Weekend in Review, 3/15/2010
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Skee Town (Muskegon, MI) rolled to an easy victory over Circle City (Indianapolis, IN), 142-56. Photo: Michael Cross.
WFTDA Sanctioned | General Interleague
WFTDA Sanctioned
DC 230, Harrisburg 75 -- DC took some pent-up frustration out on a dramatically reconfigured Harrisburg team on Sunday night, ending a 3-game losing streak with a strong first half and a dominating second.
DC was greatly helped by the return of Hoova Dayum and Lenore Gore, both of whom were unable to make the previous night's loss to Dutchland, but Harrisburg seemed severely hobbled by the loss of the majority of their fairly dangerous 2009 all-star squad. With only three vets on their roster (Skate Edge, Rainbow's Revenge, and Neve Cannibal) their general inexperience showed in some extremely strung-out packs and inability to take advantage of lopsided pack situations.
DC was up 96-49 at the half, but really poured it on the second, allowing only 26 points to a tiring Harrisburg while running up 134 of their own, including a 18-0 for Roller Rage Rosie and a late 20-0 for Free Radical. -- Justice Feelgood Marshall
Read the archived text boutcast.
#12 Charm City 409, River City 22 -- A closed but WFTDA-sanctioned bout saw Charm City run up their biggest point total of their history on Richmond's River City, but they only needed the first jam to seal the win. A 28-0 opener from Bambi's Revenge over Paris Kills proved to be more points than River City could muster all bout long, and at halftime the margin was a harrowing 237-2.
Trap offense from Charm City repeatedly opened the door for huge jams -- including a 35-0 for Just Carol and a 34-0 for Lady Quebeaum -- and the 387-point final margin now stands as the second-largest blowout in WFTDA-sanctioned history, behind Texas' 451-8 carnage on Oklahoma Victory Dolls last year. -- Justice Feelgood Marshall
Dutchland 156, DC 64 -- In their WFTDA season opener, Dutchland used a particularly suffocating defense and speedy jammer crew to send DC to their third straight loss, up by 60 points at halftime on their way to a convincing 156-64 win.
Dutchland took control of this bout almost immediately. On the second jam, Nash Villain scored a 12-3 for the home team, and DC wouldn't get back on the board until there were under 10 minutes left to play in the half. Over and over, Dutchland's blockers would pick up DC jammers in the back on the opening pass, allowing lead jammer calls to almost all fall to Dutchland. DC's offensive woes were only exacerbated by picking up considerably more jammer penalties ... and Dutchland built a 49-3 lead as a frustrated DC team could not get anything going offensively.
DC only scored on four jams in the first half, and only actually won one of those jams. At the half, Dutchland was sitting on a 74-14 lead and had the game solidly in hand.
While DC's offense was a little more sprightly in the second half and had some momentary momentum around the 15 minute mark, the half still went 82-50 to Dutchland. Even on the rare lead jam opportunities for DC, Dutchland jammers were almost always just a step behind -- particularly Nash Villain, whose sprinting speed forced multiple 0-0 calls from DC jammers who were in danger of being passed on the way to their first scoring pass.
Hillbilly Hellcat and Lapcat both shone as blockers in a very tough and tight Dutchland pack, while GunHer Down and Condoleezza Slice acquitted themselves well in a difficult night for the DC pack. -- Justice Feelgood Marshall
Comments
Record?
Is the Charm City 35 point jam a new record?
Maybe, and depends what you count
I know for sure it's been done in a Rose City home bout, and I've seen it done at some scrimmages before. I would be surprised if Texas had scored 451 points against OKVD without a single 35 point jam, but it's possible.
We don't have access to the entirety of stats from WFTDA sanctioned bouts. Up till now, we've only been making a serious effort to track all-time records from Regionals and Nationals / Championships, for two reasons: one, it's a more manageable data set, and two, the matchups are more likely to be even. In a bout like Charm vs River City or Texas vs Oklahoma Victory Dolls -- super-experienced teams vs relatively or completely new teams -- it's arguable that it's equivalent to an NFL team going up against a college or high school team, and that a record would therefore deserve a bit of an asterisk.
I really don't like closed yet sanctioned bouts.
I understand the reasoning behind them, but generally I like having anything that counts actually open to the public.
What _is_ the reasoning
What _is_ the reasoning behind them?
It also allows a traveling
It also allows a traveling team to get in an extra game that might not fit otherwise, example Montreal at Suburbia last week. Game was at 11am or 12pm, which still left Montreal time to get home and possibly get to work Monday, which a Sunday night game wouldn't have allowed.
You can also have situations where a team might not be able to fit another public game into their budget/schedule, but a nearby team might want to come down on an 'off' night to get another sanctioned game into their standings.
Girl Fawkes
CTRG/CTDQ
The reason why Rose City
The reason why Rose City hosts bouts that are not open to the public: our venue is allotted only so many fire permits in one year. If we have the opportunity to host a sanctioned bout, we are not going to pass up the last minute opportunity for our travel team. However, if all of our fire permits are booked, we are not allowed to have more than 50ish people in the venue (which barely allows for skaters, refs, and other production staff). So we have a closed event. Trust me, if we could open things up to fans in this situation, we would never pass that up. But the danger of violating code and losing our space completely makes us enforce this strictly.
closed bouts
I'd like to personally invite every fan who complains about closed sanctioned bouts to take matters into their own hands. Locate an affordable 1,000+ seat venue which doesn't charge usurious rates for rent, security, or janitorial labor, has air conditioning / heat, allows skating on its floor, has proximity to public transit or ample parking, has clean bathrooms, has 100' by 75' with no columns, has a nice sound system, and doesn't need more than a week or two of lead time. Ability to serve beer a plus. Hop to it, y'all!
srsly
I'd like to personally invite every fan who complains about closed sanctioned bouts to take matters into their own hands. Locate an affordable 1,000+ seat venue which doesn't charge usurious rates for rent, security, or janitorial labor, has air conditioning / heat, allows skating on its floor, has proximity to public transit or ample parking, has clean bathrooms, has 100' by 75' with no columns, has a nice sound system, and doesn't need more than a week or two of lead time. Ability to serve beer a plus. Hop to it, y'all!
what he said, but add:
- design, print, and distribute promotional materials.
