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Weekend Preview: 8/17/2012

By Justice Feelgood Marshall, Last updated Sat Aug 18 2012 2:01pm

Top MRDA / WFTDA Action

MRDA: Mohawk Valley Cup

This weekend in Rome, NY, the Quadfathers (#16 MRDA) host the first regular-season MRDA elimination tournament, the Mohawk Valley Cup. Eight MRDA teams compete over twelve games, with consolation brackets providing full final placement rankings. Top seed New York Shock Exchange (#3 MRDA) is coming off a 197-141 loss to the St. Louis GateKeepers (#5 MRDA) last weekend, but look to still be solid favorites in this weekend's tournament over second seed Race City (#7 MRDA) and third seed Mass Maelstrom (#10 MRDA). Also participating are Pioneer Valley (#12 MRDA) and Connecticut Death Quads (#13 MRDA), who face off in the 4/5 game, unranked Capital District Trauma Authority coming in as the #6 seed and playing Mass Maelstrom in their first game, and also unranked bottom seed Vermont pulling the tough duty of playing NYSE in their first game. Live all weekend courtesy of the Quadfathers. Action begins with Mass Maelstrom vs Capital District Trauma Authority at 9am Eastern on Saturday, August 18. Full tournament bracket.

MRDA: Twin Cities Terrors (#9 MRDA) vs Dallas Deception (#8 MRDA): With only 8 slots available in this year's MRDA championship tournament and the final rankings set to be released next month, this game is absolutely key for both teams and could very well amount to the play-in game for the bottom seed. Though Dallas is nominally the higher seed, they haven't had much going on this year so far, crushing the Cowtown Butchers twice by 302 and 248 points but getting crushed in kind when they sent a short roster to play St. Louis in June and lost 340-83. Twin Cities started their season strong at Spring Roll with 100+ point wins over Pioneer Valley and Harm City, but was soundly defeated by Race City in their final game at Spring Roll, lost badly to top-ranked Your Mom (416-68) and had a tough time with MRDA #11 Rock City in July, eking out a 124-103 win. On paper, this one looks likely to truly be anybody's game -- and is likely to be an intense one with so much on the line.

MRDA / WFTDA: Puget Sound (#4 MRDA) @ Rat City (#6 DNN, #6W WFTDA): In a rare matchup of top-level men's and women's teams, Puget Sound -- who narrowly lost last year's MRDA championship game to New York -- goes up against Rat City, who are coming off of a very successful East Coast swing last weekend marked by a 155-point blowout of Charm City (#7 DNN, #4E WFTDA). Overall, Rat City is 7-2 on the year and looking as strong as ever. Puget, 6-1 on the year, has crushed all their competition by spreads ranging from 139 to 359 points -- with the exception of top-ranked Your Mom, who handled them 257-143 in July.

(15) Naptown @ (13) Kansas City: Indianapolis' premiere WFTDA team will be trying to bounce back from a narrow upset loss to regional rival Arch Rival earlier this month, 115-99; that result scrambles the North Central playoff picture a bit, as Naptown will be the 3rd seed going into next month's playoffs but currently looks to be far from a lock to repeat their 2011 top-three finish in the region. This weekend they go out of region to try and get momentum back. Kansas City is something of a question mark, as they seemingly haven't played anybody near their level this year with the possible exception of Montreal, who they beat by 31 way back in April. Since then, they've lost by over 100 points to top-ten teams Denver, Bay Area and Rocky Mountain. This is Kansas City's first public all-star game of the year on their home turf. Live on wftda.tv; action begins at 7pm Central on Saturday, August 18.

Chicago Outfit @ (24) Ohio: Ohio (5NC WFTDA), riding a gaudy 19-1 record through 2012 that has seen them beat up on a great deal of the North Central teams ranked below them, opens the door to host regional rival Chicago Outfit (8NC), who have had a rockier season that saw them drop three places from 5th in this month's new WFTDA rankings. Chicago's 6-5 record has seen them alternate wins and losses all year long, but their most recent result, a 150-93 victory over a Cincinnati team that defeated them earlier in the year, suggests they might be on the upswing just in time for the playoffs. Still, though, recent triangulation greatly favors hosting Ohio -- Ohio smashed Brewcity 189-68 in June, while the Outfit barely escaped with an 11-point win, 93-82, later that same month.

Madison @ (19) Steel City: Madison looks likely to have their work cut out for them in this one; their 3-5 season includes only one win over a playoff-caliber team (a defeat of Brewcity 158-130, though Madison is still seeded one under Brewcity at 10 in the North Central due to that game falling in the summer rankings donut hole). Meanwhile, Steel City's scores have been all over the place (a very respectable 80 point loss to Rat City, but also a 6 point squeaker over Dutchland), but they still look fully capable of making a run at top-three in the East this year. On top of that, Steel City is 5-0 on their home turf this year; Madison is 1-4 on the road.

Grand Raggidy @ Killamazoo: While both teams fell significantly short of making the NC playoffs this year (GRRG fell to 14NC after threatening to break the top ten for most of the regular season, while Killamazoo moderately improved from 21NC to 17NC), this bout is particularly interesting for Michigan derby fans as Killamazoo, just an hour south from GRRG's home of Grand Rapids, has been the little sister league for years. They've faced off once a year since 2009, with GRRG's margin of victory steadily increasing (107-52, 151-90 and 192-57), but Killamazoo might be in their best position yet to turn the tables, as they're on a 5 game winning streak and Grand Raggidy hasn't played since a disappointing pair of losses to Ohio and Tri-City at early June's Midwest Brewhaha.