Preview: #11 Boston @ #8 Charm City

By Justice Feelgood Marshall, Last updated Fri Aug 20 2010 2:05pm

BALTIMORE, MD -- Eastern Region rivals Charm City and Boston meet for the fourth time in a matchup that's very likely to be a preview of a meeting next month at the 2010 Eastern Regional playoffs.

This bout will be streamed live on DNN courtesy of the Charm City Roller Girls and Tuffnerd Productions. Join us at 6:30 Eastern on Saturday, August 21 for a full-length undercard between CCRG local team Speed Regime and the DC all-stars, followed by Charm City vs. Boston at approximately 7:45pm.

All three of the previous Charm City / Boston matchups have had close final scores -- Boston won by 2 in April 2007, Charm City won by 12 in March 2009, and Boston won by 14 at the 2009 Eastern Regionals (though they'd established a 71-point lead with 13 minutes to play and were able to absorb a big late run from Charm). That Boston upset win came in the third-place bout of the tournament, notching Boston a trip to Nationals while keeping Charm out.

While this matchup comes too late in the year to affect the seeding for the September 24-26 Eastern Regional, the game -- much like last weekend's meeting between Rose City and Rat City -- will likely leave one team with momentum and confidence for a potential rematch in the semifinals or third-place bout at Easterns -- assuming they are able to get past first-round opponents #21 Montreal (for Boston) and #16 Steel City (for Charm City).

The official WFTDA rankings have Boston at #3 in the East behind Gotham and Philly and Charm City at #4, while DNN's unofficial national rankings have #8 Charm City a few notches over #11 Boston. Both teams have been busy taking tough losses to some of derby's best teams this season, leaving them with identical 4-6 records.

They've lost to four common opponents this year, with two of those results going very similarly but Boston doing better in the other two. Both teams have lost similarly to #1 Oly (Charm lost 156-102, while Boston lost a month later 125-60) and #5 Denver (Charm lost 208-101, Boston lost 203-100). However, Boston fared significantly better against #6 Rose City (87-61 against Charm's 135-67) and #2 Gotham (164-82 against Charm's 201-75). It's mostly Charm City's June win over perennial powerhouse #9 Texas that has lifted them into DNN's unofficial top 10, while Boston's most impressive win was a 110-89 victory over #13 Madison in July.

This bout will feature an all-star debut for very impressive New River Valley transfer I.M. Pain, who has moved to the Charm City all-stars after just one bout with CCRG, playing on the Mobtown Mods local team against Suburbia last month. Beyond that, the teams will be putting out extremely experienced all-star crews who have been played almost all of their respective teams' all-star games this year.

0 Shellby Shattered // 011 Lois Carmen Dominator // 24 Quick Sandy // 34B Maura Buse // B52 Etta Maims // 77 Pina Collidah // 99 Harlot Fevah // 101 Anna Wrecks'Ya // 451 Lil' Paine // 843 Krushpuppy  // 1001 Sugar Hits // 1984 Claire D Way // 2008 Killary Clinton // 9669 Harley Quinn

T2 Allie B. Back // 4i Radar Love // 6 Dolly Rocket // 12 Thoroughbled // 26 Just Carol // 63 Holden Grudges // 116 Reckless Ndangerment // 200 Duchess of Torque // 247 Flo Shizzle // 415 Holly Gohardly // 666 Deathany // 747 Joy Collision // 1618 I.M. Pain