Detroit, MI

By Vile Love It

The 4th game of the WFTDA Playoffs Detroit was between #10 Seed Bear City Roller Derby (#61), from Berlin, Germany, who upset the #7 Seed Boulder County Bombers (#55) to progress to take on the #2 seed Sacred City Derby Girls (#44) from Sacramento, California, later the same day.

Photo by Alexei Dodson/Rust Belt Raw

Bear City Roller Derby didn’t get out of Germany much for sanctioned roller derby games this season. They did play (and lost to) Stockholm Roller Derby (#17) and Helsinki Roller Derby (#25) and played (and won) Suburbia Roller Derby (#85).  With a reduced ability to play teams that are close to their ranking, some might suggest that Bear City came into WFTDA Playoffs a bit under-ranked. This certainly seemed the case last year when they came into WFTDA Playoffs-Kitchener-Waterloo the #9 seed and ended up in 2nd place (and took 3rd place at Championships).  

Sacred City had a more traditional preparation for this year’s WFTDA D2 Playoffs. Sacred City hit up The Big O, Tinseltown Showdown, 2015 Golden Bowl and June Boom invitational tournaments over the season. Sacred turned down their invitation to 2014 WFTDA Playoffs but have come back this season with obvious determination.

The first several minutes of the game were tense for the Bear City bench as Sacred City started off with an early 17-point power jam as Bear City’s top jammer, Master Blaster, sat in the penalty box. It took almost 5 minutes for Bear City to get any points on the scoreboard. Even Bear City’s early power jams seemed fruitless as Sacred City’s blockers were able to thwart Bear City’s offense.

But Bear City, who in last year’s WFTDA Playoffs Kitchener-Waterloo seemed to thrive on tightly-scored games, didn’t lose their composure or determination and with a few power jams and 7 lead jams in a row, chipped away at Sacred City’s lead until they pulled ahead 40-24.  

With an 18-point power jam for Donner Doro, Bear City enjoyed its most significant lead of the game until the situation reversed and Sacred City pulled even and then ahead of Bear City. At the half, Sacred had developed a significant lead of 131-75.

At the start of the second period, with the walls of both teams still holding tight to the jammers, Bear City earned 5 lead jams in a row, but the tight Sacred City walls limited the scoring damage, even when Bear City had a power jam.

Bear City’s Master Blaster’s strength, energy and agility didn’t always accomplish what she had been able to do in other games, both earlier in the day and in last year’s WFTDA D2 Playoffs. In some jams it seemed as if Sacred City had figured her out, but then she’d, hop, leap and jolt her way through the pack and eventually scored 115 total points for the game.

Sacred City had a deeper jammer bench including The 4closer, Ariel-LA-Twister, Pink Freud and Shock-N-Auburn, and their points were spread more evenly between them.

Over the entire game Bear City won more lead jams than Sacred City, but between strategic star passes and their blockers, Sacred City was able to limit Bear City’s scoring ability. Bear City also won the jammer penalty game with only 6 jammer box trips compared to Sacred City’s 14 box trips.  

The early part of the second period was another defensive battle. Bear City won lead jam over and over again, but Sacred City forced the call off after Bear City would score a point or two, or none at all. With 12 minutes left in the game Sacred City led 154-115 until Master Blaster got a power jam and pulled her team to within 24 points.  But then the tables again turned and Master Blaster headed to the box. At the end of the power jams, Sacred City remained in the lead 168-135.

As the game clock wound down, Sacred City maintained a lead that always seemed to be just within Bear City’s reach but Sacred City’s blockers kept close enough walls and clean enough play to maintain the distance in front of Bear City.

Even a late-game power jam for Master Blaster that pulled Bear City within 11 points couldn’t earn them the win. With 1 second left on the game clock at the end of the jam Bear City called a timeout. Unfortunately, Bear City was short 2 blockers and Sacred City’s Ariel-LA-Twister sped through for lead jam and immediately shut down the jam, cementing her team’s win and progress in the tournament.

Final Score

Sacred City Roller Derby 203
Bear City Roller Derby 192