Weekend Preview: 6/22/2012
East Coast Derby Extravaganza
See DNN feature previews for Gotham / Rose City, Gotham / Denver, Charm City / Boston, Montreal / Texas, and Rose City / Steel City. All bouts available on wftda.tv.
(8) Arizona v (20) Boston; (8) Arizona v (18) Steel City -- Arizona is one of the very oldest leagues in flat-track with a history that reaches back to the very first interleague contests in 2004, but they've been far off the playoffs radar since a 4th-place finish at the 2007 Western Regionals. That changed dramatically this year, though, when a combination of transfers and new homegrown talent nearly took down perennial Championships contender Rocky Mountain in April. If Arizona can back that impressive performance up with wins over Boston and Steel City, they'll effectively turn the West's vaunted Big Six into the Big Seven.
(5) Texas @ (11) Philly; (3) Denver @ (11) Philly -- Up till last year's ECDX, host league Philly was undefeated at the event, but they were pounded at last year's event by Rose City and Gotham, losing by 78 and 233 points. In last year's Texas / Philly matchup, Philly handled the visitors effectively, winning 142-76; Denver defeated Philly by a similar margin of 143-89 just a week previous. Philly has only played 3 games so far this year, all of them major blowouts -- they beat Montreal and Nashville by over a hundred points but suffered another 200+ point loss to Gotham on June 9.
Top WFTDA Action
(6) Bay Area @ (10) Rat City -- This major West Region clash in Seattle has BAD (#6 DNN, 6W WFTDA) looking for a WFTDA rankings upset one week before the rankings period ends -- Rat City, #10 nationally via DNN, is one notch above the San Francisco crew at 5W WFTDA. The BAD / Rat rivalry has become one of the tightest in all of derby, with Bay Area winning the last two matches by just 11 points (in 2011) and 1 point (in 2010) while Rat City beat BAD by 12 in 2009. Both teams have been relatively quiet through the first half of the year, with BAD just 1-1 and Rat City 3-0. Most recently, Rat City had a surprisingly tough time with Angel City for the first 40 minutes of their bout before dominating the final 20 to win 209-112. Live on DNN courtesy of Rat City Rollergirls. Action begins at 5:30pm Pacific on Saturday, June 22.
(15) Naptown @ Jet City (Saturday); Naptown @ (12) Oly (Saturday); Naptown @ (10) Rat City (Sunday) -- Naptown had a very tough time early this month with Atlanta, trailing for the majority of the game before escaping with a 109-91 win; with Atlanta having a middling season so far, that might point up trouble for Naptown on their three-game sweep this weekend. Jet City had a long quiet stretch from March to June, but had a surprising result against Tampa Bay on June 2, winning 92-57 in a remarkably low-scoring game.
Oly will be without the services of satellite player DeRanged this weekend, who is currently on game 2 of a three-game suspension (although the suspension will end this weekend as Oly plays Dockyard on Sunday). Notably, Rat City will be coming off what's likely to be a tough game with Bay Area on Saturday. Textcast coverage of Naptown / Jet City courtesy of Jet City Roller Girls at 9:30am Pacific on Saturday, June 23. No coverage scheduled for Naptown / Oly or Naptown / Rat City.
North Star @ Madison -- With both teams struggling this year -- 13NC North Star is 1-5 with their only win over 22NC Babe City, and 10NC Madison is 1-5 with their only win over 20NC Paper Valley -- an upset win from North Star would make the 10 slot in the region a near toss-up. Madison can tighten their grip on the 10 slot with a win, but with a few teams in the teens range having arguments to rise, this game alone probably won't deliver a definitive answer on whether they'll keep it. Live on DNN courtesy of the Mad Rollin Dolls. Coverage begins at 7:00pm Central on Friday, June 22.
Chicago Outfit @ Brewcity -- On paper the Chicago Outfit is still 5th in the North Central, but a series of stumbles in the last few months have made this game with 6NC Brewcity rather important to their tournament outlook. The Outfit took a narrow loss to 9NC Cincinnati at Brewhaha and then nearly dropped a game to 16NC Burning River; earlier in the quarter, they also had a closer-than-expected 37 point win over 14NC Fort Wayne. While this one isn't quite a must-win for the Outfit, they'll likely find themselves dropping significantly in the rankings unless they come out on top here. No live coverage scheduled.
Wasatch @ Silicon Valley (Saturday); Wasatch @ Santa Cruz -- 15W Wasatch suddenly entered the West Region playoff picture with a major upset of 8W Angel City last month, but they'll definitely need wins against SVRG (12W) and Santa Cruz (17W) to keep the argument alive. Textcast coverage of Wasatch/ Silicon Valley courtesy of Silicon Valley Roller Girls at 6:00pm Pacific on Saturday, June 23.
Also Live on DNN
Vienna @ Stuttgart B, Munich @ Stuttgart B
Live on DNN courtesy of Stuttgart Roller Girlz. Action begins at 8:00pm CEST on Saturday, June 23.
Comments
Also, Old Capitol City vs. North Star on Saturday!
Not an open bout, and no good internet access, so no textcasting either.
Good job Rat Finks & Lightning Fists of Science!
After the whole MNRG/Windy snafu, it was nice to see the refs and NSO's at Rat City take their time to make sure the correct score was showing before declaring Bay Area the winner. It was such a close bout at the end (including 2 lead changes on the last jam) they did the right thing in making sure every "i" was dotted & every "t" was crossed just in case they needed to run an overtime jam. Shame someone had to come out on the losing end of this one but I hope they do it one more time at Westerns.