2016 International Tournaments

via Derby Central

The first round of the 2016 International WFTDA Playoffs took place last weekend in Wichita, Kansas and lived up to its Division 2 history of exciting upsets and results. This weekend will include the first two of five teams that are new to Playoffs this year, a couple who have risen high enough to make a return, and a few teams who dropped out of Division 1 since last year. Overall, many of the teams experienced inconsistent results this year which makes the whole bracket a bit tough to predict.

Game 1: #8 Bear City Roller Derby vs #9 Tri-City Roller Derby

The first game of the tournament will be a battle between Germany and Canada. Hailing from Berlin, this will be the third year that Bear City has gotten a playoff invite. The past two seasons they have entered low in the bracket and finished high, and went as far as placing 2nd in D2 Championships in 2014. This season Bear City played two games at home and four at Midwest BrewHaHa, yielding a split 3-3 record. Master Blaster, their top scorer from years past, transferred to London this season, but Berlin still has a strong rotation led by Mia Missile who achieved lead status 69% of the time at BrewHaHa.

The Tri-City Thunder have spent the last few Playoff seasons at the bottom of Division 1, and got their first invite in 2013 where they finished 5th in Division 2. The Thunder also lost a top jammer between seasons, The Honey Badger to Montreal, but has showed some strong progress over the season. They also went to BrewHaHa this year, as well as Quad City Chaos and Beaver Fever, going 3-8 so far in 2016.

Bear City and Tri-City have never played each other and the winner of this game will face the #1 seed Charm City later in the day at 4pm EDT. Tri-City recently took them on and lost by 43 points, while Bear City has never played Charm City before. The loser will head to the consolation bracket for a game at 10am EDT on Saturday against the loser of Game 3.

Game 2: #7 Charlottesville Derby Dames vs #10 Grand Raggidy Roller Derby

These two teams have never met on the track before and this will only be Charlottesville's second season attending Playoffs. Their debut was at a Division 1 tournament last year however, and after entering 10th they improved by finishing 8th. This season they kept on playing D1 level teams and although they ended up with a 0-9 record, they only lost to Columbia and Ann Arbor by 1 point each this season, and they are the #8 and #9 seeds in the D1 Columbia bracket respectively. The only D2 team they took on was Brandywine, who we just saw take the gold last weekend in Wichita and Charlottesville lost to them 263-151.

Grand Raggidy is an old school team that has experience in both regional and divisional Playoff tournaments, but haven't made the cut every year. They last made playoffs in 2014 where they finished 10th in D2 Kitcherner-Waterloo and their results this year are just as sporadic. With a 6-6 record they lost to Bear City (#8 seed in this bracket) by 17 points but beat Cincinnati (#4 seed in this bracket) by 9 points at BrewHaHa. At K-Town Shakedown they lost to Carolina (who just placed 10th in Wichita) by 31 points but only lost to Blue Ridge (who finished 2nd in Wichita) by about the same margin at 39 points.

The winner will play the #2 seed Sac City the same day at 6pm EDT, who neither have played before. This game could be a wild card depending on if Charlottesville is maybe coming in a little under-ranked after playing so many high level teams in the last year, or on which Grand Raggidy shows up to play. Whoever doesn't advance will play at noon on Saturday against the loser of Game 6.

Game 3: #3 Wasatch Roller Derby vs #6 Nidaros Roller Derby

The Wasatch Midnight Terror have participated in WFTDA tournaments since the Big 5, and last year they entered and left D2 Detroit in 5th place. These year they've won four sanctioned games and lost five while strictly playing games at big events. At Skate to Thrill they beat Calgary (#5 seed in this bracket) by 68 points and came close to D1 team Rocky Mountain, losing 188-165 at Besterns. They also hosted the Great Salt Skate in June, finishing the weekend on a win against Chicago Outfit (9th place finisher from Wichita) 282-134.

