WFTDA Releases 4th Quarter 2009 Rankings
The Women's Flat Track Derby Association today released the first official regional rankings since the third quarter 2009 release in October. These rankings reflect the results of bouts played from October 2009 to December 2009 -- including, of course, those played during November 2009's WFTDA championship tournament.
There's almost no movement at all in the East Region -- the only change comes at the very top, where Gotham takes back their #1E spot from Philly as a result of Gotham's close battle with current WFTDA champs Oly during the November tournament. Philly drops back down to #2 in the East, and the remaining 14 slots stay just the same as they were in the previous quarter.
Similarly, the West has only one change -- Denver takes over the #2W spot again from cross-city rivals Rocky Mountain, as Rocky Mountain won their meeting at the Western Regional tournament but Denver took the rematch in the 3rd place bout at Nationals.
There's a little more movement in the South Central and North Central regions, though. In the South Central, the top 9 teams remain the same, but Northwest Arkansas moves up one slot to #10SC while West Texas drops one to #11SC, although neither team had any sanctioned action during the ranking period. Tallahassee gets their first ranking at #14SC, although they also did not play a sanctioned bout in the ranking period.
Below that, the South Central cellar is a little scrambled by Tallahassee's entry -- Assassination City falls from #14SC to #16SC, Big Easy drops from #16SC to #17SC, and Alamo City brings up the rear by falling from #17SC to #19SC. Dixie (#15SC) and Oklahoma Victory Dolls (#18SC) hold steady from 2009.
The most change comes in the North Central, where Windy City remains on top but Detroit and Madison flip spaces -- Detroit takes their #2NC slot back after momentarily losing it to Madison during the 2009 North Central regionals. Minnesota is on the way up, going from #9NC to #7NC, while St. Louis' Arch Rival (#8NC) and Cleveland, OH's Burning River (#9NC) both lose a space from last ranking.
Indianapolis' Naptown moves up a slot to #11NC after some contradictory results in the ranking period -- they knocked off higher-ranked Burning River 99-77 in December, but also lost solidly to Sioux Falls 96-62 in October. Meanwhile, Ohio drops one to #12NC after taking at 108-82 loss to Grand Raggidy in November.
Sioux Falls (#13NC) trades spots with Fort Wayne (#14NC) -- FWDG is now on a tough seven-game losing streak dating back to May 2009. Finally, Hamilton, Ontario's Hammer City debuts at #17NC, taking that spot away from the new #18NC, Gem City (Dayton, OH.)
Details of WFTDA rankings policies can be found on their site. The current WFTDA quarter closes at the end of March 2010, and the next official rankings will be released sometime in April.
Comments
WHAT??? IT'S AN OUTRAGE I
WHAT??? IT'S AN OUTRAGE I TELL YOU!!!
WHAT??? IT'S AN OUTRAGE I
WHAT??? IT'S AN OUTRAGE I TELL YOU!!!
WHAT??? IT'S A DUPLICATE POST I TELL YOU!!!
WHAT??? IT'S A DUPLICATE POST I TELL YOU!!!
Flip Flop
So in all regions, the top two teams were the same in Q2 and Q4, but different in 3 of the 4 regions in Q3.
Is that a sign that regional tourneys give false data?
False Data?
The only way I can think of the data being false is that the scores were made up or recorded in error. I think it's more likely a case of some teams having Big Game-itis.
Probably more a case of teams
Probably more a case of teams redoubling their efforts after unexpected defeats or learning/re-learning things from Regionals themselves. Sports teams are dynamic entities and can change.
ok not false "data"
False results, then? The first tourney doesn't really show which is the stronger team?
Although I really like another comment: that Q4 results were an indication of a doubling of effort post-regional tournaments for some teams.
Here's another possibility.
False results, then? The first tourney doesn't really show which is the stronger team?
Although I really like another comment: that Q4 results were an indication of a doubling of effort post-regional tournaments for some teams.
Certain teams performed better at Nationals than others.
Example: Philly did indeed beat Gotham in a squeaker at Eastern regionals. Gotham pounded Detroit and came closer to beating Oly (even led them for a time) than anyone else. A lot of Oly's lead at the end was due to some unfortunate powerjams toward the end. This isn't me explaining away Oly's win and Gotham's loss. Just presenting a case for how Gotham's estimation by the voters could have increased during Nationals.
