ECDX: Gotham Holds Off Rose City, 147-79
FEASTERVILLE, PA -- #5 Rose City gave #3 Gotham a good first-half battle to trail by just 16 points at 54-38 at the break, but the tough New Yorkers adjusted well for the second half and won it by a considerably larger margin (93-41) to win the first WFTDA-sanctioned bout of ECDX 2011 by a final of 147-79.
The majority of the first half was defined by instantly starting packs, as Gotham started off the game with their pack taking a knee on almost every single jam. Things started with a narrow Rose City advantage when White Flight took a quick 1-0 over Bonnie Thunders, but Bonnie Thunders pushed Gotham back in front with a following, nearly as quick 2-0. Gotham got a break on Jam 3 when Rose City lost jammer Scald Eagle to the box on the opening pass, and Bonnie Thunders converted it to a 15-0 to give Gotham a 17-1 lead about five minutes in.
For the next few jams it looked as if Gotham would run away with it, as they extended the lead to 31-4 with just under ten minutes gone in the half. However, Rose City played Gotham nearly evenly for the remaining 20 minutes. Halfway through the opening period, it was 35-9 Gotham, but a 10-0 powerjam for Rose City's White Flight gave the crowd a bit of life as it made the score 40-19 Gotham with just over 11 minutes left in the half.
Two 0-0 jams later, Sully Skullkicker was boxed for Rose City, and Gotham's Hyper Lynx picked up 5 before being boxed herself when she fell and kicked out a Rose City blocker's skates. Unfortunately for the released Sully, she managed to make a scoring pass without making any legal passes; after the full length jam ended at 10-4 Gotham to make it 50-23 Gotham with 7:11 in the half. Rose City challenged there, hoping to pick up some points from the lost pass, but they'd get no satisfaction.
However, Rose City shut out Gotham on the next five jams and narrowed it to 50-38 with just enough time for one jam in the half, a run keyed by a smooth 9-0 to Scald Eagle. Rose jammer Soulfearic Acid chose to join her pack in jammer defense against Suzy Hotrod to start the final jam of the half, and Suzy chased down a very fast pack for a half-closing 4-0 that left the halftime score at an impressively close 54-38 Gotham.
The second half began with another extremely slow jam start as both teams had their pack line up very close to the jammer line; neither team seemed interested in passing the pivot line until about 45 seconds had passed. After all that, Bonnie Thunders took lead for Gotham while Soulfearic Acid was caught up; Bonnie squeezed through for 10-0 and might have had more if the jam time hadn't expired. That gave Gotham a little breathing room at 63-39, and they increased the lead by fits and starts to 76-46 with just over 20 minutes left in the half. Gotham got a key jam there; Rose City got a tough break when White Flight was boxed early as the Rose jammer; and Bonnie Thunders followed blocking from Fisti Cuffs, Sweet Sherry Pie and Ana Bollocks for a big 14-0 jam that gave Gotham a good cushion at 90-46. Rose City called time there with 19:08 left to play.
A lengthy referee review followed that jam, functioning as nearly a second halftime; when action finally got back underway, Gotham went back to their old knee-start ways, leading to a lead jammer status for Bonnie Thunders; Bonnie chose to run the light pack after picking up 4-0 and successfully managed to get Gotham a pack advantage by continuing to an 8-4 that put the score at 98-50 with 17:20 to play.
Things stayed close for the next six minutes, but with the score 110-56 and 10:15 to play, Gotham's Suzy Hotrod was hit with a rare back block major; that left the floor open for Soulfearic Acid, who impressively weaved around Gotham's Sweet Sherry Pie and Sexy Slaydie multiple times before picking up a late-jam track-cut major of her own. Still, the jam went 15-2 for Rose, giving them a much-needed shot of adrenaline and putting them within 38 points -- 113-75 with 8:21 left in the game. Unfortunately for Rose, the subsequent powerjam perfectly erased all that momentum when Bonnie Thunders thundered for 13-0, making the score 126-75 with just over five minutes left.
That jam proved to be the nail in the Rose City coffin - though they continued to play hard and rarely allow Gotham more than a 4 point margin, they didn't score again until the very last seconds of the bout, and Gotham pulled out a 147-79 victory.
Comments
Another pack no-start, eh?
The second half began with another extremely slow jam start as both teams had their pack line up very close to the jammer line; neither team seemed interested in passing the pivot line until about 45 seconds had passed.
I have three questions about this:
1) Did the crowd boo at this sequence of events? I wasn't able to catch the game, so I don't know.
2) Is that fact that teams other than Philly are using this tactic mean we're going to start see a lot more of it in the future (particularly, this weekend)?
3) Wouldn't the no-minors ruleset make this kind of nonsense punishable by major penalties for blocking while not moving in a forward skating direction?
We've been seeing this tactic
We've been seeing this tactic quite a bit on the West Coast. I have grown quite tired of it. It would be good to address this.
Justice: I believe you meant Scald Eagle, not Skullegal. I was confused there for a bit.
definitely a great bout... well worth watching...
Also worthy of critique.
First, a correction: "Skullegal" is "Scald Eagle".
"Unfortunately for the released Sully, she managed to make a scoring pass without making any legal passes"
Yeah definitely a knock for the rulebook here. Gotham benefits from having too many penalties and skaters making mistakes (or playing brilliantly if deliberate). In any case, a jammer should not be able to skate through a pack and not score because the opposing team is losing all of their players to penalties.
Yes, there were a lot of slow starts. Yes there was booing and shouting at it. Yes we will see more of it for the reason that it is effective. Gotham slow started many of the jams forcing Rose to skate forward to get the no pack call then turn around to skate clockwise and reposition themselves. It worked in Gotham's favor often enough to keep doing it. With Gotham doing it you can bet other teams will follow suit. The no minors ruleset would not help because skaters were generally not blocking.
Some rules that might help:
* skaters must skate forward at all times
* second whistle after 10 seconds even if blockers have not all crossed the line
* second whistle always 5 seconds after first whistle
The last is my preference. It's simple, blockers have 5 seconds to get in position before jammers are released. I think that's the easiest, most effective way to counter stroller-derby. I'm not sure there is an argument to be made why the 2nd whistle starts when the last blocker crosses the line. You could say it puts distance between jammers and blockers but what we saw in this jam is that is often not going to be the case when blockers decide to hang out near the jammers and take a knee to get the immediate no pack call.
We saw a lot of stroller derby in this bout when both teams were down blockers, they simply waited for the blockers to be released. Boring. What people want to see is how well the teams match up when the blockers are 2 on 2, not wait until both teams are full strength before anyone starts skating. Can't fault the teams for doing it, but it needs to be changed.
As for the bout, it was great to see Rose bring their awesome defense to the first half. Got to hand it to Gotham that they adjusted well at the half and Rose seemed to lose some steam, especially with their defense. In the first half their defense really helped them get lead jammer, but in the second half they gave up lead jammer almost every jam. Still not a bad showing for Rose after traveling across the country.
Here we go with the rules discussion again
Some rules that might help:
* skaters must skate forward at all times
* second whistle after 10 seconds even if blockers have not all crossed the line
* second whistle always 5 seconds after first whistle
Banked track derby has the second whistle sound three seconds after the first whistle if the pack hasn't cleared the pivot line, so clearly it's been working for them. Even so, there have been a lot of slow-pack starts in banked track recently. Blockers just want to be able to stay as close to the jammers as they possibly can at the start more than anything, and unless there's a fundamental shift in how pack rules are written, that will never change.
I think you meant "ECDX:
I think you meant "ECDX: Gotham PLUCKS Rose City, 147-79."