PURE MAYHEM! Dames over Renegades in historic bout

[Michi-chan]

While the rest of the derby world was watching Texas overtake Carolina and Gotham steamroll over Duke City, a crowd of about 300 Phoenix area derby fans came to witness history in the making as for the first time, two Phoenix area leagues competed against each other.

The Arizona Renegade Rollergirls took on an all-star line-up from the Arizona Derby Dames. The bout was played at the Renegades' venue and in the Renegade no-rules format.

The bout would open up with the Renegades' T-Wrexx jamming against Runaway Brides' star jammer Stilhetto Wheels. Stilhetto manages to break but double-team defense by Renegade rookies Lusty Crush and Aurora Glory Alice at the whistle kept the Dames from their first three points. (In the Renegade format, the team scores 3 points each time the jammer laps the pack.) In a later jam, it was mayhem vs. mayhem when Dames' rookie jammer Ellie Mayhem and Mayhemily kept going after each other for the duration of the jam. Ellie being blocked by Mayhemily would grab her and push her into the frontstretch infield. By turn-2, Mayhemily would try to take down Ellie, Mayhemily would give a cheap shot to the head on the outer backstretch support column. But that was not it. Ellie would then take a whip off of a teammate and pull down Mayhemily from behind, but Mayhemily was ready for it. A little grabbing took place right against the turn 1/2 crowd as Mayhemily wanted more while Ellie was trying to pull away to score. Only the whistle to signify the end of the jam stopped this little war of mayhem. In a later jam, Coffin Dragger Ginger Mortis would take out Hellbent Heather in turn 2. Mayhemily would join into the dogpile. (See picture in article) Somewhere in all of the mayhem, one of the Dames jammers was able to score 3 points (Renegades do not use stars for their jammers) and the period ends 3-0.

Second period would open up with T-Wrexx going to the line against Ellie Mayhem. Ellie would push T-Wrexx out of the way. T-Wrexx would get winded by the backstretch outside support column. Nacho Girlfriend would come up to jam for the Dames and no matter what, she could not get by that strong Renegade defense (cutting the track by the blockers is allowed in Renegades). Like in the last period, someone picked up 3 points, 6-0 Dames at the end of the second period. After the period, an off-track dispute would take place between Mayhemily and an unidentified non-skating Dame to the point that Mayhemily took her skates off. From the reports we had received, the confrontation appeared to have been due to some alleged heckling from the sidelines by the Dames' skater towards Mayhemily.

The third period would begin with Red Rocker trying to attempt to hump Mayhemily. Mayhemily would kick away and eventually ref interaction kept the hump from happening. A few jams later, KC Karrnage wanted a shot at Rocker. In the next jam, Renegade Mad-as-Sin, returning from a long absense from the track has a short scuffle with Lora Stabbs. As derby fans, if we learned anything from the Renegade Rollergirls tonight, is that when you are sitting in the front row, do not put your purse in front of you. A fan learned that when Magnum took a spill in the crowd in turn-3. Her skate would catch on to a fan's handbag and she would try to skate away with the bag attached. The jam was called right at that time. In the next jam, T-Wrexx and Nacho Girlfriend would collide in turn 2. Nacho would remain on the ground while on-site EMTs tend to her injury. The game would end on a called jam about 10 seconds in (Renegades do have lead jammers) as the celebration at the Dames bench begins. Somewhere in all of the scuffle, the Dames manage to score 9 more points for a final score of 15-0, Dames over the Renegades.

This was a very highly publicized bout which included a full page ad in the New Times. In my opnion, the Arizona Derby Dames gave the Arizona Renegades their first loss of the year but also gave them a taste of their fan base. I surely hope that many of the fans who came tonight from Dames bout as well as those who saw the ad in the New Times and were at a bout for the very first time, stay. For those rollervirgins who have never seen derby before, it can't get more extreme than this and still be REAL Derby. REAL Derby thanks the Renegades for inviting us into their house for this monumental event.

MICHI-CHAN'S REAL DERBY
Arizona's Derby Report
http://www.michichan.com

[Tim Patten]

So how do people defend? It looks like people skate through pack 90% of the time?