Philly got the bye they earned at regionals and lost a seven point squeaker to Rocky Mountain Rollergirls in the quarterfinals. Rocky Mountain then lost by 57 points to TXRG, who lost by 78 points to Oly. Keep in mind that Gotham had beaten TXRG in a squeaker earlier in the year, and I suppose one could see how eastern voters may have wound up thinking that Gotham might be better than Philly over the course of that quarter. There's also the argument that Philly had been focused on putting on such an amazing and successful event, but rankings are based upon bout results, not explanations.
Denver beat Rocky Mountain by 48 at nationals, whereas they lost to them by fifteen at regionals. Hence Denver was ranked below Rocky Mountain in the last rankings, and above them in this one. Nothing was "wrong," things just changed. As for another of those explanations that doesn't matter in the voting, RMRG was down a key skater for that last bout.
You can't always say, "this team beat that team, so must get ranked higher." You tend to have to interpolate and triangulate a fair amount of bout results. And not everyone may agree with the results. Think of it as an economic stimulus for sports bars. Two drunk guys who haven't played sports in twenty years argue over whether this college basketball team should be ranked higher than that one. It gets heated, eventually they take turns buying each other beers as they get over it.
The bar owner buys a new widescreen TV made in Hong Kong and hires a new undocumented alien housekeeper/babysitter who sends her money to her family back home. Wal Mat and Western Union skim at least a little bit off the top and one or two of us gets a poverty wages job from it. Which we can spend at the sports bar, or on derby merch.
False Results
False results would be a situation were the game was "thrown", one side let the other win, and I don't believe that was the case either. Your tournament question does raise two other questions that need to be answered before yours does.
1. What is an honest game?
2. What does one game really prove?
I raise the first question because the presents or absents of star skaters can dramatically change the results of a game. Think the Denver/Rocky games for example. In my opinion, both games were honest, skaters on both sides played their hearts out, but the result of the second game was a forgone conclusion, a Denver win, because of the suspension of De Ranged. Was the game fair? Absolutely. But was it a true test of the two team's strength? No. De Ranged was available, but ineligible.
But what if a team chooses not to play their best skater(s)? Honest game? I bring this up in view of the Charm/Philly game in August of last year, when Philly benched most of their top skaters and lost to Charm by the score 149-74. Then at Regionals, Philly came on at full strength and beat Charm 149-74. There are a number of goods reasons for a team not to field their top talent in a game. But is it an honest game? I'm not sure. Although the players who skated in that game gave it their all, a number of fans felt cheated by the August game, and that game clearly deserves an asterisks by it.
That brings us to the second question; what does one game really prove? Assuming that both teams are playing with all available skaters and heart that can be brought to bear, between closely matched teams I believe the game really proves very little. A game decided in the last jam is more a matter of luck. As the losing team knows that if in just one jam the chips would have fallen differently they would be celebrating their victory now.
To sum up, people naturally categorize and sort all things, even those things are not possible to categorize or sort, and expect them to stay in their little boxes that we put them in. What a boring world that would be. As Busta says “teams are dynamic entities”. There are more things changing than can be counted, and things that change fast and others that hardily change at all. What is false about any game or tournament result are people expectations.
Tourney results aren't always the same results you might get...
...otherwise, though - you're right about that. Because our tournaments are multi-day, multi-game affairs that involve skaters (volunteers usually with little money or spare time) traveling on the shortest time span and the worst (cheapest) flights... it has to be naturally different from a team playing ONE hour-long bout at home on a familiar track with their own refs. Certainly the WFTDA and tourney organizers do their absolute best to provide consistency in conditions and officiating, and teams practice multi-game situations so they're ready to play all the way to the end. But it IS different - it just is. One of the reasons we voted in the 14/20 roster was to compensate for players being injured in early games, as well, and that was pretty controversial at the time, because other teams thought it might give "rich" and closer teams an advantage, because farther / poorer teams might not be able to afford to bring a roster of 20 just in case someone got hurt. Course now the 14/20 is standard and the best teams have more than 20 super awesome players, so they're able to rotate and save skaters from having to play every bout of a tourney. But that's still a factor for any bout if you believe one skater is the difference for a team taking a title or not.
I still wish we had voted in the playoffs idea (scheduled 1-at-a-time bouts leading up to a main event, like football with playoffs, the superbowl and bowl games). But tournaments are fun. Sigh. I wish we could play in more of them.