By Justice Feelgood Marshall, Last updated Tue Nov 10 2009 7:35pm

Philly | Gotham | Boston | Windy City | Madison | Detroit | Texas | Kansas City | Houston | Oly | Rocky Mountain | Denver

Texas (#1 South Central)

First bout: vs winner of Boston / Madison, Saturday 11am

2009 WFTDA record: 9-1

2009 biggest win: 451-8 over Oklahoma, May 30

2009 biggest loss: 84-76 to Gotham, June 19

2009 closest bout: 83-77 win over Bay Area, September 6

2009 background: The sport's progenitors have long been known for giving newbies and developing teams a harsh welcome to top-flight play, but they outdid themselves this year with five 200+ point games, 4 of them coming against teams that qualified for the South Central tournament. When facing more experienced teams , though, Texas still almost always wins, if by much closer margins: they turned back stiff challenges from Boston (34 points), Charm City (8 points) and Bay Area (6 points) this year. Their biggest bout of the year was a grudge rematch with Gotham, where each team held the lead for about half the bout before Gotham put it away in the final few minutes.

Tournament history: It would be a little absurd to try and compare the intangible aspect of which teams "want it more" ... but that being said, it's hard to imagine a team wanting it more than Texas at this point. They've had tremendously frustrating ends to their last two appearances at Nationals, reaching the semifinals in 2007 but getting eliminated by Rat City in an infamous deathmatch and getting exactly as far in 2008 but losing a dramatic overtime contest to Windy City. Texas is the only team at this year's Nationals to have advanced to the semifinals in both 2007 and 2008.

Lowdown: As one might expect from the most experienced team in derby, Texas is a total package of derby skill -- hitting, positional blocking, speed and game smarts. They have a great deal of depth and no obvious weaknesses. On top of that, they're among the best in penalty management and are one of the few leagues whose blockers will check the penalty box time remaining between jams to see exactly how much time is left to kill.

Players to watch: Veteran Rice Rocket was one of Texas' main jammers for years but has been slowly transitioning to a blocking role and doing it exceptionally well; keep an eye out for her ability to plow stop wide in front of a jammer and erase her escape route. On the flip side, Olivia Shootin' John has blossomed into one of Texas' most deadly jammers; she'll be one of TX's major scoring threats alongside the intense Bloody Mary. And there will likely be nobody all weekend hitting harder than Bullet Tooth Tracy, whose deceptively lackadaisical patrolling at the front of the pack becomes a ferocious rush once a jammer gets too close.

Road to the championship: Texas lies in wait for the winner of Friday's Boston vs. Madison opening bout; Texas has played each team once and won both games. After that, Texas gets either Philly, Rocky Mountain or Houston in the final four.

Roster: 1889 Belle Starr // 40 Bloody Mary // 17 Bullet Tooth Tracy // XX  Cat Tastrophe // 41 Cheap Trixie // 100 Crackerjack // 76 Curvette // 222 Desi Cration // 333  Dilla // 5 Kat A Killzem // 56 Lucille Brawl // 19 Molotov M. Pale // 22 Morphine // 03 Olivia Shootin' John // 3E8 Rice Rocket // 21 Rita Menweep // 13 Ryder Down // 18 Shank // 360 The Angie‐Christ  // 53 Vicious van GoGo