A day of driving and derby

So this weekend is the mighty Northwest Knockdown national championship tournament for the WFTDA (Women's Flat-Track Derby Association), this year being held in Portland and co-hosted by the Rose City Rollers and my beloved Rat City Rollergirls. So, since it's only a couple hundred miles south and I can crash with the in-laws for free, down I went. Can't post any pictures yet, because a) I don't have my computer here and my brother-in-law's is slow, and b) I didn't sit track-side today so my any pictures I took are probably dim and crappy, but I do have a review: Day 1 was as expected: man-handling by the two top ranked teams.

The tournament is set up in a standard ranked single-elimination bracket: The top teams in the two divisions (East and West) play the bottom teams of the opposing divisions, then the middle teams play, then the winners play, etc. So the first bout tonight was the top team in the West (the mighty Texas Rollergirls Texacutioners) taking on the #4 team from the East (the Carolina Rollergirls All-Stars). And, while the score was 28-0 when we got there (we decided to eat dinner instead of being right on time), Carolina actually made a game of it and kept it relatively close in the first half. Then in the second half they seemed to fall apart, sending many many players to the penalty box and losing 125-61. Ouch, but nothing compared to bout 2, the Gotham Girls vs. the Duke City Derby Munecas Muertas out of Albuquerque. That was an all-out slaughter, with Gotham nearly breaking 100 in the first half while holding Duke City to 8. Final score, 182-25. Ouch!

Tomorrow things get local. Rat City takes on the Windy City Rollers all-star team at 1, with the winner playing Texas at 6. The second bout of the day pits the B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls All Stars against the Liberty Belles from the Philly Roller Girls, the winner of which gets to face Gotham. Should be a long day, but a fun one!