Weekend Results: Canada’s WFTDA Teams Have Up-and-Down Weekend

It was a busy weekend for Canada’s WFTDA teams, with most of Canada’s top teams spread out across the continent for important regular season matchups.

Both Toronto and Tri-City had busy weekends at Fort Wayne’s Spring Roll

Montreal Roller Derby: New Skids on the Block

Montreal had to have hit the West Coast with high expectations, especially after Vancouver’s Terminal City was able to knock off one of their opponents, the Oly Rollers, last weekend. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. Canada’s top team went 0-3 against incredibly tough competition in Rat, Rose and Oly. The losses will affect their WFTDA rankings (although they lost only 3.6 points on Flattrackstats on the weekend), but the loss to lesser ranked Rat and Oly, especially, shows that they still have a lot of work to do before season’s end to finally attain that goal of making Champs.

Montreal (12^th) 124 vs. Rat City (18^th) 202

Montreal 109 vs. Rose City (5^th) 306

Montreal 174 vs. Oly (14^th) 230

Toronto Roller Derby: CN Power

Toronto entered the weekend on a massive 8-game slide, and were looking for some positives heading into a busy summer. Things started off rough on Saturday against a tough Jacksonville team whose incredibly fast and agile jammers ran roughshod over the team. However, Toronto found their form against lesser opponents as the weekend went on, handling a strong Jet City with ease before crushing Cincinnati to close out Spring Roll (it’s hard to believe this Cinci. team beat Toronto a year ago). They were confidence-boosting wins that the team needed as it looks to shore up a favourable playoff spot.

Toronto (23^rd) 116 vs. Jacksonville (16^th) 243

Toronto 235 vs. Jet City (36^th) 86

Toronto 370 vs. Cincinnati (56^th) 83

Tri-City Roller Derby: Tri-City Thunder

The Thunder headed to Spring Roll hoping to improve their tenuous hold on a Division 1 playoff spot; unfortunately, things didn’t necessarily go as planned. Given a favourable draw for the weekend, Tri-City did go 2-2 for the tournament, but the results were not quite as expected. The wins came against a D-2 non-playoff team (Big Easy) and a D-3 team (Glasgow, though due to lack of high-level competition, Glasgow’s ranking is probably far too low), but both wins were within 40 points. The loss to Jet City, despite being ranked below the Everett-based team, was a missed opportunity to knock of a low-ranked D-1 team, and the upset loss to a determined Chicago Outfit team just trying to qualify for the D-2 playoffs had to have hurt.

Tri-City (40^th) 148 vs. Jet City (36^th) 178

Tri-City 190 vs. Glasgow (104^th) 175

Tri-City 176 vs. Big Easy (82^nd) 137

Tri-City 124 vs. Chicago Outfit (65^th) 161

Division 2 and Division 3 Action

The Rideau Valley Vixens headed to the East Coast to take on Maine’s Port Authorities in a very important D-2 showdown between two teams who have made significant jumps early in 2014, and the Vixens came away with the win: another step in securing a D-2 playoff spot.

Rideau Valley (64^th) 192 vs. Maine (72^nd) 160

Closer to home, the GTA Rollergirls G-sTARs hosted Alliston’s Renegade Derby Dames Striking Vikings in WFTDA action. This was the second sanctioned bout for the G-sTARs after a loss to London’s Timber Rollers to kick off the season. It was the first ever sanctioned game for the Striking Vikings. It was an incredibly tight game, especially in the first half (the Vikings had a 12-point lead at the break). Some excellent half-time adjustments for the G-sTARs saw the hosts take a lead early in the second that they were able to hold onto for the remainder of the game. Neither team has yet to be ranked (they must play three sanctioned games for an initial ranking), but both will be looking to make inroads into D-3 before the season is over.

GTA (-) 144 vs. Renegade Derby Dames (-) 112

Canada Day USA: Montreal and Toronto Upset Southern Neighbours at ECDX

With both teams displaying excellent first-year players and deep benches, Montreal’s New Skids on the Block and Toronto’s CN Power scored hard-earned victories in exciting games against Charm City (153-131) and Maine (148-120) respectively on Saturday at Philly’s East Coast Derby Extravaganza. Montreal finished the tournament 1-1 including a 197-55 loss on Friday night to the South Central powerhouse Texas Rollergirls Texacutioners, while Toronto went 2-0, coupling their victory over Maine with a 375-60 victory over Harrisburg Area Roller Derby’s Nuclear Knockouts in a chippy, penalty filled bout.

Montreal increased its record to 7-5 in WFTDA games on the season and despite the loss to Texas on Friday night may have done enough to find themselves ranked as high as 3^rd or 4^th for the Eastern Regionals. Veteran Montreal blocker Lil’ Mama said that they were hoping to go at least 1-1 in the tournament, and that despite their narrow victory over Texas in 2011, they were still heading into that one very open-minded and hoping for a positive learning experience but remaining optimistic as well: “We went into (last year’s) game with no expectations either and it just turned out like that (a Montreal upset), so we knew they were coming for vengeance,” she said. But despite the loss to Texas (who are ranked #1 in WFTDA’s South Central Region and 5^th on DNN), the victory over Eastern rivals Charm City made this weekend a massive success.

