Columbia, SC

By Lexistential Crisis

Both Portland, Oregon’s Rose City Rollers (Seed 1) and Denver, Colorado's Denver Roller Derby (Seed 3) will be competing at the 2016 International WFTDA Championships. Today’s Championship game at the 2016 International WFTDA Division 1 Playoffs Columbia determined that the reigning champions will go into the tournament armed with more gold medals and a bye. Rose City demonstrated their dominance and desire to keep the Hydra in this game. Both teams illustrated the importance of effective offensive blocking and jammers who know how to utilize their teammates.

Photo by Louis Keiner

In the first half, Denver controlled most of the jams by earning lead jammer status in 13 out of 21 jams, but Rose City was able to score more points in the jams they did earn lead. Rose City had nine jams with multiple scoring passes. Their defense limited Denver to just three multiple scoring pass jams. Rose City quickly took control of the game after Scald Eagle, Loren Mutch, and LickerNSplit scored a combined 55 points to give Rose City a lead of 55-20 ten minutes into the game. Rose City continued to limit Denver’s scoring by forcing them to call off the jam when they did have lead.

With nine minutes left in the half, Denver’s Klein started the jam in the penalty box. Her teammates Davidson, Akers, and Garton held back Loren Mutch long enough so that Klein could earn lead right out of the penalty box. Denver had a few successful jams like this where they were able to limit Rose City’s scoring and often put a few points of their own on the board. However, Rose City’s defense usually shut down the Denver jammers and helped clear paths for their own jammers to score. Rose City slightly grew their lead to end the half with a score of 129-67.

Photo by Louis Keiner

The second half was similar to the first half, as Rose City continued to rack up points with multiple scoring pass jams. They were much more successful at earning lead jammer status and increased their percentage from 38.1% to 47.1%. Denver wasn’t able to continue their lead jammer success, but they were able to score a few more points than they did in the first half. Rose City made it to 200 points with 15 minutes left in the game with a score of 205-96.

Denver finished the game on a strong note as Klein was responsible for their largest jam of the game. Those 17 points brought Denver’s score to 137, slightly more than double their halftime score. Rose City finished with a solid score of 250 to secure their bye at Championships in November.

Photo by Louis Keiner

Scald Eagle was by far the highest scoring jammer of the game with 105 points. Wilhelm and Gypin shared the duty for Denver by scoring 40 and 38 points, respectively.

Rose City maintained their seeding with a 1st place finish. Denver increased their seeding as they finished in 2nd.

Final Score

Rose City Rollers (#1) 250
Denver Roller Derby (#3) 137