Scottish Roller Derby Blog (Posts about blood and thunder world cup 2014)

Roller Derby World Cup - Day 3 Review

aoanla — Sun, 07 Dec 2014 09:05:24 GMT

Day 3 of the second ever Blood & Thunder Roller Derby World Cup was devoted to the first stage of the Elimination round, along with the completion of the Consolation bouts for those teams not finishing in the top of their group.

Overall, due to the pairing of Group #1 seeds against Group #2 seeds in the Elimination bracket, it has to be said that the closest and most exciting bouts of the day were mostly in the Consolation round.

While they seemed less certain in the first period, Team Japan pulled out easily the best performance of their tournament in the second period of their Consolation bout against Mexico, really showing how much they've developed as a team over the past few days (even if both teams had an overflowing penalty board by the end of the game...). Switzerland v Italy was a very close to-and-fro game, especially in the first period. Once again, accumulated penalties told on both teams, and Italy pulled ahead for the win in Period 2. And Denmark v Portugal once again repeated the same story - a close first period, with Denmark turning on the gas in the second to secure a convincing win.

Over in the Elimination bouts, Norway, West Indies and Brasil all had predictably crushing bouts against the probable top three in the tournament; USA, England and Canada. Brasil managed to score an impressive 75 points against Canada, however, showing what a great team they've become since the 2011 Cup!

Sweden, New Zealand, Finland and Argentina had less easy groups to win, but triumphed over Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, France in the end. Of these, the Argentina v France bout was the only truly close bout of the Top 16 playoffs, with the result completely unpredictable during the first period.

With the rankings going into the Final 8 being determined by score difference in the previous single bout, this close Argentina win rather sealed their fate, as the #8 Seed must play #1, the dominant USA.

Over to Scotland, however, where our team was unlucky enough to be drawn against Australia, #4 placed team from 2011, and probable #3 or #4 place contestors in this tournament. It was a difficult first period for Scotland, with some incredible displays of blocking and jamming on track; however, Australia managed to control the lead jammer position for the entire first period, preventing Scotland's excellence from doing anything other than limiting Aussie scoring. In the very last jam of the period, a star pass to Kerr during a leadless jam, allowed a literal last-second score, putting a single point on the board for Scotland!

Rejuvenated by breaking their duck, Scotland returned to the 2nd Period determined to mix it up. Liston, jamming for the first time in the game (tournament?), picked up the first lead jammer call for Scotland during the opening (power) jam and the first grand slam pass seconds later. This was the start of a much more confident play by Scotland, with Gow taking a natural lead jammer call soon after, although being forced to call after a single scoring pass after a block knocked her face first into the concrete floor (this also put her out of action in the line-up while she was checked out by the medics). A few power jams for both teams (including a couple of jams where both Scotland and Australia's jammers headed to the box simultaneously), and the Australian blocking mostly told, despite sterling blocking by Maclean, Davis, Liston, Parry (until she fouled out), Cider, Kerr, Simpson and Skinner in particular on the Scottish team.

In the end, a scrappy final jam featuring more alternating jammer penalties, brought the score to 464-35 for a deserved Australia win, but a hard fought one against Scotland's resilience.

At the quarter final, then, the drawing of high seeds against low continued to produce some predictable blowouts, with USA destroying Argentina just like they destroyed everyone else in the tournament, and England taking a very convincing win over Sweden. Being closer to the middle of the seeds, the Canada - Finland and Australia - New Zealand bouts were slightly less one sided, with Finland standing up pretty well to the #3 seed and taking home 145 pts to Canada's 290.

USA will play #4 seed Australia today, before number #2 and #3 seeds England and Canada duke it out. The winners will go through to the Final, while the losers will play for 3rd place in a last minute change to the schedule (check our UK timetable for the accurate timings).

Now, a brief digression for a slightly controversial statement.

Blood and Thunder's official "Knockout standings" (which are based on the score differentials only for the Group of 16 bouts, as far as we can tell) are [taken from their Facebook page]: OFFICIAL KNOCKOUT ROUND STANDINGS:

Team USA Roller Derby
Team England Roller Derby
Team Canada B&T World Cup
Team Australia
Team New Zealand Roller Derby
Team Finland (Roller Derby)
Team Sweden Rollerderby
Selección Argentina de Roller Derby
Team France Roller Derby
Team Ireland Roller Derby
Team Belgium Roller Derby
Team Netherlands - Women's Roller Derby
Team Scotland Roller Derby
Roller Derby Brasil
Team West Indies - Roller Derby World Cup.
Team Norway Roller Derby

Needless to say, the Top 8 rankings may change based on the games still to play (although we at the Blog believe that England does have a strong chance to beat Canada to 2nd place).

What's more problematic is that the placements in the bottom 8, including Scotland, are apparently based only on a single score differential, so teams like Norway, Scotland, West Indies and Brasil are penalised by taking on the eventual number 1-4 seeds in their only rank-contributing bout. We at the Blog disagree strongly with this ranking approach, as it can be shown to underrank those 4 teams - the highest rank Scotland could expect would be 12, under this approach, which they have been assigned. In the particular case of Scotland, it rankles more, however, as, if we compare the results of Scotland v Finland in the group stage (126-78 for Finland, a 2/3 length bout), and the results of Belgium v Finland in the Elimination stage (383:124 for Finland), it is very clear that Scotland should be ranked above Belgium. Based on other pairwise score-comparison considerations, we believe that Scotland's "true" rank in the tournament is probably 10th, narrowly ranked just above Ireland (who Scotland beat not long ago at the Road to Dallas tournament). We believe Norway is strongly penalised by their matching against USA as well, and think their rank should also be at least 2 higher than it actually is in the table.

