WFTDA Championships
| 2006–present | |
 The Hydra Trophy. | |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Location | Various |
| Month played | November |
| Established | 2006 |
| Format | Knockout |
| Current champion | |
| Rose City Rollers | |
The WFTDA Championships are the leading competition for roller derby leagues.
The Championships are organised by the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA). They originated in 2006 as the National WFTDA Championship. The "Dust Devil" tournament was contested in front of several thousand fans in Tucson, Arizona.[1] This was the first multi-league flat track roller derby tournament.[2] The tournament is broadcast on the WFTDA online service WFTDA.tv on a pay-per-view basis; in 2015 the WFTDA entered into a partnership with ESPN whereby some of the games will be carried on ESPN3.[3][4]
Format
In 2007, Western and Eastern Region Tournaments were held in order to determine qualifiers for the "Texas Shootout" National Championship, held in Austin, Texas.[5][6] By 2010, with leagues in Canada and the United Kingdom also enjoying membership of the WFTDA, "National" was dropped from the title of the contest.
Through the 2012 WFTDA season, the WFTDA was divided into regions based on geography. Each region held a tournament contested by its top ten leagues: the Eastern (2007-2012), North Central (2009-2012), South Central (2009-2012) and Western (2007-2012) Regional Tournaments. The top three leagues from each of these four tournaments qualified for the Championships. Together, the qualifying tournaments and Championships were termed the "Big 5".[7]
Starting with the 2013 WFTDA season, full WFTDA members are eligible for ranking in one of the association's three divisions. Division 1 comprises the top 40-ranked teams in the WFTDA, and the top 40 teams that meet eligibility requirements based on the June 30 rankings of that year are invited to Division 1 Playoffs, and are divided into four playoff tournaments (10 per tournament) using an S-curve for seeding. Participants in Division 1 Playoffs are not required to be current members of Division 1, as long as they meet ranking and other requirements. The teams that finish first through third at each Division 1 Tournament then move on to the WFTDA Championship tournament. Division 2 comprises the teams ranked 41 through 100, and the next 20 teams overall that meet requirements after the 40 confirmed Division 1 playoff participants are then invited to Division 2 Playoffs, and are divided into two playoff tournaments. The top 2 teams of each Division 2 Tournament then play each other at the WFTDA Championship Tournament, with the winner crowned the Division 2 champion. Division 3 comprises all ranked teams from 101 on, and there are no Division 3 Playoffs.
Since 2008, the winner of the Championships has been awarded the Hydra Trophy.[8]
Championships
| Rank | Team | Champ | 2nd Place | 3rd place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gotham Girls Roller Derby | 5 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Oly Rollers | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 3 | Texas Rollergirls | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 4 | Rose City Rollers | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 5 | Kansas City Roller Warriors | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Rocky Mountain Rollergirls | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | Tucson Roller Derby | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 8 | Rat City Rollergirls | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | Windy City Rollers | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 10 | Denver Roller Dolls | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 11 | B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 12 | Victorian Roller Derby League | 0 | 0 | 1 |
2006 Dust Devil
In Tucson, Arizona, over the weekend of February 24–26, 2006, Tucson Roller Derby hosted 20 WFTDA leagues from around the United States in a tournament to determine the nation's first-ever WFTDA national champion team.[21]
Round-robin bouts were instituted to determine seeding for a single-elimination tournament. Four pools were created, titled Scorpion, Tarantula, Black Widow and Rattlesnake, with each pool consisting of 5 teams. On Friday, February 24, 2006, each team played four ten-minute bouts in each pool. Point differential was used to determine the ranking and placement of each team within its pool. With this information in hand, tournament officials selected the top three teams of each pool and seeded them according to the point differential of each team for the single-elimination tournament.
The single-elimination tournament started on Saturday, February 25, 2006 with 12 of the previous day's 20 teams. Scheduling of the bouts allowed for the top four seeded teams to receive a bye in the first round of play. Teams seeded 5 through 12 played in the first round. The winners of the first round of the single elimination tournament played the top four seeds in the second round. Bout winners advanced to the semi-finals and bout losers were eliminated.
