Interview: London’s Stefanie Mainey

London Rollergirls' Stefanie Mainey reflects on her team’s first trip to WFTDA Playoffs

Interview by Shelly Shankya

How do you think your team's performance at Anarchy in the UK helped prepare you for the tournament play at East Region Playoffs? 
Anarchy in the UK was the first time our Travel team has ever taken part in a tournament weekend with teams of such a high caliber. It was a chance for us to experience first-hand different team strategies and also deal with the effect of playing so many games in the space of a few days, such as muscle fatigue. Playing those teams highlighted our weaknesses and really changed the focus of our team’s training.

There was a lot of speculation about your team's placement going into playoffs. How would you respond to that speculation now? What do you think was pivotal in showing that you belonged at the tournament?
I can understand why there was a lot of speculation, but as a league we’ve always wanted to play and learn from the best. Playing those teams is what helped us win our games at [playoffs]. It was a risk not choosing to play lower-ranked teams, but I think it paid off. I think winning [the bouts we won at playoffs] was pivotal in showing we belonged at the tournament—the scores speak for themselves.

What was the team's best game at playoffs?
I think Montreal was our best game. They had beaten us five months earlier at Anarchy by an 80-point margin and really shocked us with the power of their hits, team work, and speed. Replaying them was our opportunity to see how much we’d really improved in the past five months, and it turned out to be one of the most talked-about games of the tournament.

Your team's only loss in the tournaments was against #2 Philly. What did you learn from that game? How do you plan to go back and train based on that loss?
After the East Coast Extravaganza a few people started to underestimate Philly, but we knew that Philly is an extremely strong team and would come out fighting. We suspected that jammer line knee starts would play a big part of our game. We were able to adapt to this and came back stronger in the second half, but we still have a lot to work on.  We plan to do lots of research watching the people who beat us and the people who beat them.

London Brawling provided the two largest upsets of the East Region Playoffs. How did it feel to ruin some brackets? Only 100 of the 500+ people playing the Big 5 Bracket Bonanza contest predicted you to win your bout against Carolina Rollergirls on Day 1.
Because of our light bouting season, we came into the tournament somewhat of an unknown quantity. It felt really good to surprise a lot of people.

London is now #5 in the WFTDA East, after entering playoffs at #10. How do you plan to use this large shift to motivate the team for next year's tournament play?
Our performance at [playoffs] has generated more interest from North American teams who are now considering making the trip across the pond to play us. The opportunity to bout more is really exciting and hugely motivational for the team.  It’s been important for us to have our hard work yield positive and far reaching results, and we’re hoping to have more bouts and more experience going into our next tournament.

What about being named tournament MVP? How do you feel?
It was total shock and a real honour to be voted MVP by skaters that I have admired and studied for years.

Any plans to return to the States in November to watch Championships? How many Brawlers intend to make the trip, if any?
If money and time weren’t an issue, I think we’d all be there in a flash, but with many of our Brawlers playing in various World Cup teams, I think sadly it’s not an option for most.  We are however planning on watching the [High Quality] feed and buying the DVDs.

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