The full score table for the day is below:

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2014 (FULL 60 MINUTE BOUTS)

	TRACK 1 (ROLL-LINE TRACK)	TRACK 2 (BLOOD & THUNDER TRACK)		TRACK 3 (TBD TRACK)
3:00PM	GR 7-1 (Canada 581) VS. GR 2-2 (Brazil 75)	GR 3-1 (Sweden 303) VS. GR 6-2 (Ireland 133)	3:10PM	CONSOLATION 3 ( Japan 114) VS. 4 (Mexico 278)
5:00PM	GR 1-1 (NZ 356) VS. GR 8-2 (Netherlands 91)	GR 8-1 (USA 854) VS. GR 1-2 (Norway 6)	5:10PM	CONSOLATION 2 ( Switzerland 136) VS. 5 (Italy 193)
7:00PM	GR 2-1 (France 162) VS. GR 7-2 (Argentina 205)	GR 4-1 (Finland 383) VS. GR 5-2 (Belgium 124)	7:10PM	CONSOLATION 3 (Wales 395) VS. 6 (Puerto Rico 75)
9:00PM	GR 5-1 (Australia 464) VS. GR 4-2 (Scotland 35)	GR 6-1 (England 708) VS. GR 3-2 (West Indies 31)	9:10PM	CONSOLATION 2 (Portugal 135) VS. 7 (Denmark 245)
11:00PM	TEAM 1 (USA 569) VS. TEAM 8 (Argentina 14)	TEAM 3 (Canada 290) VS. TEAM 6 (Finland 145)	11:10PM	CONSOLATION 1 (Chile 116) VS. 8 (Germany330)
01:00AM(SUN)	TEAM 3 (England 278) VS. TEAM 7 (Sweden 72)	TEAM 4 (Australia 284) VS. TEAM 5 (New Zealand 56)	01:10AM(SUN)	CONSOLATION 7 (Denmark 332) VS. 8 (Puerto Rico 169)

Roller Derby World Cup Day 2 - Review

aoanla — Sat, 06 Dec 2014 07:57:08 GMT

After a second exciting day of Group bouts, here's what our table looked like:

	GROUP 1	GROUP 2	GROUP 3	GROUP 4	GROUP 5	GROUP 6	GROUP 7	GROUP 8
A	NEW ZEALAND 3	FRANCE 3	SWEDEN 3	FINLAND 3	AUSTRALIA 3	ENGLAND 3	CANADA 2	USA 2
B	NORWAY 2	SWITZERLAND 0	WEST INDIES 2	SCOTLAND 2	ITALY 0	GERMANY 1	DENMARK 0	PUERTO RICO 0
C	SOUTH AFRICA 0	BRAZIL 2	JAPAN 0	COLOMBIA 1	BELGIUM 2	SPAIN 0	ARGENTINA 1	THE NETHERLANDS 1
D	WALES 1	PORTUGAL 1	CHILE 1	MEXICO 0	GREECE 1	IRELAND 2

As a correction from yesterday, it appears that the labelling on the official schedule confused us: any team not in the top 2 in their group pass through to the Consolation round, with one game each (except those in Group 7 and 8 who get two games, as there's only one of them for each Group, and they got less Group games in total). Our UK and Japan time schedules are now updated to reflect that fact.

So, on to the Derby: As is often the case for the second round of groups, most of the really tight games were in the second day. That said, we started with Finland, Australia and England getting the blow-outs that we expected against Mexico, Greece and Ireland (not to say the latter are poor teams, but the former are really exceptional).

Fighting it out for the second place in their group brought grit to the Switzerland v Brasil bout, with Brasil just pulling out the edge in an exciting bout (one for the archives if you missed it). While West Indies won both their bouts (against Japan and Chile) to put themselves into the second position in Group 3, neither of their opponents disgraced themselves, with Japan showing how much they'd learned just in the previous day of play, and Chile holding on until the very last jam!

On to Scotland:

As we mentioned yesterday, Scotland needed to beat Colombia in order to make it through to the Elimination round. While Colombia had periods of control on the track, taking lead jammer mostly when Scotland had a blocker deficit on track, and both teams suffered some penalty issues (there were jams for both teams where they had to cope with having only a single blocker on track), Scotland's excellent pack work, lead by Maclean, Skinner, Parry, Cider, and Davis and Kerr, told in the end ('Splat' Kerr developed a particular skill for knocking Colombian jammers out of attempted apex jumps). Despite a tired O'Carroll and her Colombian opponent spending the second-last jam taking two trips to the penalty box each, in general the Scottish jamming was also excellent, with Gow, Rogue, Hyndman and O'Carroll all able to trust their blockers, and get on with dedicating their skill to scoring. In the end, the balance of jammer penalties, and the superior track control when there was no pack deficit against them, told in Scotland's favour.

Scotland will play the mighty Australia on Track 1 at 9pm UK time today.

Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland and England, the other teams in the tournament featuring Scottish skaters, also made it through to the Elimination stage. Belgium, Netherlands and Ireland, being 2nd in their groups, face tough 1st Group place opponents today in Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, while England, having easily taken their 1st Group place, have the West Indies as their first opponents.

Match ups in the second stage of the elimination are to be decided by the overall score difference after the first round, so even a close game could make all the difference (for the winner) for a better draw in the Quarter Final later on in the day.

After the final Group bouts, the schedule managed to sneak in a few more special games: the first two Consolation bouts, with Colombia triumphing over Greece, and Spain taking their first win of the tournament over South Africa. We suspect that many of the viewers were tuned into the Vagine Regime Expo bout on Track 3, however, where PanGina pulled ahead from a close half time score versus Queerope to take a commanding win in the second period.

