Why the West might be the best...

[Grand Poobah]

The best regional tournament, anyways.

The West is the oddest region WFTDA has, but many of its peculiarities make its Derby on the Rocks tournament the best of the bunch, barring Nationals.

Here's why. Other regions have one of two behemoths with a solid grasp or (in the East) a solid grasp on one of the top two spots. There's usually a #2 that's a lesser team than the number one, but also has a solid grasp on their own spot (and a presumed guaranteed road to Nationals). This tends to make regional tournaments a battle for second or third place.

But the West is kinda batshit insane. It doesn't have a team in the top 4. However, it has the greatest number of teams in the top ten or top 15 out of all four regions under pretty much any rankings system.

The top two teams (Oly Rollers and Denver Roller Dolls) are REALLY strong. And had one bout between them this year that was won by a point or two. Had a jam gone different there, Denver would likely be atop the rankings.

But there isn't the sharp drop-off after #2 seed that you see in other regions. Lower seeds like #3 Rose City Rollers (Portland), #4 Rat City (Seattle), #5 Bay Area Derby Girls (S.F./Oakland) are all strong enough to take out the #3 seeds from every region, and the #2 seeds from all but one.

Adding to the weirdness, three of the best skaters from the 7th seeded Pikes Peak have transferred to the 8th seeded Rocky Mountain Rollergirls. Rocky Mountain has always had a formiddable travel team but got showed up by their crosstown rivals at a local tournament earlier in the year. Could these three star skaters give them the unf they need to knock off some higher-seeded competition? Who knows? Pikes Peak just got crushed by the East's #5 (till next month's rankings) Boston Derby Dames after those skaters left.

The West is truly the hardest region to rank correctly, given how certain teams haven't played others, and the relative infrequency of sanctioned (meaning they count towards rankings) interleague bouts. Other teams in the region are terribly erratic and unpredictable. Doing far better than expected against some opponents, and far worse against others.

The region's #1 seed, Oly Rollers has a legendary 17 time world champion speed skater as a jammer. Two ex-Rat City Rollergirls stars (two of their famed "wall of blondes"). And a pack that includes national-class hockey and speed skaters. This travel team hit their region's #1 ranking in their first WFTDA season. That's unheard of. A number of these very skilled skaters had some difficulties "skating clean" early on, which could cost them when it comes to playing a bout officiated by a full staff of the best certified refs from in and around the region.

This league is so good but so new, it's basically broken all but one computed national ranking system. Flat Track Stats rates 15th in the country, or #6 in the region, below two teams they've already beaten. Their Dytes ranking is 14th in the country, 5th in the West. Only DerbyTron and DNN's human-sourced power rankings have them atop their region, but have them at #5 nationally.

WFTDA's two Denver leagues, the Denver Roller Dolls (#2) and Rocky Mountain Rollergirls (#8) are playing at home. Denver has that mile-high altitude that could leave many sea-level teams winded when they hit the second period. Pikes Peak (#7, Colorado Springs) and Duke City (#6, Albuquerque, NM) are also comfy at high altitudes.

And then there's the dirvergent playstyles in the region. Oly Rollers, Rose City and Rat City come from the Pacific Northwest. Leagues in this area tend to be somewhat more penalty-prone. They tend to be less cautious about going for multiple scoring passes. A top-rank bout in other parts of the country might have both teams in the 80s or 90s. In this part of the country you can have scores that go 170-150, WITH effective defense being played. It makes no sense to the rest of the derby world, but it seems to work for some of them. Fans in the area will sometimes boo a jammer who calls off a jam strategically.

The top ranked and seeded team Oly Rollers has some tournament experience (they dominated an open "coastal" tournament in California last year). But not at this level of play, and not at altitude. To my knowledge, they've never played a single bout at altitude.

Rose City Rollers are rumored to have done some "mountain training." I'm not sure if this involved some practices/scrimmages at a rink in a high altitude Oregon town, or some outdoor skating.

Rat City's skaters made up a fair portion of "Team Legit" that played in this year's banked track tourney. They finished first in the west, and second natioanally in 2007. Last year they came out third in the West but got eliminated in the first round of Nationals by Windy City Rollers.

They've always been a skillful team, that once had a rep as "dirty skaters." To some degree, many of the 2008 rules changes had a lot to do with how they did in 2007, and how they did it. Twice they beat TXRG in tournament play in '07, and both times were some of the most penalty ridden games in WFTDA history. On both sides, being the key. It appeared their opponents tended to reciprocate, which Rat City made the most of when opposing jammers were boxed.

Rat City is probably better than almost anyone at running up the score against a boxed jammer. They'll have their pack skaters trap a goat, effectively guaranteeing them control of the pack speed. Then their speed skater jammer screams past the plodding pack for multiple grand slams. They used this to great effect in their defeat of the BAD Girls this year, expect to see more of it if they play teams like them, Oly Rollers, or Rose CIty.

This year they've had a bit of turnover, but have cleaned up their game dramatically. And added Mo "Quadzilla" Sanders as their head coach. In addition, they picked up one of the sharpest refs in roller derby, Gotham Girls' Mr. Rawk. For a league with penalty problems, that's perhaps one of the greatest gifts they could have gotten.

The BAD Girls. Last year this was the team to beat in the West. They started this season ranked #1, and dropped to #5 a quarter later. They've had a rather unpredictable season this year. Losing some bouts they were expected to win, and winning bouts they were expeced to lose.

Boston and Rat City made them look rather silly, but they came within a hair of beating South Central's #1 Texas Rollergirls and utterly demolished the San Diego Derby Dolls (national banked track champs and CA state flat track champs). These drastic shifts in fortunes were sometimes weeks apart. Unpredictable team.

The question with the BAD Girls is which team they'll bring with them. The one with the frustrating defense that gets all over opposing jammers and blockers, the one that gets ahead with strategic penaltie. or the one that kills itself with accidental penalties? I've never enjoyed watching them do the latter.

For a team with a rough/dirty-playing rep and a snarky persona, they're actually pretty well-liked. They're very good at being bad, or B.A.D. Girls, as the case may be. An old and dear friend coaches them. I couldn't give you much of a guess where they'll finish though. It'll be interesting, I'm sure.

Los Angeles' Angel City Derby Girls are probably underranked at #10. This league got off to a shakey start two years back in WFTDA, but in the last nine months has shown that it's a force to be reckoned with. I could see them upsetting Pikes Peak, and doing well enough after that to place somewhere above their bottom seed.

[Grand Poobah]

Oops, I think she "only" won 13 world championship gold medals for inline speed,

[Pantsless Para-military]

You called it, the WEST did dominate this year !