Dallas, TX

By Whacks Poetic

Following the battle of the Pacific Northwest was the Battle of Sweden as 5th seed Stockholm Roller Derby from Stockholm, Sweden took on 8th Crime City Rollers from Malmö, Sweden. These teams have played each other four times already with Stockholm taking the win in three of those games. This time, however, would be different with Stockholm having already played a game this morning and having only eleven skaters at the 2015 International WFTDA Division 1 Playoffs Dallas. Crime City took the win 224-118 but took the victory lap intermingled with their fellow Swedes to the delight of the crowd here in Dallas.

Photo by Jennifer M. Ramos

The game started out with both teams looking evenly matched. The blockers were utilizing a box formation and sending offense when possible for both teams. After a 0-0 jam to start the game, both Jammers received penalties in the second jam and seemed to be fans of two minute jams. Crime City took the lead in that second jam 14-0 while Lil Slinky of Stockholm earned two penalties simultaneously on her initial pass. Mad Maloony managed to put Stockholm’s first points on the board in Jam 3 picking up 8 points with the Crime City jammer stuck in the pack. The first fifteen minutes were fast and furious with a lot of blocker penalties and contagious energy. The score climbed to 58-29 for Crime City with jammers managing to sprint through the whittled down packs. As the half stretched, however, the jams got longer with lead often not being assigned until the pack was in the second straightaway. Both teams looked battle-worn. After Crime City took a timeout to focus, they came back to put up 33 points in three jams to end the half, 112-48 in their favor.

Photo by Danny Ngan

The second half saw Mad Maloony take the lead but not the jam scoring only 4 points to Ankefar’s 7 in the first jam of the period. Stockholm continued with their three jammer rotation utilizing Mad Maloony, Lil Slinky and Panika De Hex. Crime City was able to keep their jammers’ legs fresher using a five jammer rotation and playing jams longer to tire out blockers. Crime City nurtured an increasingly lead up to 177-62 until a 24 point jam by Lil Slinky put a spring in Stockholm’s step. They picked up the next two lead jams and then in her very next jam on the track Lil Slinky put up another four points before passing the star to Dominå F. Äkt. With ten minutes to go, Crime City led their country compatriots 186-109. Crime City added another 34 points before Stockholm took a timeout and regrouped to score 9 points leading up the final jam with 219-118 on the scoreboard and Panika De Hex and Curly Håår taking the jam line. With less than one minute to go at jam start, both jammers picked up multiple penalties and the jam finished at the two minute mark with Crime City having added another 5 points to their total while Stockholm sat stagnant at 118.

Sexual Her Ass-Meant, Crime City Skater on beating Stockholm “Imagine the best feeling in the world; it was like that! We love them so much; we’re like sisters but we didn’t want to play them again here. They’re hard to play against and they just beat us two months ago. I felt like I was going to faint the entire time and I didn’t believe we’d win until the last jam.”

Crime City Rollers will be facing the winner of Dallas Derby Devils versus the Sun State Roller Girls at 2pm tomorrow for fifth place. Stockholm Roller Derby will face the loser of the same game at noon for seventh place.

FINAL SCORE

Crime City Rollers (#8) 224
Stockholm Roller Derby (#5) 118