Preview: #5 Denver @ #8 Charm City

By Justice Feelgood Marshall, Last updated Sat Jul 24 2010 2:18pm

BALTIMORE, MD -- This Saturday sees what's likely to be a fascinating matchup between two teams nationally known for speed control and extreme positional play as Denver (#2 West WFTDA, #5 nationally via DNN) visits Charm City (#4 East WFTDA, #8 nationally via DNN).

This bout will be streamed live on DNN courtesy of TuffNerd Productions. Join us at 6:30pm for the Suburbia vs CCRG Mobtown Mods undercard, followed by Charm City vs. Denver at approximately 8pm Eastern (6pm Mountain).

In 2009, Charm City was one of the first teams to successfully employ severe pack-slowing techniques at high levels of play, putting on blocker traps that made them a threat for 20+ point jams whenever their opponents lost their jammer to the penalty box -- but it was Denver that reached Nationals that year with similar tactics taken to their logical extremes, with plenty of reverse-direction play to force track cuts and maneuvering to establish control of the back, rather than the front, of the pack.

While the style has been polarizing amongst fans and players alike, it's also proven effective and has since been picked up by some of the same teams it was used to defeat. And although it's the slow game that made them notorious, both teams have the speed to race with the best of them when necessary. With this matchup featuring strength on strength, it'll be interesting to see which team is more successful in imposing their desired speed on the other.

For Charm City, it's their fifth shot against a top 5 team of the very tough WFTDA Western Region -- they've already lost to DNN's #1 Oly, #3 Rocky Mountain, #6 Rose City and #7 Rat City earlier in 2010, part of a five-game losing streak that also included a loss to #2 Gotham. That brutal strength of schedule finally started paying off in June, though, when they solidly defeated #18 Kansas City and went on to narrowly upset the then-higher ranked #9 Texas on the following weekend. At the moment Charm City's 2010 record stands at 4-5; they easily defeated #21 Montreal and River City early in the year.

Denver had been working on a six-game winning streak that dated back to the third-place bout of the 2009 WFTDA Nationals, where they beat out crosstown rivals Rocky Mountain, but that streak recently came to an end on June 20 against Philly, 119-106. Like Charm City's, the highlight win of the Denver season was a close one against Texas, 130-118.

Both these teams will have their work cut out for them in their respective regional tournaments in September, but if both can make it out, this bout might very well be a preview of an early-round matchup in Chicago at November's WFTDA Championships.

A full-length undercard matchup before the main event finds CCRG local team Mobtown Mods taking on the all-star team from Suburbia; Suburbia is coming off a successful weekend at late June's East Coast Extravaganza, where they got big wins over Harrisburg and Hammer City.

5 Deirdre Sage // 9 Vicky Cruz // 10 Danica Dolezal // 19 Julie Adams // 20 Monica Carson // 36 Aline Olthafer // 90 Gabrielle Begeman // 99 Tracy Akers // 262 Andrea Hill // 303 Heather Juska // 311 Kimmy Wilms // 350 Jessica Rivas // 357 November James // 505 Shannon Dorato // 911 Teresa Rusk // 1982 Ariel Quigley

T2 Allie B. Back // 6 Dolly Rocket // 7 Penaltyna // 10 Mistress May Eye // 12 Thoroughbled // 26 Just Carol // 34 Lady Quebeaum // 63 Holden Grudges // 100 Rosie the Rioter // 116 Reckless Ndangerment // 200 Duchess of Torque // 247 Flo Shizzle // 415 Holly Go Hardly // 666 Deathany // 747 Joy Collision // 3636 Terror IzHer