[Michi-chan]

Plus it helps the jammer who is in play to be helped through the pack by her blockers and not have to worry about having to keep catching up to a fast pack.

[Grand Poobah]

Tim: Only blockers/pivots count towards making up a majority of the pack, so it's four. They can pick up speed, but if the others all slow down, it's a split pack, i.e. no pack. In addition to having the majority of pack skaters within 10' proximity, it needs to have at least one member of both teams. Four skaters speeding up on their own doesn't work.

It's easier to make another skater go slower than it is to make her go faster. Hence packs tend to go slower when one jammer is out.

[Michi-chan]

I wrote that article and I have the entire bout on video. There was no scoreboard. In fact, I did not know the progression of the score until the end of the period. (Renegades play 3x15's). If you review the entire video jam-by-jam, it was very unclear to me how they scored. The jammers do not wear stars so you have to rely on just knowing who the jammer is for each team to be able to follow it. I did see skaters break but it was very hard to find the 5 scores that the Dames had. They did have some called off lead jams (that ended well before the 60 second jam time). The scoring for the bout went 3+3+9=15. The 3rd period was definitely to most intense period of the bout. I am seriously considering posting this bout video jam-by-jam just to see if anyone can help me find where the scores were made. I have a December edition of MCRD to work on here. I will have some video from the bout on there.

[Tim Patten]

I got all that. Those are the old school rules for pack work too. The old school has all those 20" rules and so on. That is not new.

But...

IF One jammer is out, leaving 5 skaters on the other team and 4 on the team who has the offensive threat.... Why don't the 5 skaters from the other team (as a group) PICK UP SPEED?

[Grand Poobah]

If you have rules and referees, you define what does and doesn't make up a pack. Generally that's the majority of blockers (pivots included) who are within 10' of one another. Blockers who are 20' ahead of the pack are out of play. They can't hit or even passively block the jammer.

If one or two of a team's blockers get 20'+ out and blocks the jammer, that's a penalty. If they have more of their blockers up there and at least one of the other team's, THEY are the legally defined pack, and the slower team's blockers are out of play. If it's a 50/50 split, that's a split pack and all of the blockers are out of play if they don't comprise a pack soon enough after the ref's warning.

None of that applies with the Renegades, they don't have rules, so in theory, any blocking is legal. Including just plain skating away from the jammer. Unless of course the scorekeeping referee just simply gives her lead jammer or the lap points once the blocker(s) she's trying to pass are more than 20' out.

Pack speed management is very important, and it's something the newest teams tend to have a harder time getting on top of. "Runaway pussy" isn't a term you hear very often. The rules are designed to make it a useless strategy. That is, if you have rules.

It'd be interesting to hear how the Renegades deal with runaway blockers. Or if that was even an issue. The recap tells us the Derby Dames won it, it doesn't really get into what they did to win it. Picking fights with the jammers?

[Tim Patten]

If the bject of the game is to pass an opponent.... why do skaters NOT skate away from oncoming jammer? How do they stop runway pussy. Do they script that into the rules?

[Grand Poobah]

I was talking about why other leagues use outside refs (Tim mentioned it). Renegades have no outside refs because they don't have refs or rules for them to enforce. How do they deal with runaway pussy? Was that used to keep them scoreless in this bout? Anarchy is like Burning Man. It sounds like a great idea, until your girlfriend gets sand in her cooch.

I don't really buy that anyone doesn't care about $1000. While the Derby Dames have a LOT of skaters (five teams worth) and don't seem to bother sinking money into playing out of town opponents, that's still a big chunk of money. To be honest, I really don't buy the rumor. Not in this kind of economy. A good story to drive some buzz amongst the fans, I suppose.

[Michi-chan]

Outside refs would be hard to do at Arizona Renegades. They would constantly crash into the concrete pillars. Even inside refs counting points would have the same issue. (See my past Renegade videos and you will see what I mean)

=m

[Tim Patten]

I wonder about the runaway skaters too?

The scripted leagues are so damn competitive that skaters hold hate grudges till they die. The competition is not just what we see on the track. As soon as a bout/game is announced... the power plays and back stabbing begin.This is one of the main reasons I don't want to promote again. When you promote ALL these competitive issues come to your desk. Phew... It's a bitch.