Rocky Mountain Conquers Banked Track
The Rocky Mountain Roller Girls (#1 Power Ranked) swept through Southern California's two Derby Dolls leagues with victories against both the L.A. Derby Dolls (#3 Banked Rank) and San Diego Derby Dolls (#1 Banked Rank), to become the first league to be at the top of both flat and banked track roller derby. Rocky Mountain is now the top league in roller derby. Period.
Playing against two sibling rival leagues with very different styles, Rocky took L.A. 93-88 on Friday, and San Diego 125-100 Saturday night.
RMRG's closed game with LADD was their first stop in their SoCal swing, where the game officially termed a “scrimmage” was fully officiated. It was the third outing for the Ri-Ettes, having earlier lost to Team Legit 125-96 and won against Gotham 132-106. For their part, RMRG's DeRanged and Psycho Babble were on their fourth banked track game of the year. It was also the third game the Ri-Ettes faced against a top level WFTDA league, the second of the year.
With four interleague banked track veterans, DeRanged and Psycho Babble having earned nearly legendary status on the bank in less than a year, Rocky was better prepared than the other two WFTDA challengers...the other two BT vets being Amanda Jamitinya and She Who Cannot Be Named. The 5280 Fight Club also brought with them a strategy that works both on banked and flat track: broad skill in defaulting to basics like staying together, recycling, and slipping through traps to unravel positional tactics.
Comments
dunno 'bout that...
and I quote...
"The Rocky Mountain Roller Girl's 5280 Fight Club became the first team in history to become the #1 team in both banked and flat track."
If SDDD had beaten RMRG on the FT would that automatically make them the #1 FT team in the country?
Yes, RMRG beat SDDD last Saturday but that does not necessarily make them the #1 banked track team. I don't feel it works that way. BT derby has it's annual 'playoff' in the BOTB and that is where #1 is truly determined. Pundits can call the RMRG the #1 BT team now all they want and I suspect that The Banked Rank on Derby Deeds might just do that (especially when you factor in them beating LADD in an officiated scrimmage the night before) but the fact of the matter is that it is all rhetoric unless they compete at BOTB in PHX this summer utilizing the established 'playoff' system. Being ranked #1 in a poll is similar to winning the President's Trophy in the NHL for best regular season record... it don't mean anything if you are not skating around the ice with Lord Stanley's cup being held high over your head in June. You have to earn it in the playoffs for #1 to truly mean a damn thing. RMRG's schedule is open the weekend of BOTB as far as I can tell. I know logistics (money and time, we all live in the real world) make things like this difficult to pull off but I would love to see them there and I know I am not alone in that sentiment...
OH, the hilarity!
Oh PLEASE, BM. We all know that if SDDD won a flat track game against RMRG you'd be shouting to the skies how SDDD would be the champions of the world despite them not playing in WFTDA Championships.
It must be exhausting to be talking out of both sides of your mouth all the time.
By the by, this isn't a slam on SDDD at all. They played a helluva game. So did LADD. Those two games were definitely in my top three of games that I LOVED watching.
you wound me.
If SDDD beat the RMRG on the FT, I would be doing my Muhammad Ali impression, running around shouting, "They shook up the world! They shook up the world!" but I would not be proclaiming them the new FT champs. That's dumb. I am a bigtime SDDD supporter but I am firmly based in reality. They have playoffs to decide champions, I was pretty clear about that in my post. You can't take away championships won by a team, you have to win your own. And while I love the monthly rankings here and at DD, I have yet to see a team print up t-shirts because they were ranked #1 in a poll... it's all about the Hydra and the BOTB to determine the only #1s that are for the ages. So, in summary, while I would shit my pants and need a straight-jacket if my beloved SDDD beat the RMRG on the FT, I would not be proclaiming them the champs of the world. I would, however, suggest at that point that they do belong back in the DNN Top 25 =)
Tara, you have a portrait of me painted in your mind as a double-talking, trolling trouble-maker and that's cool, I probably deserve a percentage of that, but, in the interest of accuracy, try to work in my tremendous respect, love and loyalty to the league I support and all derby folks in general, it paints a much clearer picture. And throw in some some sexy and don't skimp on it as I am a damn handsome man. That should cover it. Now that's a pretty picture...
The portrait I have of you in my mind, for what it's worth, is painted in passion, individuality, strength, tympanic membrane shattering volume levels and the occasional well-placed vicious elbow and no matter how many times you pimpslap me in this or any other public forum I will still be, for better or worse, a Taramaniac...
Better Red then Dead!
Go SDDD!
The BM