Tomorrow night in Surabaya, Mister Universal Ambassador 2016 will be named. He will be the 2nd in the two year-old male pageant that has managed to rise up the ranks in terms of popularity. From a mere nineteen (19) candidates in 2015, it has assembled forty-eight (48) in this batch – quite an impressive jump in terms of the trust given by National Directors from all over the world.
So as is customary in my blog, I will give now my Final Predictions for the Top 15. The video above had the choices presented in alphabetical order. Here now are my picks arranged from 1-15 (top to bottom):
In all honesty and objectivity, I can see a three-way battle for the top spot with Christian Llorente of Spain, Alejandro Martinez of the Dominican Republic and Andrea Biondo of the Philippines fighting tooth and nail to be #1. The rise to pole position won’t be easy, as I know that the IMP (Indonesian Male Pageant) Organization will make it doubly hard for the contenders to slug it out considering that the next winner will have big shoes to fill in the person of Christian Ortiz of Puerto Rico. In the end, I can see a winner who will not only be a “Captivating Role Model” (the pageant’s tagline), but also a committed brand ambassador who can help make Mister Universal Ambassador become the best male competition anywhere in the globe.
As for the potential qualifiers outside of the trio above, I can pick Eric of Puerto Rico, Jesus of Peru, Marcello of Brazil and Mazi of Algeria as strong spoilers. This quartet can individually zoom to higher placements if the breaks go in their favor.
All told, this batch has unleashed a really strong group of entries from Latin America and Spain – the Spanish-speaking countries if you will. But if the organization is looking at gaining more solid grounds into Europe, then a toss between Christian Llorente and Andrea Biondo would be ideal as both of them can connect the brand to the said continent effortlessly well. And between the two, our bet has a slight edge because he still has that solid link to Asia where Mister Universal Ambassador still needs to sustain its popularity.
Mister Universal Ambassador 2016 will have its Grand Finals at the Governor Hall in Surabaya Carnival Jawa Timur where Mister Tourism International Philippines 2015 Willan Pagayon will be the Master of Ceremonies.
Best of luck to all candidates! 😀