The day concluded with another Expo of top skill, the Team USA "Stars and Stripes" bout, where Stars took the close win against Stripes 134:129.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2014 (40 MINUTE BOUTS) CONSOLATION BOUTS ARE FULL 60 MINUTE BOUTS

	TRACK 1 (ROLL-LINE TRACK)	TRACK 2 (BLOOD & THUNDER TRACK)		TRACK 3 (TBD TRACK)
3:00PM	FINLAND (312) VS. MEXICO (38)	AUSTRALIA (449) VS. GREECE (17)	3:10PM	ENGLAND (329) VS. IRELAND (50)
4:20PM	NORWAY (219) VS. SOUTH AFRICA (80)	SWITZERLAND (108) VS. BRAZIL (120)	4:30PM	WEST INDIES (235) VS. JAPAN (70)
5:40PM	NEW ZEALAND (250) VS. WALES (60)	FRANCE (310) VS. PORTUGAL (36)	5:50PM	SWEDEN (296) VS. CHILE (39)
7:00PM	SCOTLAND (230) VS. COLOMBIA (53)	ITALY (86)VS. BELGIUM (273)	7:10PM	GERMANY (216) VS. SPAIN (70)
8:20PM	DENMARK (85) VS. ARGENTINA (202)	PUERTO RICO (154) VS. NETHERLANDS (209)	8:30PM	WEST INDIES (104) VS. CHILE (100)
10:00PM	CONSOLATION 4 (Colombia 305) VS. 5 (Greece 136)	CONSOLATION 6 (South Africa 143) VS. 1 (Spain 227)	10:00PM	VAGINE REGIME EXPO BOUT
00:00 (MIDNIGHT)	TEAM USA STARS VS. STRIPES EXPO

World Cup Interviews: Roundup of Roundups

aoanla — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:27:14 GMT

If you missed any of our interviews with each of the 30 teams heading for the Blood and Thunder (Women's) Roller Derby World Cup in just 2 weeks, here's the links to the round up posts (each of which links to the associated interviews).

North and Central America

Africa and Asia-Pacific

United Kingdom and Ireland

and, of course, from earlier today, the Blog team's own picks.

We have also made schedules for the UK and Japan timezones, to help you with the official schedule timings.

As a bit of a break before the World Cup itself, next week we'll be starting some ongoing content on the future of roller derby in various directions.

The World Cup: SRDB picks!

aoanla — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 13:13:34 GMT

Spending the last month and a half covering all of the 30 teams heading to the Blood & Thunder World Cup in less than a month has left all of us at the Blog with anticipation to see what'll happen in Dallas.

But, with 30 teams, playing up to 3 bouts at a time, everyone will have to make choices as to what to watch and what to miss (at least, until the archives). So, we've spent a bit of time discussing and reflecting, to present to you our personal picks as to the match ups and teams to especially watch, whether you're lucky enough to make it to Texas in person, or are just catching the streams.

aoanla

For their enthusiasm and determination to make it to the World Cup despite their late start, Team Japan deserve a whole host of cheering fans in Dallas. Like the Ninjapan Rollers at MRDWC, I expect them to capture everyone's hearts. (Given Team West Indies' popularity in the UK, they may have a fight for that, however...)

Similarly, Team Spain deserve support just for the travel they've already incurred before even getting to the World Cup. Hopefully the combined forces of Tenerife and Barcelona combine to upset their group a little.

Teams Brazil and Argentina will be interesting to watch, showing off the striking and rapid development of South American derby - which had only just begun at the time of the first World Cup in 2011. I think they may well go very far (and the other South American and Central American teams will also be worth a watch).

Teams Australia, England, Canada and New Zealand may be duking it out for the Silver and Bronze medals - although the draw looks like favouring England or Canada for Silver, unless there's an upset earlier in the brackets. Australia could easily upset England or Canada for Bronze, however...

Caley

I'm really excited to see Team Wales make their World Cup debut, they feature so many strong skaters that I've seen representing their individual teams and I can't wait to see how they play together! Obviously I can't wait to see Team Scotland play, especially my team mates Jill Simpson, Carolyn Mackenzie and Jill Stephen and my old Glasgow team mates...I'm at risk of just listing the entire team I'm that excited! I saw a few of their games and they're a fierce team. Team Germany are also a favourite of mine, especially after seeing some of the members representing Berlin at Champs. I'm also excited about seeing Team England, Team Ireland, Team Belgium, Team Sweden...basically any team with somebody I know on the roster. It's oddly liberating to fangirl over your pal, mentor, that amazing skater who once looked at you on track and you fell over...

I will be watching for Team Brazil, they played in the Roller Derby World Cup in 2011 and some of the team members made their bouting debut during the tournament. They had a fantastic attitude in 2011 and I'm looking forward to seeing how they've grown as a team.

I adore watching teams who are geographically far apart play each other! That's one of the glorious things about gathering all these national teams together. Anything can and will happen!

I am rather excited about December!

Fee

My ‘ones to watch’ are Team Denmark and Team Norway. Although both are newcomers to the World Cup tournament in 2014, they have both been competing in tournaments in the lead up to Dallas to really learn how to to play as a team. Having played against some of Team Norway when Oslo Roller Derby came to Stirling last year, I’m particularly keen to see Torture and Eda take to the track and give them my support from my armchair!

I’m also really excited to see Team Canada play again. They fought tirelessly in the 2011 World Cup to come in second place to Team USA - and I’m positive they’ll put up an even stronger fight this year.

And of course, Team Scotland. There are a lot of new faces on the 2014 roster, but all have definitely earned their sport on the team. I’m particularly looking forward to watching Skinner Alive and Admiral Attackbar from Auld Reekie Roller Girls play. I’m always left exhausted just watching these two skaters, so I’m sure they’ll impress and inspire the many others watching them.

World Cup Interviews: Northern Europe

aoanla — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 09:50:57 GMT

Last week our Blood & Thunder Derby World Cup tour covered Northern and Central Europe, including many of the competitors at the European Tournament last month.