On Sunday February 26, 2006, four teams (Texas Rollergirls Texecutioners, Tucson Roller Derby Saddletramps, Minnesota Rollergirls All-Stars and Arizona Roller Derby Tent City Terrors) played in the semi-final bouts. In the first bout, the Texecutioners defeated the Tent City Terrors in a full three-period bout, 114 to 81, sending the Texas to the championship bout and Arizona to the 3rd-place bout. A second full three-period semi-final bout was played between Tucson and the Minnesota Rollergirls. Tucson defeated Minnesota 136–75. This pitted the Tent City Terrors against Minnesota for the 3rd-place bout, and set the WFTDA National Championship Bout to be between Texas and Tucson. The 3rd-place bout was played out with the Tent City Terrors upsetting 3rd-seeded Minnesota 115–88. The Championship bout was finalized later in the evening, with the Texecutioners defeating the Saddletramps 129–96.
The tournament also saw the first collaboration between roller derby announcers. Following the event, announcer Bob Noxious founded "Voices of Reason", an announcers' association.[2]
2007 Texas Shootout
On September 30, 2007, the Kansas City Roller Warriors beat[22] the Rat City Rollergirls[23] 89–85 in the final match of the Texas Shootout to become the 2007 national champion. The Texas Rollergirls placed third.[24] Eight teams competed in the tournament, four from the eastern regional division and four from the western regional division. These teams included Carolina Rollergirls (fourth place), Gotham Girls Roller Derby, Tucson Roller Derby, Detroit Derby Girls, and Windy City Rollers.[25]
A statement from WFTDA President "Crackerjack" on page 5 of the program[26] for this event suggests that at the time it was considered the "first WFTDA Championship Tournament."
2008 Northwest Knockdown
On November 16, 2008, the Gotham Girls Roller Derby (GGRD All-Stars) beat the Windy City Rollers 134-66 in the championship bout. The Philly Rollergirls (Liberty Belles) beat the Texas Rollergirls (Texecutioners) 114-95 in the consolation bout to take third place.[27]
2009 Declaration of Derby
The Denver Roller Dolls pioneered the "slow derby" style of play, utilizing slow and stopped packs and backwards skating, which proved effective against most opposition, but unpopular with crowds. They were finally defeated 178-91 in the semi-finals by the Oly Rollers were regarded as a largely unknown force, although they had gone undefeated through the whole season. Rocky Mountain Rollergirls had unexpectedly sailed through their qualifying tournament, and beat Philly Rollergirls in an overtime jam in their quarter final, but they lost to defending champions Texas Rollergirls 139-82 in the semi-final, in a bout which saw Rocky skater DeRanged ejected from the tournament after apparently punching Angie-Christ from Texas.[28]
Denver defeated Rocky 151-103 in the third place bout, greatly aided by forty-four points to nil scored in the later section of the first half. Oly dominated Texas in the championship bout, taking the title 178-100.[28]
2010 Uproar on the Lakeshore
The final was particularly hard-fought. The Oly Rollers built up a half-time lead, 84 points to the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls' 49, principally due to Atomatrix's power jams. Although she ultimately scored 101 points for Oly, Rocky Mountain were able to fight back in the second half. With one jam remaining, Oly retained an eight-point lead, but, jamming for the third time in a row, Rocky Mountain's Frida Beater scored nine unopposed points before calling off the jam, to secure a win by a single point.[29]
Quarter-finals:
| 6 November 2010 | Charm City | 103-165 | Rocky Mountain | |
| (52-67) | ||||
| Report | ||||
| 6 November 2010 | Kansas City | 126-147 | Philly | |
| (55-78) | ||||
| Report | ||||
| 6 November 2010 | Oly | 178-76 | Windy City | |
| (74-31) | ||||
| Report | ||||
| 7 November 2010 | Gotham | 151-52 | Texas | |
| (65-39) | ||||
| Report | ||||
Semi-finals:
| 7 November 2010 | Gotham | 79-113 | Rocky Mountain | |
| (31-75) | ||||
| Report | ||||
| 7 November 2010 | Oly | 106-81 | Philly | |
| (52-34) | ||||
| Report | ||||
Third place play-off:
| 7 November 2010 | Gotham | 162-51 | Philly | |