- organize volunteers
- carry and set up merch
- locate and sign up sponsors/table vendors
- coordinate an afterparty
etc etc etc
double srsly
...and when they have done all that they can come over to London and give it a shot here. Cause its about ten bazillion times more expensive on this side of the pond, and there are exponentially less suitable venues - unless you want to skate in a small victorian hall and say "screw the track size!".
:)
If we didnt have closed door bouts, our entire season would be 4 games long.
I wholeheartedly agree with
I wholeheartedly agree with the statement.
My league has had to do it, unfortunately. My understanding is that the bouts were put together with very short notice and not enough time to properly promote them.
With our venue, if more than X amount of people show up we're charged some exorbitant amount of money, the kind of cash that can only be raised by a sell--out (or close to it) crowd.
But, again, that's just my understanding. Since I'm not the venue guy nor the interleague-relations guy I don't know for sure so take it with a grain of salt.
But, I do agree that all sanctioned bouts should be open to the public and they should all be sell outs. And, as with all interleague bouts, all fans should be there unless they're dead or in jail. And, if they're in jail, they should break out to see the bout.
would you pay to see
Would you pay to see a 300point blowout? Fans that did would probably be on here complaining about how they want their money back, and teams shouldn't have games against other teams that they'll blowout. We played River City to get in a second regional bout to quailify for regionals and to give a newer, upcoming team a chance to skate against an established team, something that doesn't happen very often. We also couldn't get a 2nd regional away game nor could we play at home since we are in our intraleague season. Carolina came down and played Charm city in one of our first WFTDA bouts, and their level of play was way above us and our team was grateful for that opportunity.
Holly Gohardly
I'm actually not cool enough
I'm actually not cool enough to have been to a sanctioned closed bout, but i like the idea because it seems like Fight Club or something.
The Advantage As A Spectator
I'm actually not cool enough to have been to a sanctioned closed bout, but i like the idea because it seems like Fight Club or something.
I have been to a few and the big advantage is you have your choice of unobstructed views.
Generally
I think fans would feel a little cheated if they paid money to see such an unbalanced game. This was more of a way for us to meet WFTDA requirements and to have a chance to play a great team with not so much experience. If you were in the area though, you probably could have stopped by the rink to watch, nobody would have stopped you from coming in.
River City- you have some great players. Raven Darkhold cleaned my clock in more than one jam. Thank you for coming up!
xo
Duchess
Non-production sanctioned bouts
nobody would have stopped you from coming in.
Non-production sanctioned bouts are usually open to spectators, just not advertised. They may even tell you that the bout is closed to spectators but as Duchess says, doubtful that you will be stopped from coming in.
open
yeah, we invited our league family and friends and had like 20 people there.
Balanced games
Well, that's sports for you. The Timberwolves just gave up the most points this season in the NBA and people still go. Not many, but they go.
I think that if you put on a good show, with girls trying their damndest and not giving up no matter how many points they're behind, people will come.
The exception, I hope
If you were in the area though, you probably could have stopped by the rink to watch, nobody would have stopped you from coming in.
I was blocked from covering a closed WFTDA sanctioned bout because their facility put a cap on how many non-skating people could be there.
Thanks Charm
I am so thankful as a skater on River City that it was a closed game. We knew we were out matched going into this scrimmage and the missing crowd did not hurt to make an intimidating experience a little easier.
I would also like to say that our team was so thankful for the chance to play such a high caliber team, we learned a lot. Not only did we get a rare opportunity that is not available to all teams at our level, the fine skaters of Charm City took the time to talk with us about our goals as skaters and a team. Great tips, drills and advice shared after the game only made the experience that much more valuable for us. Thanks again Charm City and good luck out West.
More on closed bouts...
I like this discussion, but there's one part of the topic I'm surprised hasn't been brought up...the gate.
It's been my observation/experience that interleague bouts draw the most fans, thereby drawing the most money. I can't speak to all leagues, of course, but the ones in this part of the country really don't have a lot of cash to work with and would benefit greatly from the revenue generated by an interleague bout.
Having a closed bout just seems like a huge financial loss to both the leagues participating. In addition to financial concerns, a closed bout really seems to have all the prestige ripped from it somehow.
So, I'm of the opinion that closed bouts really should be avoided at all costs. Yeah, of course it takes a lot of work to put on an interleague bout, but that's the life we've chosen when we created and/or adopted the derby lifestyle. Besides, think of the financial benefits to your league...
quantity
My opinion only but I think that if all sanctioned bouts were open there would be less of them happening. They provide the flexibility to add more games to your schedule.
for us our interleague bouts
for us our interleague bouts bring in way less money/people just because the seasons is mainly in the spring, summer to fall. in wisconsin once it hits 50+ degrees everyone wants to go outside cause they have been inside for so long.... seriously like flip flops once its above 50 haha. so its much harder to draw a large crowd and make money instead of taking a hit and losing money on the bout. I think that both open and closed have their place and im glad that its an option. id rather play than not play at all :)