If you missed any of the interviews, the links are below:

This week we jump across the Atlantic to cover the teams of South America, where Derby has been taking off like wildfire since the first Cup in 2011!

World Cup Interview: Team Switzerland

aoanla — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 09:00:19 GMT

Finally, to finish off the week and our tour of the European national teams heading to the Blood & Thunder Roller Derby World Cup, we come to Team Switzerland.

Team Switzerland are new to the World Cup this year, and also did not attend the European Championship. Their indiegogo page is here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/send-team-switzerland-to-the-world-cup

Manta Attack was good enough to answer our questions.

Team Switzerland Logo: Kitty LaBang (ComeauxDesign)

Swiss roller derby is (relative to, say, Germany) relatively young. How did recruitment and tryouts go for the National team?

The idea came up last year, so we created a crew, which includes 2 to 3 people from each league in Switzerland. The majority of those people founded the Roller Derby Switzerland Organization. They started up with Team Switzerland and selected Team Coach / Team Manager, and Assistants. The coaches sent out to each league try out dates for Lucerne, Zurich and Geneva.

While most of your skaters are Swiss residents, you have skaters living in Scotland, USA, Japan(!). How are you organising practises to include them (or work around their absence)?

We have a set practice schedule that was created; however we are trying to add practices, scrimmages or something Team Switzerland related whenever we know one of our overseas players is going to be in the country.

Team Switzerland has a crowdfunding page and put out a call for sponsors. How else are you raising funds & awareness of the Team (and how is sponsorship going?)

We do have some really nice Sponsorship from connection from the other leagues, more sponsorship is coming up with swiss companies, as well some private donations. More or less the people are having their ears open for this "in switzerland" unknown sport. We also get asked by Atom, but there are also some other leagues which can take benefit of it :D

You will be playing "The World" as your first bout as a Team. How did that idea come about, and what other bouts do you have planned before Dallas?

The idea came up, after a request for a game from Team Italy, but unfortunately in the end the location was a problem. So we decided to make up something else, and in short turns, a scrimmage came up. We are also doing some more training and also have a Bout in planning. [Team Switzerland v The World ended with a 267 to 79 win for the home team]

As a team coming into the World Cup for the first time, what are your aims to achieve there?

Our aims are to not lose: we very willing to attend and do our best, but we are sure we do not have same experience as other National teams. We love being part of that awesome event.

Does the dominance of English in roller derby (including the rules) make it harder to spread and develop derby in Switzerland?

My personal thought about that is 'yes'. Even the rules are not in easy English and Swiss people in general are slightly skeptical about new sports...

Some teams are adopting legal names for their skaters, while others are keeping their derby names or have a mix of the two. Does Team Switzerland have a policy on this, or thoughts about the pros either way?

The skaters can take their names from the league or change it for the National team. There were no discussions concerning regarding family name as derby name.

The Team Switzerland Roster (to date) is:

Manta Attack #3 Cannibalia Dot Morgue Mario Block Sin Sister Swiss Spank Her Womanimal Kitty LaBang #23 T.N. Tina (Wreckabella von Rogue) # Russian Roulette Babette #69 Miss Behaving Mona Mortelle #21 Malice in Wonderland #206 Tomorrow #9 Bloody Cherry #44 Chainhell No5 #CH5

World Cup Interview: Team France

aoanla — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 09:00:43 GMT

Today we arrive at currently the best European national team (outside of England), according to their performance in the European Championships, where they placed 1st. Looking to see how that translates into Dallas for the Blood & Thunder World Cup, it's Team France!

Team France, like Team Germany, are not new to the World Cup, having placed 7th in 2011, being lucky enough to face Brazil in the first elimination round, and unlucky enough to take on England immediately after - a win over New Zealand in the consolation bracket brought them their final rank.

Team Coach Pierre Ardellier was good enough to answer our questions (which we asked just a week before the European Championship).

Team France logo

The Team selection this time around features 7 veterans from the 2011 roster, and the rest new members of the team. Does this reflect the growth of derby in France, and is it useful to have the experience of the first world cup to hand?

Yes: it absolutely reflects the growth of Derby in France. For the first WC there were only 3 French teams (Paris/Toulouse/Bordeaux) and some expat players. Now the French Derby has changed a lot ! Lots of teams are now really competitive. Metz, Nantes, Rennes or Le Cres have really awesome players. We have also « new » expat players who didn’t know about the French Derby or who weren't playing at the first WC.

The experience of the first World Cup is not so useful when we are on the track. I’ve used it a lot for the management of the team. For the first Team France, time was short and everybody tried to do their best. This time we have more time so we can do it differently to have a better Team Spirit and a better collective play.

Team France was one of the competitors at the original World Cup in 2011, where you placed 7th. At the time, you stated that you aimed to "gain experience" for future contests: with that in mind, what are your goals for World Cup 2014?

We have only one goal for that WC : Be in the Top 5 ! We work really really hard for that ! We play a lot of bouts, we travel outside France and we see each other nearly 1 week every 2 months. I’ve used the same practice methods that in every French National Teams. We have a 5 days Training Camp in the center of France every 2 months. We all sleep in the same area and we leave all together for nearly 1 week. We practice 6-7 hours per days. It’s really awesome for the Team Building and for increasing our derby level together.

The majority of Team France are sourced from the many French leagues, but 6 are from further away (and 3 from the Americas). How are you organising practices to include them in the team (I assume travel within France is expensive, but achievable)?

Like I said before, when I took on the Team France 2013-2014 I really wanted to use the same practice method than every National Teams : Having week training camps ! For me it’s the ONLY way to build a real Team and not just a mix of great players ! When we organized the try-outs, we said to all the pretenders that there will be a lot a travelling and that it will cost them a lot of money. Every Team France players knew that before starting this adventure. Yes it’s expensive but if you want to be the best, you have to practice better than the best…

You are, of course, one of the teams attending the European Tournament in September. What are you hoping to gain from this (experience, awareness)? I think you've had several other match-ups since your 2014 roster was announced (Team France v the Rest of France?, and playing Norway and Denmark in April, and v Netherlands, along with the Super Brawl of Roller Derby v England and Canada) - in your experience, how do these events help most?

