Detroit, MI

By Vile Love It

The game for the WFDTA D2 Playoffs Detroit bronze metal between the #4 Seed Naptown Roller Girls (#48) and #6 Seed Chicago Outfit Roller Derby (#52) was a tale of two periods. The first period was a low-scoring defensive battle. After halftime though, Naptown pulled away from The Outfit and ran away with third place in the tournament.

Photo by Derby With Recess

The Outfit and Naptown are old bracketmates from the regional tournament days. Although both teams are not strangers to WFTDA Playoffs, this was their first Playoffs game against each other.

This is Naptown’s 6th trip to WFTDA Playoffs but their first trip to D2 Playoffs. In 2010, 2011 and 2012, Naptown skated in the WFTDA North Central Region Playoffs and went to Championships in 2011 and 2012. They attended the D1 Playoffs in 2013, taking 4th Place in Richmond, and 2014, finishing 6th Place in Charleston.

The Outfit played in the 2011 and 2012 North Central Region Playoffs and took 10th place in the D1 WFTDA Playoffs in Salem and 7th place in D2 WFTDA Playoffs in Kitchener-Waterloo.

Naptown had a tough season with losses against Toronto Roller Derby #32, Detroit Derby Girls #21 and Arch Rival Roller Girls #11. The Outfit’s season included wins against Blue Ridge Rollergirls #69, Columbia Quad Squad #46, Twin City Derby Girls #90 and Tri-City Roller Derby #40.

Naptown’s journey through the Playoffs weekend started with a win over the #5 Seed Wasatch Roller Derby (#51). Their second game, against #1 Seed Nashville Rollergirls (#43) was a loss 233-209. Similarly, The Chicago Outfit won their first Playoffs game against #3 Seed Emerald City Roller Girls (#47) 141-121 and then lost to #2 Seed Sacred City Derby Girls (#44).

The first period of play between The Outfit and Naptown was quite the defensive battle and the teams went into the locker rooms at halftime sitting on the score of 62-36, Naptown leading. Both teams had minimal power jams in the first period (two for the Outfit, one for Naptown) and the score differential between the teams at the half could be accounted for by those power jams. The lead jammer status was almost evenly split (13 for Naptown, 15 for the Outfit) during the first period.

But the second period was almost all Naptown. Compared to the first period, when they put 62 points on the board, Naptown scored 128 points in the second period compared to The Outfit’s 71. Although Naptown gave up five power jams in the second period their defense, often anchored by Dora the Destroyer, killed those power jams with minimal damage.

After the first 40 minutes of play, Naptown had kept The Outfit’s star jammer Lola Blow to only 19 points. Over the entire game she only scored 36 points compared to 75 points against Sacred City and 87 points against Emerald City. Naptown’s highest scorer, Maiden America, had 96 points.

Midway through the second period it seemed that The Outfit might be able to make some headway towards evening up the score when Maiden America headed to the penalty box leaving Lola Blow on the track. But as they had done all game long, the Naptown blockers held up Lola Blow enough and limited her to only 10 points. She wasn’t lead jammer so couldn’t call it off and, when Maiden America returned to the track, she was able to offset the points scored by Lola Blow and keep her team’s strong lead.

The Outfit had two foul outs including Lady K and The Joan Ranger and between the total penalties (40 compared to Naptown’s 34) and Naptown’s solid defensive lines, The Outfit had trouble gaining any traction and Naptown solidified their 3rd place win.

Final Score

Naptown Roller Girls (#4) 190 3rd Place
Chicago Outfit Roller Derby (#6) 107 4th Place