Vancouver, BC

By Culta Skaro

The Arizona Roller Derby Tent City Terrors of Phoenix, AZ, USA were all smiles as they wrapped up their last game of the 2016 International WFTDA Division 1 Playoffs Vancouver. Their 197-142 win over the Naptown Roller Girls Tornado Sirens of Indianapolis, IN, USA put them in ninth place for the weekend—an advancement from their seeding in tenth. Naptown, meanwhile, fell four spots from their sixth place seeding to finish in 10th place.

Photo by Keith Bielat

Arizona took the lead right away when Luz Chaos put two points on the board to Naptown’s one in the first jam. They would go on to retain the lead for the rest of the game, slowly widening the point differential with agile footwork from their jammers and stifling walls from their blockers.

Naptown had several jams in which they began to chip away at Arizona’s lead. Erica d'Entremont picked up a back block during a scoring pass for AZRD in jam 19, but was sent off the track with two penalties since she had fallen over and made contact with the downed blocker. Those double penalties gave Naptown a full minute to try and score unanswered points. Tight Arizona walls prevented the Naptown star from getting through on an initial pass for a full 80 seconds, at which point Maiden America handed the helmet cover to Cherry-oto-Fire, who quickly added 12 points to the team and brought the score within 30 points.

Photo by Brangwyn Jones

AZRD recovered speedily, taking advantage of a series of jammer penalties that began with a track cut from Naptown’s Eve Anne Hellical at the start of the next jam. Arizona jammer R2DEATH2 soon replaced her in the box after picking up a back block, but another back block by Naptown put Arizona at the advantage again and allowed them to go on a 20-point scoring run.

Jammer penalties became a significant issue for Naptown in the second half, causing Arizona’s lead to swell to 77 points by jam 18. And strong defense from Arizona’s Kootz—who was able to successfully lock down the front of the pack with one-on-one blocking that significantly delayed the release of Naptown jammers—gave the team an additional advantage when both jammers remained on the track.

Two penalties by AZRD’s Choke Ya Latte in the last jam gave Maiden America an opportunity to narrow the gap by 15 points, leaving Arizona with a 197 to 142 win. Arizona hops up the bracket to finish the tournament in ninth place, knocking Naptown down to 10th.

Final Score

Arizona Roller Derby (#10) 197
Naptown Roller Girls (#6) 142