For this European Tournament, we're in it to win it. If we play our best Derby, we should do it but the other nations are all expecting us and we know it… The Super Brawl was an awesome experience ! Playing the 2nd and 3rd worldwide was incredible and helped us a lot to see what was the real issues we needed to work on. Netherlands, Norway and Danemark was really great too. With those 3 games, we could really see our progress and what we still needed to improve. We have a lot to do if we want to achive our goal in Dallas and we are really exited about the Mons tournament. After that we have only one camp in the end of october and we should be able to correct all that we need in this event so Mons will be perfect for that !

You have a few equipment sponsors, and you've held at least one Training Bootcamp. How else are you raising funds to get to Dallas?

Like every National Teams, we are going to make a fundraising on internet with some goodies to buy and win. With the Super Brawl, the 2 training bootcamps and the game in Paris vs the Netherlands, we've earned some money and we really hope that our fundraising will help us too.

French is the first non-English language in which the WFTDA rules have been published. Has this helped the growth of derby in France & Team France specifically?

It’s so incredible that the WFTDA rules have been published in French for the first non-English language !! I think that will help the French Derby for this year with all the Fresh Meats and the new leagues who will begin. It will help in all the aspect of derby right now but not especially the Team France. The WFTDA publish the rules in French only a few weeks ago and the Team France practice for more than a year by now. But it’s a really great reconnaissance and we are really proud of that !

The Team France (2014) Roster is:

B.M.O Roller Derby Girls (Brest) Adelè Linquent

Roller Derby Bordeaux Club Aïe Catraz Bambi Kill'her Hell'alaniak Karla Karschër Nawak Tartagueule *?Wild

Roller Derby Toulouse Anxio Jen *Cash Pistache Ninà Backdraft Sweenie Odd Tuericultrice

Roller Derby Metz Club Blitz! Purplecat

Paris RollerGirls Bully Bunker Butch Shan Cherry Lielie Hooligan Joan Get Kozmic Bruise Meryl Strip Her Oli Barbak Rose Hyène Roxy Batgirl Sally Broyeur

Hérault Derby Girlz (Le Crès) Chuck Maurice Doggy Duchess Foïs Septik Martine Painkiller

DC Roller Girls (USA) Dual Hitizen

Nantes Derby Girls Dure As Hell Flash Black Lizzie Rider

Oxford Roller Derby (UK) * French Revolution

Rennes Roller Derby Gara La Garce Nasty Nurse

Montréal Roller Derby (CA) * No Pix Plz

Forest City Derby Girls (CA) * Pepe Le Punch

Crime City Rollers (SW) * Pooky Balboa

Central City Roller Girls (UK) * Viv La France

World Cup Interview: Team Germany

aoanla — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 09:00:44 GMT

Working our way through Northern and Central Europe, we come to the next Blood & Thunder Roller Derby World Cup team, and also the next ranking team on the European Championships table - Team Germany.

Team Germany is not new to the World Cup, having placed 9th on the table in 2011 after a close and tense game against New Zealand placed them in the consolation bracket, where they defeated Ireland and Scotland in succession.

In the European Championships this past month, they performed similarly to expectations, placing 2nd against the only other team returning from 2011...

Thanks to Daniel, Team Manager, for his intensive answers to our questions about the team!

The Team selection this time around features just 4 veterans from the 2011 roster, and the rest new members of the team. Does this reflect the growth of derby in Germany and is it useful to have the experience of the first world cup to hand?

It definitely does reflect the growth of roller derby in Germany. In 2011, a huge part of the roster consisted of players of the Berlin Bombshells and the Stuttgart Valley Rollergirls. We had wild cards which allowed one skater of every actively playing German team into the national team. Today it's all about performance - and still we widened our portfolio. In total we have welcomed skaters from nine different leagues to our team after their convincing performance at the Team Germany tryouts. Unfortunately we already lost some good players to longterm injuries. Still we can say that we have the best buildup of German skaters that can be provided.

Though it surely is useful to come to Dallas as a World Cup veteran many of our skaters were able to collect high level tournament experiences at other occasions. For example the skaters of the Berlin Bombshells who participated at the D2-Tournament in Kitchener-Waterloo as seed 9, finished 2nd and ar going to play at the championship tournament in Nashville for the 3rd place of Division 2. Of course the experienced skaters have to be there for the relatively new ones to give mental strength to the whole team. We have really built up to that and shown that it can work at the European Tournament in Belgium.

Team Germany was one of the competitors at the original World Cup in 2011, where you placed 9th. With 30 teams this time around, including the 11 from the first time, what are your goals for World Cup 2014?

We're aiming to be better than 2011 - that means participation in the quarter finals where the best eight teams of the world compete. Of course it depends on how the matchups will be before that - and maybe there are some teams that we can't win against (and we HAVE played Team USA in Stuttgart, Germany in July!) but we will definitely give our best and put on the track whatever action is necessary to proceed in this tournament.

The majority of Team Germany are sourced from the many German leagues (predominantly Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart). However, you have a single US skater. How are you organising practices in general, and to include Lethal Lorelei in particular?

I agree, it can be difficult logistically to be able to have everyone at a game or practice - even with the skaters located in Germany. Fortunately with Lorelei we have a very committed Team Germany skater. Of course she can't participate in every practice but she has been over to germany to train and play with Team Germany multiple times and we're very thankful for that! She's integrated with the team very well and has already built up some friendships. Practices in general are very difficult because we have huge problems with finding timeslots in sport halls. We had some practice weekends throughout the year but we still would like to do it more often! We really feel how practice gets our mindsets together and makes us act as one single unit.

