Playoffs & Championships

By Vile Love It

Detroit, Michigan, will showcase the next crew of top Division 2 teams, including four teams that played in Division 1 Playoffs last season and one team brand new to WFTDA Playoffs. While there is a small spread between Nashville Rollergirls (1 Seed, #43) with 313.97 ranking points and Bear City Roller Derby (10 Seed, #61) with 273.63 ranking points, it’s a math equation that doesn’t adequately portray the closeness of game play.

In many D1 Playoffs, it’s less likely that a 9 or 10 seed that wins their first game goes on to win against the top-seeded teams. However, it is not as uncommon in a D2 Playoffs tournament. For example, Bear City also entered as a low seed last year and pulled off a number of upsets to emerge in Second Place. That’s what makes the D2 tournaments so thrilling!

Kicking off the 2015 International WFTDA Division 2 Playoffs in Detroit will be Sac City Rollers (8 Seed #56) and the Brewcity Bruisers (9 Seed, #60).

Brewcity had the busiest 2015 season of this bracket’s teams. They skated in 14 sanctioned games since March (attending three tournaments) and earned a season record of 8-6. Brewcity took on several higher-ranked teams including bracket-mate Chicago Outfit (seed 6, #52), and Tri-City Roller Derby (#40), Dallas Derby Devils (#24), and Arizona Roller Derby (#31). They pulled out a three-point win against The Outfit, which we could see a repeat of if both teams make it all the way to the final Sunday night game. At last year’s D2 Playoffs in Duluth, Brewcity finished in 7th place. They also are veterans of the North Central Region Playoffs, before the Divisions system was implemented.

Sac City played in the Dust Devil against bracket-mate Boulder County Bombers in a close game, losing 151-163. However, when they met them again at Spudtown Knockdown, Boulder came back with a 109-188 win.

This will be Sac City’s second WFTDA Playoffs appearance. The team took 4th place at WFTDA D2 Championships in 2013 after earning 2nd place at the D2 Playoffs in Kalamazoo. The team declined their invitation to Playoffs in 2014.

The next matchup will be against the Boulder County Bombers (7 Seed, #55) and Bear City Roller Derby (10 Seed, #61). Bear City will be the only team from outside the U.S. to skate in Detroit. They come in as the 10 seed but the Rideau Valley Roller Girls (#41) might tell you not to underestimate this team. Bear City blasted into the 2014 D2 Playoffs in Kitchener-Waterloo as the 9 seed but barely lost in the final game against Rideau Valley 243-240. They went on to WFTDA Championships and won the D2 Third Place game.

Bear City didn’t attend any tournaments in the 2015 season, and lost to Stockholm Roller Derby (#17) and Helsinki Roller Derby (#25). Their only large win was against Suburbia Roller Derby (#85). The Boulder County Bombers also played in D2 Playoffs at Kitchener-Waterloo last year, which was their debut at WFTDA Playoffs, but this will be the first time the teams meet on the track. Boulder took 9th place at Kitchener-Waterloo.

Game 3 will introduce the beginning of games between teams with recent D1 Playoffs experience. Wasatch Roller Derby (5 Seed #51) and Naptown Roller Girls (4 Seed, #48) will meet in their first sanctioned game against each other.

Wasatch took 8th place at the 2014 D1 Playoffs in Salt Lake City and capped off their 2013 season in 7th place at D1 Playoffs in Fort Wayne. However, this season saw them getting bumped out of D1 Playoffs by the rise of other leagues and some difficult games against much higher-ranked teams. They played at the Besterns tournament this season and, although they had a losing tournament, they did gain some great experience that should serve them well during D2 Playoffs. They played Arizona (#31), Terminal City Rollergirls (#27) and Rocky Mountain Rollergirls (#14) for a tournament average of 294.52 ranking points.

After two trips to WFTDA Championships in 2012 and 2011, a 6th place finish at 2014 D1 Playoffs Charleston, and a 4th place finish at 2013 D1 Playoffs Richmond, the Naptown Roller Girls (4 Seed #48) head to Detroit with significant Playoffs experience. No matter their downward trend in the rankings, the experience they have garnered, in addition to their game play, will make them a tough opponent. Naptown had some losses to high-ranked teams over the course of the season, including Arch Rival Roller Girls (#11) and Arizona (#31) at Skate To Thrill.

Emerald City Roller Girls (3 Seed, #47) and The Chicago Outfit (6 Seed, #52) will finish out the first round games.

This will be Emerald City’s Playoffs debut. They had a winning season, primarily against lower-ranked teams, with their only loss of the season against bracket-mate Sacred City (168-211) at The Big O. Debutantes have surprised WFTDA fans before, and Emerald City could be the next Playoffs surprise.

The Chicago Outfit is not unknown to WFTDA Playoffs. They took 7th place at 2014 D2 Playoffs in Kitchener-Waterloo and 10th place at 2013 D1 Playoffs in Salem. They are coming off a big win against Tri-City (#40) (186-100) and will surely bring that energy into Detroit. The only bracket-mate they played in sanction play this season was Brewcity. Brewcity took that win in a squeaker (158-161).

Sacred City Derby Girls (2 Seed #44) and Nashville Rollergirls (1 Seed, #43) will get a first round bye, playing the winners of the first round games between the 7 through 10 seeds.

Sacred City declined their tournament invitation in 2014 while they played host to D1 Playoffs but placed 8th at 2013 D1 Playoffs in Salem. The 2015 season saw them take advantage of invitational tournament play and they earned some big wins. Their biggest gain in ranking points was a 265-59 win over the Fabulous Sin City Rollergirls (#67) at June Boom. They also won against bracket-mate Emerald City 211-168 at The Big O in May.

During Tinseltown Showdown Sacred played Arizona (#31) and the Santa Cruz Derby Girls (#42). Both games were losses, but their game against Santa Cruz was a 2 point difference. Speaking of 2 points, Sacred City is separated from the lowest-ranked D1 teams by a smidge over 2 ranking points. That is how close these teams are to each other and how close they are to many D1 teams.

Sacred City also met up with bracket-mate Wasatch in 2015 in unsanctioned play and Sacred City earned a significant win (231-97). The year before, however, Wasatch took the win in a close game (161-181).

Nashville is also outside of the D1 rankings cutoff by less than two ranking points. In 2014 they took 6th place at the D1 Playoffs in Evansville and 8th place at 2013 D1 Playoffs in Asheville. Nashville played bracket-mate Naptown early in the 2015 season and took a loss (90-157). They also had a significant loss against Arch Rival Roller Girls (#11) (36-349).

Nashville played a heavy season, though, with 13 games total. They only hit up one invitational tournament, The Big O, and played heavy hitters Montreal Roller Derby (#16) and Terminal City Rollergirls (#27) and lost to both teams. They came back after that to trounce Columbia Quad Squad (#46), Cincinnati Rollergirls (#71) and Providence Roller Derby (#91).

The ten teams that round the track at D2 Playoffs in Detroit will surely bring surprises and thrills both on the track and off. With the teams ranked so closely, neither ranking points nor past game results can safely predict the outcome. You’re going to have to watch it to believe it!

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