These two teams have never played each other since Nidaros is from Trondheim, Norway, and is attending WFTDA Playoffs for the first time. Derby Central wrote an in depth article about them earlier this month, highlighting the journey that got them this far in the rankings. It was just four games this season, all wins, that qualified Nidaros for a D2 bracket. They already visited the Midwest in April when they took on Grand Raggidy (189-124), Ft. Wayne (201-96), and Killamazoo twice (278-109; 255-131), and return just months later. These games helped them get this far, but as such a small sample, this weekend will really test the team and how they will do against new opponents.

The winner will play a semi-final game against the winner of Game 5 (Sac City vs Winner of Game 2) on Saturday at 8pm EDT. The loser will hit the consolation bracket Saturday at 10am EDT against the loser of the first game.

Game 4: #1 Charm City Roller Girls vs Winner of Game 1 (Bear City/Tri-City)

With the creation of Divisions, D2 has become a place for higher ranked teams to fall into after experiencing change in their team, or an unfortunate circumstance of the ranking shuffle for others. Charm City has continually lost some key players over the past few years, but also have retained a core of hard working skaters and a transfer from Rat City this year, LeBrawn Maimes. Having beaten some D1 teams this year, including their recent 254-117 win against Steel City, their 6-2 record this year indicates that they may end up being a strong #1 seed for this bracket. Their first game will be at 4pm EDT on Friday and will be against either #8 seed Bear City or #9 seed Tri-City. They've never played Bear City but beat Tri-City last year at D1 Playoffs (218-176) and again this July (199-156). Winning means a semi-final game against the winner of Game 6, either #4 Cincinnati or #5 Calgary, Saturday at 2pm EDT.

Game 5: #2 Sac City Rollers vs Winner of Game 2 (Charlottesville/Grand Raggidy)

Sac City went as far as D2 Championships in 2013, where they placed 4th, and after not attending in 2014, they finished 7th in D2 Detroit last year. This season they won one game and lost four while playing one game at Spudtown Knockdown and two at Boardwalk Empire. In April they lost to Jet City (recent 3rd place winner in Wichita) by four points but also lost to Kansas City in May (recent 9th place finisher in Wichita) by 32 points. With such a short season these inconsistent results leave some wiggle room for how things may play out.

The Sac City Capital Punishers' first game will be Friday at 6pm EDT against either #7 seed Charlottesville or #10 Grand Raggidy. Winning means a match up against either Nidaros or Wasatch – a team that Sac City lost to last playoff season. If we see another #2 seed upset like Wichita, Sac City would fall into the consolation bracket Saturday at 4pm EDT.

Game 6: #4 Cincinnati Rollergirls vs #5 Calgary

The Cincinnati Black Sheep have missed out on Playoffs the last two seasons due to turnover and rebuilding, making it a big accomplishment to find their way back this season. With a mix of long time skaters and talented new blood on their roster, they went 5-2 this season with two games at Midwest BrewHaHa. Earlier in the year they beat Demolition City, who was on their way down in the rankings, 230-88. They did however, already lose to their Friday competitor, by 51 points, when they played Calgary at BrewHaHa. It was there that they also lost to this bracket's #10 seed Grand Raggidy, but in April they only lost to D1 team Naptown by 30 points. Calgary is new to Playoffs but not to the long weekend. When Derby Central took a look back at this team's rise in the rankings, it showed a lot of time spent at tournaments and invitationals due to their isolated location in Alberta, Canada. Their split 5-5 season shows some up and down results, much like Cincinnati, but they will be coming off an August win against E-Ville Roller Derby.

A #4 and #5 seed match up is supposed to be a close game, but the middle of the bracket can also be the place where rising and falling teams meet in the middle. Much like the rest of this bracket, this game could go either way, with the winner taking on #1 seed Charm City the next day. The loser will enter the consolation bracket Saturday at 12pm EDT against either Bear City or Tri-City.

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