You are, of course, one of the teams attending the European Tournament in September. What are you hoping to gain from this (experience, awareness)? I think you've had other match-ups since your 2014 roster was announced, in your experience, how do these events help most?

We are on the road to Dallas. That is why our primal goal at all of these events is and will be to get more experienced together, get to know each other and grow as a team. Of course we had competitive ambitions at the European Tournament: We wanted to reach the final and we achieved that. But the much more enjoyable thing to see is how good we finally were able to combine our individual talents to a very well coordinated team gameplay. We had some difficulties with that when we played Belgium in January this year. There is still more potential and I'm gonna be very happy to see it unfold in Dallas.

How are you raising funds to get to Dallas?

That's the most difficult question! We are discussing this a lot. Nowadays the derby community gets flooded with donation requests. Refs, skaters and teams all over the world want their gear, junior leagues and travels to big events payed by others. We don't want to do that without giving something back. So we started trying to find sponsors on our own which was very difficult because big companies don't notice Roller Derby that much, yet. We're glad that we have won Atom with all its associated brands as our friend. But still what most of the skaters need to be able to pay their travel costs is pure cash. Our next step will be asking for official help from German authorities like the sports ministry or the roof organization for skating sports in Germany, which we are a part of. For a few months we have been selling merch now which is by far the biggest money income until now - but we are still forced to try other options. So we are currently working on setting up a paypal donation account. We are primarily aiming for the non derby community when asking for donations - but of course we are thankful for everyone who is gonna be able and willing to help us do this awesome thing. So everyone just check our facebook page (Team Germany (Roller Derby)) and homepage (www.rollerderbygermany.de) in the near future if you're willing to help. Our love will be guaranteed! Of course all of our members are allowed to raise funds for their trip as they wish - so some of our players started their own campaigns in order to minimize their costs.

The most important thing at the end: If you want to experience the World Cup at Dallas live at the venue - please buy the Team Germany supporter tickets. You'll only pay 25$ more than regular but you will give 75$ to Team Germany with every purchased ticket! You can get the supporter tickets at the official online purchase site. Thank you very much.

Some national teams have skaters adopting their legal names for their National appearance, instead of their derby names. Other national teams are uniformly retaining their skate names. Did Team Germany discuss this, and if so what was their position?

Our position is very clear. It's the skaters choice! Two of our players adopted their real names for Team Germany, others have changed their skate names. This is not a sport where a team management tells skaters how they have to be named. This sport is skater operated and as such it shall give total freedom to the skaters. We're very happy that with the german roof organization for skating sports (DRIV - Deutscher Rollsport und Inline Verband) we have found a comfortable home for organized Roller Derby in Germany which let's us decide how we want to run things.

At present, much of the rules and paraphernalia of Derby is conducted in English. How has this affected the growth of derby in Germany?

Not considering the fact that I had to look up paraphernalia I have to say that we're dealing really good with that. Fortunately we can say that we have very committed people who are translating the rules and keeping up with the updates every year. THOSE people definitely have affected the growth of Roller Derby in Germany. I'd like to use this opportunity to thank Riff Reff of the Stuttgart Valley Rollergirls for coordinating these translation efforts and doing most of the work! The upcoming version of his translation will even be officially featured as the german version of the rules of Roller Derby by the WFTDA.

The Team Germany (2014) Roster is:

Coaches: Bee Fattal, Jens Hötger, Hell G. Slider

Team Germany Roller Derby Squad 2014: Ellie Minate #8 Heavy Rotation #505 Master Blaster #2 Public Enemy #1 Sweet Gwenrolline #9 Teaze the Tiger #16 Titty-Twista #81 Anktion #19 Lethal Lorelei #29 Bash #31 Ostblocker #101 Jeanne Dark #001 Nitro Netty # 2X Donner Doro #22 Chibi Chibster #0 Lotta Loveless #22 Knock ‘n Rose #234 Lizzy Slaughter #742 Sugar Grrrl #27 Skullhead O'Hara #B4 So Phiarsome #393 Mary Toothfairy #-32 Paulina Pocket #12 Hanna Hellfire #75

World Cup Interview: Team Belgium

aoanla — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 09:00:32 GMT

Second up on our trip through the countries of Northern Europe attending the Blood & Thunder World Cup, and it's Team Belgium's turn.

As with Team Netherlands yesterday, Belgium is new to the World Cup this time around, and are pretty evenly matched with the former. In fact, Belgium placed 3rd in the European Championships, just ahead of Netherlands, after an extremely close bout. (We suspect that if they match up in Dallas, the Netherlands will be interested in reversing the situation.)

C.C. Titmouse was good enough to answer our questions on Team Belgium (these questions were received just before the Championships started).

Team Belgium logo: Anouk Paepen

Most of Team Belgium is derived from the plentiful Belgian leagues (excepting Scotland's Lilo and Stitches?). How was the selection process organized (did you have more expatriate skaters try out and not make the team, for example)?

