DNN Releases August 2012 Power Rankings

By Derby News Network, Last updated Thu Aug 2 2012 12:59pm

Well, hello. With the WFTDA set to announce the Q2 rankings that will determine which teams qualify for the 2012 postseason on Friday, we take our penultimate pre-playoffs look at the global rankings scene in our August 2012 DNN Power Rankings.

With considerably fewer high-level bouts played in this two-month lull between the end of the second quarter and the beginning of the postseason, our precious accuracy rating took a bit of a hit in July, as we hit on 18 games and missed on 6 for a monthly accuracy rating of 75%. Last month's #4 Texas was upset by both #14 Windy City and #6 Bay Area, last month's #2 Rose City was upset by both #3 Denver and #9 Philly, Philly upset #8 Rocky Mountain and unranked Detroit upset #21 Dutchland.

Overall on the year, we're now at 125 hits and 22 misses for a 2012 accuracy percentage of 85%, down a bit from 87% last month.

As we did last year, we've also been keeping a running tally of the comparative accuracy of DNN and WFTDA rankings. This month, there were no games in which DNN and WFTDA rankings predicted different results, but there was one in which both rankings systems missed the winner when Denver defeated Rose City. This brings the current 2012 count to this:

DNN hit, WFTDA miss: 3
WFTDA hit, DNN miss: 1
Both rankings miss: 10

Quick rundown of July's activity follows; you can jump to the full ranking chart here.

Top Ten Movement

The big story from July, of course, was the highly unexpected performance from last month's #2 Rose City at Rollercon last weekend; missing key jammers Scald Eagle (injured at ECDX), White Flight (knee injury) and Soulfearic Acid (unavailable for travel), Rose City got heavily pummeled by July #3 Denver (306-77) and July #9 Philly. Those games and other Rollercon results raise Denver to #2 and Philly to #4, while Rose slides to #12.

July #4 Texas also had a tough month, losing three straight to July #1 Gotham, July #6 Bay Area and July #14 Windy City; that sends Texas tumbling to #11 while Bay Area jumps to the #3 spot and Windy City rises to #9.

July #12 Charm City is also on the move, going up to #7 after giving Philly a tough battle early in the month, and July #13 Minnesota enters the top ten for the first time at #10.

A Static Middle, Arch Rival on the Move

Almost all of the big moves took place at #12 and above this month. While Kansas City and Montreal slide a few spaces to #13 and #14 respectively, the #15 through #19 slots stay just the same at last month. July #25 Arch Rival is a big mover this month, though, using a big win over unranked Chicago Outfit to leapfrog the bottom five and move to #20. At the very edge of the top 25, Houston returns after a one-month absence, taking advantage of July #21 Dutchland exiting after a loss to unranked Detroit.

On the Bubble

These teams have August bouts that have the potential to put them in next month's Power Rankings.

Atlanta. After recent impressive results against current #15 Naptown (ATL lost 109-91) and up-and-coming Columbia (ATL won 155-74), it's quite possible that Atlanta could crash the top 25 depending on the result of their August 5 game against current #21 Carolina. Carolina smashed Atlanta 242-55 when they last played in September 2011, but Carolina's lost some key players since then and Atlanta has picked up a star jammer from Gotham's 2011 championship squad in Wild Cherri -- this meeting could turn out much differently.

DC. It's been awhile since DC looked like top 25 material, but they've been having a good run this year with 8 wins in a row, most impressively against Cincinnati (162-132). On August 10 and 11, they take on current #6 Rat City and #4 Philly in games that look certain to go to the higher-ranked teams but could produce solid triangulation data to allow them to rise.

Chicago Outfit. After getting revenge on Cincinnati last month, the Outfit has a shot against current DNN #24 Ohio on August 18.

Santa Cruz and Sacred City. Both play new #25 Houston on the last weekend of the month.

No Coast and Detroit. These two teams meet on August 31; Detroit, while currently unranked, did bring last month's #21 Dutchland off the chart with a solid win, and No Coast is riding a 8 game winning streak that included a 98 point win over Madison (who, while having an overall record of only 3-6, have some close losses against ranked teams Arch Rival, Ohio, Houston and Tampa). A narrow win for either team in their matchup probably wouldn't do much, but a blowout victory for either would make them look considerably more threatening.

Teams We're Watching

While these teams aren't quite on the verge of going top 25, they've had recent events that make them potential developing threats.

Wasatch and Mid-Iowa. No games in July for either one of these relatively new faces on the WFTDA block, but their June results continue to suggest that they could seriously shake up the bottom 10 of their respective regions quite soon. Wasatch has already knocked off a top-ten West team with their May defeat of Angel City.

Columbia. Columbia's epic 32-game, nearly 3 year win streak over mostly non-WFTDA teams was finally snapped by Atlanta last month in a 155-74 Atlanta win, but with Atlanta having some notable results this year and likely to be a significant factor in this year's South Central playoffs, Columbia looks like a classic case of a maybe-next-year team.

Have you words for us? Super, we love words! If you wish to comment, come on over to the Power Rankings chart, where we are always eager to read the words that you robustly, yet courteously, type.