| (74-26) | ||||
| Report | ||||
Final:
| 7 November 2010 | Oly | 146-147 | Rocky Mountain | |
| (84-49) | ||||
| Report | ||||
2011 Continental Divide and Conquer
First round:
| 11 November 2011 14:00 |
Charm City | 121-160 | Minnesota | |
| (42-94) | ||||
| Report | ||||
| 11 November 2011 15:45 |
Nashville | 58-198 | Rocky Mountain | |
| (41-101) | ||||
| Report | ||||
| 11 November 2011 17:30 |
Kansas City | 143-135 | Rose City | |
| (42-29) | ||||
| Report | ||||
| 11 November 2011 19:15 |
Naptown | 68-225 | Philly | |
| (20-104) | ||||
| Report | ||||
Quarter finals:
| 12 November 2011 09:30 |
Minnesota | 108-141 | Texas | |
| (67-56) | ||||
| Report | ||||
| 12 November 2011 11:15 |
Gotham | 187-134 | Rocky Mountain | |
| (75-53) | ||||
| Report | ||||
| 12 November 2011 13:00 |
Kansas City | 112-95 | Windy City | |
| (42-29) | ||||
| Report | ||||
| 12 November 2011 14:45 |
Oly | 181-95 | Philly | |
| (89-36) | ||||
| Report | ||||
Semi finals:
| 12 November 2011 17:30 |
Gotham | 195-113 | Texas | |
| (75-48) | ||||
| Report | ||||
| 12 November 2011 19:15 |
Kansas City | 104-124 | Oly | |
| (36-60) | ||||
| Report | ||||
Third place play-off:
| 13 November 2011 14:00 |
Kansas City | 112-136 | Texas | |
| (62-50) | ||||
| Report | ||||
Final:
| 13 November 2011 16:00 |
Gotham | 197-140 | Oly | |
| (59-38) | ||||
| Report | ||||
References
- ↑ "Hot on the Track", Buffalo News, 5 August 2006
- 1 2 Alex Cohen and Jennifer Barbee, Down and Derby: The Insider's Guide to Roller Derby
- ↑ Swiatecki, Chad (11 August 2015). "ESPN hooks up with Austinites to bring roller derby back". Austin Business Journal. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
- ↑ "WFTDA Signs Deal to Stream 2015 Championships with ESPN3". WFTDA. 7 August 2015. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
- ↑ "Steel City Derby Demons put their bodies on the line for the thrill of the game", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 18 January 2007
- ↑ Molly Yanity, "Roller derby enjoys rollicking resurgence", Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 16 August 2007
- ↑ "WFTDA 2011 Big 5 Tournament Schedule Announced", WFTDA, 9 November 2010
- ↑ "The Hydra", WFTDA
- ↑ "2007 WFTDA Championship Official Event Program", pp.29-30
- ↑ Gnosis, "Live from the 2007 WFTDA National Championships", Derby News Network, 8 October 2007
- ↑ "August 2010 Featured Skater: Bonnie Thunders", WFTDA, 1 August 2010
- ↑ "WFTDA Announces 2009 Championship MVPs", WFTDA, 19 December 2009
- ↑ "December 2010 Featured Skater: Sassy", WFTDA, 2 December 2010
- ↑ Shelly Shankya, "Gotham Wins 2011 Championships!", WFTDA, 13 November 2011
- ↑ "2012 Championships MVPs", WFTDA
- ↑ "http://wftda.com/tournaments/2013/championships", WFTDA, 1 October 2013
- ↑ "", Derby News Network 10 November 2013
- ↑ "http://wftda.com/news/wftda-announces-2014-tournament-dates-and-locations", WFTDA, 1 December 2013
- ↑ Frye, Andy (8 November 2015). "Holy Upset: Rose City Stuns Gotham Girls Roller Derby For Championship". ESPN. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
- ↑ "D1 Champs 1st Place: Rose City takes down Gotham, 206-195". Derby Central. 9 November 2015. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
- ↑ Catherine Mabe, Roller Derby: The History and All-Girl Revival of the Greatest Sport on Wheels, p.80
- ↑ http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/298252.html
- ↑ "Rat City Rollergirls lose championship bout". Seattle's Big Blog. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
- ↑ "HugeDomains.com - LeadJammer.com is for sale (Lead Jammer)". leadjammer.com. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
- ↑ Texas Shootout - 2007 Women's Flat Track Derby Association Championship Tournament
- ↑ Phil Davis. "WFTDA National Roller Derby Program". Issuu. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
- ↑ "2008 WFTDA Nationals: Complete Recaps - Derby News Network". derbynews.net. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
- 1 2 Matt Costa, "Declaration of Derby: The 2009 WFTDA National Tournament", Blood and Thunder #15, pp.40-47
- ↑ Justice Feelgood Marshall, "Rocky Mountain Rollergirls Take It All", Derby News Network, 27 May 2011