Where did it all start ? On January 1st of 2012, Lolli Chop created a facebook group for all Belgian skaters, from an interleague point of view. Belgian leagues were this way, we were able to stay informed on Belgian roller derby events, to adjust our league’s calendars to other derby-events. Since we’re a small country, we’ve always wanted to support each other, so a forum was needed. In June 2012, SckrPnch (the local Belgian roller derby skate shop) organised « Derby Revolution », Europe's very own annual 4 day Roller Derby Convention. This event brought the best, international coaches and skaters to Belgium and gave the opportunity learn & to challenge teams to scrimmage. It didn’t take long until the suggestion was made to set-up an unofficial « Team Belgium » delegation and challenge The Netherlands to set-up an All-star delegation, to play a challenge bout at Derby Revolution 2012. Before the bout, we wanted to have an opportunity to have at least one practice together, so on June 17th of 2012, the Blackland Rockin’ K-Rollers (Charleroi) hosted the very first national practice. The start signal was given and on June 28th, we (re-enforced by Kamikaze Kitten, who was eager to join us) played the Dutch All-star team, « The Bloody Oranges » at Derby Revolution and we took home the victory. At this point, we were all just seeing how and where things were going, but the idea of a national team started to get shape. We formed a little group with two representatives/league and started meeting on a regular basis. We started hosting regular national practices, open for all skaters who were linked to a Belgian league and learned from and with each other. Every league was encouraged to host at least one practice a year, which made 10 practices, since we were 10 leagues at the time. The main point on our meetings was how would we go forth in creating a national team/organization. The 2011 Blood & Thunder Roller Derby World Cup, held in Toronto (Canada) from December 1st – 4rd, was the first international competition for national team. Different countries put together teams, but since the timing was rather short, not every set-up went as smoothly. This was exactly why we wanted to take advantage from our country being small and thus making it possible for us to meet and train together on a regular basis. We wanted to do it right from the start, creating a base that would last us a long way.

It took us from that first training in June 2012 until November 26th, when we announced our Belgian coaching team to the world !

From there on out, things went very fast. We hosted a national practice every month and every month all Belgian reps (two reps/league) came together to discuss our next steps. The coaches started taking notes and putting together a selection of 35 skaters. June 2014, they selected a core of 20 skaters that will represent Belgium in the 2014 World Cup and we’re working up to the European Roller Derby Tournament in Mons, Belgium the upcoming weekend.

With the majority of your skaters in Belgium, I guess this makes organizing practices easier than it might be? How have they been scheduled (avoiding conflicts with team practices etc)?

In Belgium, we’ve always had trouble finding venues, but if you gather forces with all the leagues, things go easier. It does take a lot of coordination, even if you’re relatively close together. We try to let every league host one practice, that way we split venue costs and we encourage Team Belgium’s practices and events to be run alongsides fixed training dates. Most of the Belgian leagues train on Sunday f.e., so we try to organize all Team Belgium-related events on Saturday. If it does conflict with other league’s practices, it’s up to the skaters to decide of course, but we asked on before hand to commit and Team Belgium promises to take every league into account as much as possible.

Team Belgium is off to the European Derby Tournament in September. What are you aiming to get out of the tournament? (You've also had a few other pre-Dallas bouts, so how useful have you found them in general?)

We’re really looking forward to the tournament! It’s the ideal occasion to meet other teams, on and off track! We want to play the best game we have in us and play together as a team. We want to win of course, but we’re merely in it for the experience and experiencing gameplay of other teams. We want to learn from it and use that knowledge to improve our own game for Dallas!

We’ve played Germany & The Netherlands a couple of months ago, and it has been a good experience. A good way to get to know the teams, but the ideal way to learn how individual skaters work together. Although we’re a small country, the team consists of players from out different leagues and it remains a challenge to play together as a team and not just a bunch of awesome individuals.

What have you been doing to raise funds, awareness + sponsorship for the big expenses of getting to the World Cup?

We’ve been communicating quite some info on our skaters, coaches, practices, mostly on our website, facebook, Instagram & twitter account. We’ve organised 2 public games against other national teams, we’ve provided merch (that will be available at the European Tournament!) and we’re currently working on a Fundraising-plan to get more money for our skaters. So keep your eyes (and wallets! :p) open! ;-)

What are Team Belgium's aims for Dallas?

We haven’t set team goals just yet. Gameplay-wise we’re waiting for the European Tournament, since that’s the ideal occasion to set realistic goals for Dallas. Team spirit wise, we’ve been bounding since day 1. Belgium is small and has a lot of political issues, which has no place in derby. Whether we’re from the Dutch, French or German side of Belgium, we’re all Belgian and we’re proud to be! Our main goal is to be a front, to stick together off track, so it translated on track as well.

Bonus questions: Does the English language focus of derby make it harder for Belgian derby, or are English language skill (and the recent publication of the WFTDA rules in French) in Belgium sufficient to ease matters?

In Belgium, we officially speak 3 languages; Dutch, French & German. But in reality, we’re mainly bi-lingual, speaking both Dutch & French. Most of us speak fluent English as well, so that can’t hold us back ;-).

Some national teams are apparently switching to legal names for the World Cup (eg much of Team Scotland has, with some retaining their derby names). Is Team Belgium taking a position either way on this (or is it unimportant)?

We didn’t take a general position within this matter, since a name is still personal. We have a couple of skaters who decided to play with their legal names, and that’s totally fine. Within Team Belgium, it’s an individual choice.

The Team Belgium Roster is:

Aline Decat #6 Bhurt #88 (Namur Roller Girls) Bicky Monkey #18 Bundy Nelson #1610 (Brussels Derby Pixies) C.C. Titmouse #85 (One Love Roller Dolls) Charlie McHell #829 Cherry Moshpit #07 (One Love Roller Dolls) Daisy Destroy #8 (Blackland Rockin’ K-Rollers) Eve’il X #13 (One Love Roller Dolls) Evil Spin-Her #26 (Gent GO-GO Roller Girls) FallWafal #90 (Gent GO-GO Roller Girls) Guts’n Glory #68 (Gent GO-GO Roller Girls) Hipshot #89 (One Love Roller Dolls) Humpme Bogart #00 (One Love Roller Dolls) Lilo & Stitches #626 (Auld Reekie Roller Girls) Majin Buu #10 (One Love Roller Dolls) Miss Miyagi #86 (Gent GO-GO Roller Girls) Olga Volt #44 (Gent GO-GO Roller Girls) Sandra ButtBlock #36 (Gent GO-GO Roller Girls) Todestrieb #6 (Brussels Derby Pixies)

Coach: Mister Grey Lineup: Kadha

World Cup Interview: Team Netherlands

aoanla — Mon, 29 Sep 2014 09:00:28 GMT

This week we move a little north in our coverage of Blood & Thunder Roller Derby World Cup teams, covering Northern Europe. First up is Team Netherlands - new to the World Cup this time around, although a participant in the recent European Championships (where they placed a very creditable 4th, after a few other teams we'll be mentioning this week).