Last year when Charm and Montreal met at Anarchy in the UK, high hopes were met with great disappointment for the Skids when Charm took advantage of a short-handed Montreal team to blow them out 207-85. Charm was on a role this season as well, having won five in a row including a narrow victory over Minnesota who had themselves scored a narrow victory over Montreal recently. Skids’ rookie jammer Apocalipstick was ecstatic after the game, admitting that they “never expected (the win), so it’s even better.”  And Montreal seems to be rounding into form at just the right time with a recent victory over Steel City meaning that they have now recorded back-to-back victories over rivals ranked above them (4^th and 3^rd to Montreal’s 6^th), leaving only (the virtually inactive–two games against unranked European teams) London Rollergirls in the way of a Top 3 ranking for Regionals.

Read Justice Feelgood Marshall’s blow-by-blow recap of Toronto vs. Maine on Derby News Network. (Photo by Dave Wood for Derby News Network)

Toronto’s CN Power entered the weekend with an almost absurd amount of injuries to starting players, making an already tough matchup against Maine (higher ranked, on the cusp of a playoff spot) suddenly seem overwhelmingly daunting.

“We were obviously hoping to go 2-0, yeah,” said Toronto blocker Mega Bouche at the end of the tournament.” But expecting? Not really.” The veteran skater explained that they actually used the lowered expectations as motivation (the whole team also wrote Tara Part’s #L7 on their legs in honour of their injured pivot who’d undergone surgery the week before). Complaining about the amount of “chatter” around their injuries, Mega said that on Saturday morning the team came together and “we just said ‘nope’: we can’t do this to ourselves…we can’t let (missing players) affect how we play together on the track as a team… We knew that (we were down players), but we are a strong blocking team, so we just wanted to prove that we could do this with or without these awesome players that we were missing.” And although they took a lot of time to adjust to the roster changes (they were behind until the very last jam of the first half), they stuck together and were relentless in their pursuit of the victory, even falling behind by 30 points again in the second half until they wore down Maine enough to start forcing mistakes late.

“Everyone just played together really strongly,” CN Power rookie jammer Kookie Doe said of the Maine victory. “We just remained calm and worked at it piece by piece.” Although she travelled to Brewhaha and got some late-game action in a loss to Ohio earlier this season, this weekend marked a breakout moment for Kookie, who scored a remarkable 171 points in the blowout win on Sunday against an overmatched Harrisburg Area Roller Derby. “I was really nervous,” she admitted about the increased workload, “but we have a great team of blockers and everyone is so supportive; I rely on them.”

When asked if she’d stepped up her game, she modestly deflected.  “Maybe (I’ve stepped up)…one thing I’ve realized is I feel like I can really trust my blockers…it was beautiful. When I approach the pack, I feel like they are there telling me (where to go).” But Mega Bouche chimed in at this point, a little more blunt in her assessment of the rookie’s big weekend: “(She was) so fucking awesome today.”

Read Justice Feelgood Marshall’s blow-by-blow recap of the Charm vs. Montreal game on DNN. (Photo by Dave Wood for DNN)

Montreal is not playing with a full roster this weekend either and also gave a ton of track time to rookie skaters and new comers. Apocalipstick was one of those skaters who found herself skating every third jam against one of the top teams in the game (Charm). “It was amazing; I had no expectations because I had nothing to compare it to…it was just one jam at a time.” But she is also quick to point out those missing players (superstar jammer Iron Wench [Team Canada MVP 2011 World Cup] and triple threat Smack Daddy [Tournament MVP 2011 World Cup]), and looking forward, knows that when they return, the depth that the team has developed will serve them well. “We’re not putting any numbers on what we’re going to do at Regionals,” she said. “We just want to go out there really strong.” That being said, Lil’ Mama feels the team has done enough to garner a coveted 3^rd place ranking for the playoffs: “We’re hoping (for third), that’s our goal. We’ve been playing some hard teams (in) heavy hitting games so that we could learn.”

Despite going 9-1 in WFTDA bouts this season, Toronto is a little more realistic about their chances of a playoff birth. The win over Maine at least opens up the possibility of a Top 10 position, but the WFTDA rankings have not been kind to Toronto this year and the CN Power skaters may have to shift their focus to next year’s Regionals. “Absolutely,” Mega said confidently when asked about at least advancing to next year’s playoffs, but admits that “the (100-point loss) to Ohio stung,” and probably had a big impact on their chances at making Regionals.  But the North Central’s 9-15 positions are a tight mess right now, and who knows how it will all pan out.

There was a huge Canadian cheering section on hand for every one of Montreal and Toronto’s games, in large part due to the busload of Montrealers that followed the Skids to Philly. Once known for their after-party antics more than their on-track awesomeness, the Skids may not themselves be the partiers they once were, but still wanted to make sure they represented, “Why do you think we brought 80 people?” Lil Mama points out. But in the midst of an American roller derby tradition, the loud fans spurred on both Canadian teams, symbolic of the heightened performances by both teams. “The cheering was incredible,” said Apocalipstick. “I really felt like I was being lifted by everyone while I was playing.”

