs La Salle basketball match, Ateneo Lady Eagles lost to the NU Lady Bulldogs in Game 3 of the Shakey’s V-League finals.

Niche

The users tagged as niche by Rappler’s Reach have very focused and highly engaged communities. 

Since Oineza’s fan base was already linked and pulled-in into the Ateneo – La Salle Twitter community, a few of the niche accounts were tweeting about her.

 



The Twitter accounts of the athletes, including fan accounts, also contributed to the community by tweeting for their campus and for their team.




What do you think about the Ateneo vs La Salle rivalry? Were you watching the game live or were you a part of the Ateneo – La Salle Twitter community?

Share your thoughts in the comments section or write your own reaction on X! – Rappler.com

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Kaye Cabal

Kaye Cabal leads Rappler’s Digital Communications team and has been with Rappler since 2014. Her interest in and dedication to social media grew deeper with her love and passion for Philippine sports. She is a BS Development Communication graduate of UP Los Baños.
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