Team Netherlands co-Captain Furrrocious was good enough to answer some of our questions.

Team Netherlands logo: Camiel Zwart

Are you able to talk about the recent stepping down of two of your coaching & management team?

Yes of course. One of our coaches left due to personal circumstances, the commitment to Team NL was just too much on his plate right now. The other coach left due to disagreements within the coaching staff. And I dont think its my place to say more then that about it. We do however have a new part of our coaching staff. One of our skaters, Ma Baker, has been dealing with an injury and decided to dedicate her time to coaching the team together with our head coach Lola Rock n Rolla. They just functioned as our bench team at the European Tournament and did a splendid job. They really compliment each other.

Most of Team Netherlands is located in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Eindhoven I think. But you have other skaters from across Europe (and I think outside?). How have you been managing practices with this distributed group?

If you look at the final rostered 20 girls, we have skaters from six leagues. Amsterdam Derby Dames, Eastside Rock n Rollers, Rotterdam Death Row Honeys, Dom City Dolls, Rockcity Rollers and Dundee Roller Girls. The last one you will know, coming from Scotland. :) In the complete training squad we have skaters from even more leagues, including a skater from Crime City (Malmo). For our not Netherlands based skaters it's a big commitment to come to our monthly practices. But they do come. We have tried to have all our practices set up ahead of time so everybody has been able to make the appropriate travel arrangements. We have mostly been meeting up in Utrecht, which is pretty much in the middle of the Netherlands and therefore pretty easy to get to for most.

Team Netherlands is off to the European Derby Tournament in September. What are you aiming to get out of the tournament? (You've also had a few other pre-Dallas bouts, so how useful have you found them in general?)

Little late, but I will answer in retrospect. We were aiming to learn! To get as much experience out of the tournament as possible. And oh my we did! We didn't expect to win against Wales, and when we did it meant we were up against France, who we had already faced in our very first game as a team. This time we did a lot better than the first time! Our game against Team Belgium was epic! It was hard fought and well matched. All our games were a great learning experience and an amazing bonding opportunity as a team. We grew a lot during this tournament, as individual skaters and as a team.

I wish we were able to play a few more tournaments like this before the world cup, as it would get us even more ready for Dallas. But we don't have that luxury. We are looking into scrimmaging other teams before Dallas. Lets hope that will work out. But honestly it's especially hard to schedule everything as all skaters also have practices, bootcamps, bouts and tournaments with their own teams. But the European tournament was a great opportunity and I think we have a lot of stuff we now know we can work on in the next few months.

What have you been doing to raise funds, awareness + sponsorship for the big expenses of getting to the World Cup?

Of course we have a go fund me page: http://www.gofundme.com/apsdso But seeing how the whole derby community seems to be fundraising, these pages don't bring in that much. So we are doing all kinds of stuff on the side. We have been doing a sponsor skate, asking friends, family and co-workers to sponsor per lap or km. Raising quite some money! Also we will be organising a bootcamp for skaters, and all proceeds will go to team NL.

What are Team Netherlands' aims for Dallas ?

Well let's speak for myself as a skater and in the role of Co-captain, I think we are going to Dallas to kick ass! To do the absolute best we can. We know we won't roll away from Dallas in the top 3, but we also won't end up last. Apart from where we will end up (as it's all guess work with 30 countries) I think our main goal is (or should be) to get as much experience as we can and bring it back to the Netherlands. Our country is still young in derby and we have lots of leagues that are eager to learn more. And I think we all want the Netherlands to get bigger and better in the sport of Roller Derby.

Does the English language focus of derby make it harder for Dutch derby, or are the good English skills in the Netherlands sufficient to ease matters?

A lot of leagues in the Netherlands run their practices in English, as especially the bigger cities have a lot of transfer skaters from out of the country. Or, like Amsterdam and Rotterdam, both just have a lot of expats. And in general the Dutch people are pretty good at English. Therefore I am not worried that the language will be an issue for our team.

Some national teams are apparently switching to legal names for the World Cup (eg much of Team Scotland has, with some retaining their derby names). I see that Team Netherlands is one such team, can you talk a bit about the discussion that led to this?

Different skaters have different opinions about this. There was discussion about it when our uniforms were being ordered. But there was no discussion in the sense that we wanted the whole team to do the one or the other. I think a lot of skaters just feel that skating under their real name for a national team just makes it so real. And I think they are proud to be representing their country under their own name. I personally stuck with my derby name. When I play derby I just am Furrrocious. And switching that was just awkward to me. I think what is most important about this discussion, is that people decide to play under the name they feel comfortable with, if that be a derby name, first name, last name, whatever. As long as they are all there, all proud and happy to be there and ready to give it their all, it hardly matters what type of name is on the back of their jersey.

The Team Netherlands Roster is:

Abs of Steel Cousijn (San Solo) Crazily InSanne Dirty Job Essemay Furrrocious Fuss (Fuss Ro Dah) Jolly Jane Marcie (Marcie Misbehave) Morales (Ezekial 25:17) O'Pray (Jamakaze) Party Sparkle F.H. Peekaboo Panda Salomons (Ann Alizarine) Van der Star (Vegan Vengeance) Vix Vendetta Vocking (VOCKING Hell) Westhoff (Gina Gasolina) Whippin' Red Siren Zoeteweij (Lee's Lightning)