Vancouver, BC

By Vile Love It

The Rat City Roller Girls of Seattle, WA, USA (seed #3) took on the Angel City Derby Girls Hollywood Scarlets of Los Angeles, CA, USA (seed #2) in Game 11 of the 2016 International WFTDA Division 1 Playoffs Vancouver. The outcome of the game would determine who would secure their spot at WFTDA Champs in Portland, OR, USA and who would still have to battle to punch their ticket in the third place game on Sunday.

Photo by James McDaniel

When these two teams last met at the 2015 WFTDA Championships in St Paul, MN, USA, Angel City came away with a 68-point win (169-101) over Rat City. Persistent defense from the Angeleños in today’s game not only confirmed their higher seeding in the tournament, but it extended that margin to a 192 point victory at the final whistle.

Angel City dominated the first period. Jammers hit packs at top speed with lead jammer status earned 85% of the time, while their blockers shut down the Rat City jammers with slow, unforgiving defense. Carmen Getsome was thrown into the jamming rotation in an attempt to shake things up and find some success for her team, and it seemed to be the right choice, as she was the third highest-scoring jammer for Rat City with 11 points totaled. Luna Negra earned highest scoring jammer for Rat City with 18 points—15 of which she grabbed on a power jam early in the game when Darby Dagger was sent to the box on a track cut.

Photo by Bob Ayers

Angel City’s top three jammers distributed the bulk of the workload neatly, with Satan’s Little Helper scoring 66 points, Ghetto Fabu-lez scoring 63 points, and Darby Dagger scoring 61 points. Micki Krimmel came in close behind them with 54 points. As the ACDG jammer rotation worked to put up multiple scoring passes jam after jam throughout the first period, Rat City jammers were consistently stymied, which earned Angel City a 105 point lead (145-40) going into the half.

Angel City maintained their stranglehold on lead jammer status as well as points for the first 23 minutes of the second period while the scoreboard was frozen at 40 points for Rat City. Genevieve Moore ended the drought in the fourth-to-last jam by picking up lead and lapping the pack through the ACDG defense for a total of 13 points. Renegade Ruthie followed up with another lead and 8 more points, and Luna Negra grabbed 3 on her final jam. This impressive momentum reversal in favor of Rat City just wasn’t enough to close the gap, and the clock ran out with Angel City earning a solid 256-64 win.

Photo by Bob Ayers

Angel City has assured their spot at the 2016 WFTDA Championships, and they’ll go on to play the Victorian Roller Derby League for first place—which comes with a first round bye at Champs—on Sunday at 6 p.m. PT. Rat City still has the opportunity to make it to Champs when they play Philly Roller Derby for third place Sunday at 4 p.m. PT.

Final Score

Angel City Derby Girls (#2) 256
Rat City Roller Girls (#3) 64