Weekend Preview: 7/13/2012

By Justice Feelgood Marshall, Last updated Fri Jul 13 2012 5:53pm

Top WFTDA Action

(2) Rose City @ (7) Rat City -- This key matchup between two of the West's traditional Big Six teams could very easily end up being a preview of a West playoffs game in Oakland later this year. Rat City and Rose City's rivalry goes back to the very first interleague tournament, 2006's Dust Devil, but Rose City has gotten the better of it in recent years -- Rose has won 5 out of 6 sanctioned matchups between the teams, and eliminated Rat City from both the 2010 and 2011 West playoffs. Rat City has a 5-1 record so far on the year and would be perfect if not for a nightmare last jam against Bay Area last month, but 6-1 Rose City is arguably having their best year yet, beating perennial Championships-level teams Texas, Windy City and Denver and staying in the ring with Gotham for most of their game even without key jammer Scald Eagle, out indefinitely on a leg fracture. Before the main event, B teams Axles of Annihilation and Reign of Terror face off. Live on DNN courtesy Rat City Rollergirls. Action begins at 5:30pm Pacific on Saturday, July 14.

(19) Steel City @ (1) Gotham -- Steel City has a very tough challenge ahead of them this weekend as they go into NYC for a rare public home bout for Gotham. When the teams matched up last year in the semifinals of the East playoffs, Gotham buried Steel in the biggest-ever WFTDA postseason blowout, 404-30. In the undercard, Gotham's B team, the Wall Street Traitors, take on the Ithaca Sufferjets. Full Traitors / Sufferjets and Gotham / Steel City previews from Thomas Gerbasi. No live coverage scheduled.

Chicago Outfit @ (25) Arch Rival -- St. Louis' Arch Rival has been on fire since early June, running up a 4-1 record marked by blowout wins over Detroit, Cincinnati and Nashville; on the other hand, all three of those teams seem to have noticeably lost a step since the 2011 campaign. Recent history suggests that the Chicago Outfit might be in the exact same boat as ARRG's recent rivals. Last year, they rolled to a surprising 5th place finish in the region after splitting a 2-2 series on the year with Arch Rival, but after nearly losing to Burning River and Brewcity -- along with a narrow loss to Cincinnati -- it appears that the Outfit is on the opposite trajectory from Arch at the moment. On a potentially positive note for the Outfit, though, both teams had relatively close games against shared opponent Houston, where Chicago lost by 16 and Arch Rival won by 21. No live coverage scheduled.

(11) Montreal @ (17) Boston -- Both Montreal and Boston seem to be on an upswing of late, but Montreal's has been a bit more marked. Both teams matched up against regional rival Charm City at the end of June and played a successful first half -- while Montreal managed to stay on the right side of a back-and-forth contest to eventually win by 22, Boston got rolled in their second half to see a potential upset win turn into a 98 point loss. Montreal scored a 28-point upset win in the 2011 WFTDA-sanctioned meeting with Boston, and spanked an irregular Boston crew by 89 earlier this year. No live coverage scheduled.

Other WFTDA Action

East

DC (10E) plays host as Richmond's River City (17E) comes to town; Connecticut (15E) goes to Jersey Shore (27E); Roc City (19E) hosts a closed triple-header on Sunday, as they play a round robin with Queen City (13E) and unranked Canadian crew Rideau Valley; the weekend represents Rideau Valley's first sanctioned WFTDA bouts.

North Central

NEO (24NC) tangles with Burning River (16NC) on Saturday night and hosts a hot 17-1 Ohio (24 DNN, 7NC) on Sunday in a closed bout; in Appleton, Paper Valley (20NC) takes on unranked Fargo-Moorhead.

South Central

There's inter-regional action in Albuquerque as Duke City (11SC) hosts longtime rivals Tucson (11W); Assassination City (18SC) goes to Memphis (16SC), Oklahoma City (28SC) goes cross-town to take on Oklahoma Victory Dolls (12SC); and Charleston, SC's Lowcountry (unranked, East) goes out of region to visit Tallahassee (10SC); Tallahassee has already delivered a blowout win against Lowcountry in a 234-70 game on April 1 of this year.