CANADIAN ECDX RESULTS:

Montreal New Skids on the Block (6E) 55 vs. Texas Texacutioners (1SE) 197 (read Justice Feelgood Marshall’s DNN recap)

Montreal (6E) 153 vs. Charm City (3E) 131 (read Justice Feelgood Marshall’s DNN recap)

Toronto CN Power (15NC) 148 vs. Maine Port Authorities (11E) 120 (read Justice Feelgood Marshall’s DNN recap)

Toronto (15NC) 375 vs. Harrisburg Nuclear Knockouts (23E) 60 (read Justice Feelgood Marshall’s DNN recap)

***The interviews with the Montreal and Toronto skaters will appear in their entirety on this week’s Derby Deeds Done Dirt Cheap podcast, so tune in!

Canada heads to ECDX

Battered, beaten and bruised, Toronto Roller Derby’s CN Power is one of two Canadian teams heading to the East Coast Derby Extravaganza this weekend, joining Montreal’s New Skids on the Block in the popular Philadelphia tournament. What started as a promising season for Toronto has tailed off as of late due to a spate of injuries that has decimated the roster. So while the WFTDA playoffs may be out of reach this season, this tournament will represent a big stepping stone for Toronto’s visibility in WFTDA and a nice launching pad for a regrouped, refocused–not to mention more experienced–CN Power in 2013.

The New Skids, on the other hand, enter the tournament finding themselves in one of their most secure positions ever in terms of WFTDA standings. Locked into a playoff spot, this will be Montreal’s third season competing in the Eastern Championships and the second season they will (presumably) enter as one of the top six seeds (thus earning a direct path to the quarterfinals). What does remain to be seen is where in the top six they fall, this weekend’s games will very much impact that.

While Toronto (15^th NC) is coming off of a successful  Midwest Brewhaha in which they demolished Fox Cityz (25^th NC) by 400 points and held off Burning River (16^th NC) 158-125 to pull to 7-1 on the WFTDA season, an injury bug that began to affect them before the tournament has run rampant over the roster. Missing four key jammers and a top pivot (to name a few) CN Power will have a far different look in their ECDX games. They kick things off in a tough contest against Maine Roller Derby’s Port Authorities (11^th E) who are in the midst of a dog fight for a playoff spot that has slipped from their grasp this season. Maine has been inconsistent this season never winning more than one in a row (though they haven’t lost two in a row either) and enter the tournament having held off Suburbia (14^th E) in a 227-199 victory and then falling to Boston (7^th E) by a respectable 63 points.

On Sunday morning, Toronto should have a slightly easier time as they face off against Harrisburg’s Nuclear Knockouts (23^rd E). After a 2011 season that saw Harrisburg win three of its final four games, 2012 hasn’t been kind to the team so far. 0-3 so far this season, they are coming off of 365 and 188 point losses to Providence (12^th E) and Dominion (16^th E) respectively.

Montreal’s New Skids on the Block have a chance to improve their Eastern Region playoff seeding this weekend.

Montreal (6^th E) has a much stiffer test this weekend. Kicking things off with the marquee Friday night matchup, Montreal will take on the Texas Rollergirls Texacutioners (1^st SC). Montreal is 6-4 this season, with losses coming to tough competition in Philly (2^nd E), Naptown (3^rd NC), Kansas City (2^nd SC) and Minnesota (2^nd NC).  Texas remains a juggernaut in the South Central and have been dominant this season once again compiling a 5-1 record with their single loss being a 149-117 loss to Rose City (3^rd W). Montreal has the most to gain out of this matchup; coming off of a minor upset win against Steel City (4^th E), a chance to score a victory over a highly ranked opponent could help them squeeze their way up another rung in the Eastern Region ladder. Montreal actually defeated the Texacutioners in 2011, beating them 104-88 during the Austin team’s early season slump.

Things don’t get any easier for the New Skids on the Block on Saturday with a matchup against regional rivals, Charm City (3^rd E). Despite losses to a few key players, Charm has been dominant in 2012 brushing aside good teams in Queen City (13^th E), Nashville (3^rd SC) and the Chicago Outfit (5^th NC), before finally being challenged by Windy City (1^st NC) and Minnesota (2^nd NC). On top of this, they also proved to be bi-trackually solid after winning the second Pro Roller Derby Invitational in Glendale (a banked-track tournament). Charm City and Montreal met at last year’s Anarchy in the UK, where Charm dominated 207-85.

CANADIAN ECDX SCHEDULE

Friday, June 22, 7:30 PM:  Montreal vs. Texas

Saturday, June 23^rd, 2:30 PM: Toronto vs. Maine

Saturday, June 23^rd, 6:30 PM: Montreal vs. Charm City

Sunday, June 24^th, 11:00 AM: Toronto vs. Harrisburg

The 2012 ECDX will be boutcast live on WFTDA.TV.