WFTDA Western Regionals- In It to Win It

If you’ve ever been to Sacramento, you may not be used to hearing “exciting” and “Sacramento” in the same sentence.  But if you happen to be a fan of the great sport of roller derby, Sacramento is where you’ll want to be this weekend.  Seriously.  Because despite the stifling heat and humidity, the sky-high crime rate, and the smell (yep, the smell), Sacramento is home to the 2010 WFTDA Western Regional Play-offs, aka Rollin’ On the River.  It all goes down at the Memorial Auditorium in downtown Sacramento, October 1-3.

This weekend’s “single-elimination” tournament (I’ll explain the “ ”s later) will determine which three teams from the West will have the honor of competing for the national title at the Uproar On the Lakeshore National Championships in Chicago, IL in November.  It will also serve as a tool for more “accurate” rankings of the 10 teams that make up the Western Region.  By this I mean that even once a team loses and is “eliminated” from the tournament, they will play in a series of consolation bouts against other losing teams in order to determine their standing within the region.  So…single elimination isn’t quite the right word.  Mike Chexx gives his ever-articulate opinion on the structure of the play-offs on Roller Derby Inside Track, and since he did a much better job than I could ever hope to, I’ll move on to what we all want to know: Can our Rose City Rollers All-Star team Wheels of Justice survive the tournament and win a shot at the National title?  Well of course they can.

As Mike Chexx mentions in his article, 10 is an awkward number for a bracket.  And the set-up is, well, less than logical.  For the purposes of this blog, I stripped the confusing and convoluted bracket down to bare bones, removing all the consolation bouts and focusing on advancement.  Because really, who cares about the losers?

Tips for reading this bracket: 1) the bold numbers are game numbers and correspond with the official tournament schedule. 2) a red box is a nationals play-off spot, there are three. 3) WFTDA rankings are as of June 30, 2010

Most of you have seen a tournament bracket before.  You know how it works.  You can read mine, even if it doesn’t look exactly how you would expect.  You can follow along to see how each team could fare.  So let’s focus on the only team that matters: Rose City.  As you can see, our very first bout is against our sister rivals to the north, #5 Rat City (Seattle).  We’ve met them on the track several times over the years, most recently when they defeated us 155-111 on our own turf at the Hometown Throwdown in August.  Earlier this year Rat City came to the Expo Center for a schooling on the track, where they were served some justice in the form of a 134-148 loss.  Click here for some back-story on the rivalry.  Suffice it to say we have a hell of a hurdle to jump just to survive the first round.  Difficult, but definitely do-able.

So we just beat Rat City.  Now what?  Now we get to play the winner of the Oly vs Duke City-or-Tuscon game (see bracket).  So basically, we play Oly.  That’s right, 2009 National Champions Oly.  That’s right, the new home of ex-RCRs Licker*N*Split and ChestNutZ.  That’s right, undefeated Oly.  If Rat City is a hurdle, Oly may as well be the frickin’ Chrysler building.  But just because they haven’t lost yet doesn’t mean they cannot lose.  Word on the track is that Oly is down some major players due to the miracle of life (ie they’re preggers).  And although Licker and Nutz are formidable opponents, we know how they play.  And there was that time we almost beat Oly at the Wild West Showdown in Bremerton, WA earlier this year.  So don’t give up hope.  It can be done.

But wait!  I have good news!  Remember how I said this was a “single-elimination” tournament?  Remember when I said I’d explain those “ ”s later?  Well, even if Rose City loses to Oly we still have a shot at Nationals! 10-team bracket + 3 winning spots ≠ single elimination.  Check out the bracket again.  See that little floater down at the bottom?  This game is between the losers of Games 9 and 10, and the winner heads to Chicago for Nationals.  If we beat Rat City, we play in Game 9.  Which means even if we lose Game 9 (against let’s assume Oly), we can still win that last spot if we can beat the loser of Game 10 (which is Denver-or-BAD vs let’s assume Rocky Mountain).

Still a little confused?  Ok, watch the bracket, and I’ll take you through the scenarios in which Rose City advances to Nationals.

Scenario #1: Rose City plays Rat City and wins.  Yea!  Rose City plays Oly and wins.  Yea!  Rose City goes to Nationals!

Scenario #2: Rose City plays Rat City and wins.  Yea!  Rose City plays Oly and loses.  Boo!  Rose City plays Denver-or-BAD-or-Rocky Mountain and wins.  Yea!  Rose City goes to Nationals!

Obviously there are two scenarios in which Rose City does not advance to Nationals.  But let’s not think like that.

So to all the skaters, SuperFans, and family coming to Sacramento to cheer their favorite roller derby team on to victory: I’ll see you there!  And if you can’t make the trip, the entire tournament will be streamed live online.  Click here for details.  Who’s ready to see some justice be served?