Scottish Roller Derby Blog (Posts about international roller derby)

National Tournaments fall to COVID19

SRD — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 10:00:00 GMT

Hopefully the last of our COVID-19 updates that's negative.

Over the last few days, a number of National Tournaments, and pseudo-National-Tournaments (like Australia's Great Southern Slam) have been postponing or cancelling their competitive seasons.

The biggest National Tournaments in the Roller Derby community, the Championnat de France and British Championships, announced their cancellation of the current competitive seasons on the 1st April and today, respectively.

In terms of France, this was an easier decision to make slightly earlier - their competitive season runs from late-Autumn to early Summer, rather than within the same year, so the current pandemic restrictions cover almost all of their remaining season. Their announcement was made via the MyRollerDerby Facebook account, here:

https://www.facebook.com/Myrollerderby/photos/a.877129749133391/1447453628767664/?type=3

For British Champs, this will have been a more nuanced decision, as their season only started 2020, but it's clear that with the lost of months of competitive time, and the fact that inevitably, their competitors will be out of peak training (and potentially out of pocket) for some time after restrictions are loosened, it was the only reasonable decision. (Two weeks ago, BC and UKRDA were actively working to try to salvage some of the season, but it is clearly impossible at this stage, due to the increasingly obvious duration of the disruption.)

British Championships will restart in 2021, with a brand new season.

The announcement from British Champs can be found here:

https://www.britishchamps.com/2020/2020-season-announcement/

In Australia, the Great Southern Slam - the largest Roller Derby tournament in the world - is also being affected, as we mentioned above. Avoiding calling it a "cancellation", TGSS are instead "postponing" to 2021.

The announcement for TGSS's new date was made here (with the announcement of the original 2020 event not happening being a week previous):

https://www.facebook.com/greatsouthernslam/photos/a.279323135499330/2803312556433696/?type=3

MRDWC Takes 1 Year Postponement

SRD — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 17:30:00 GMT

With the increasing certainty that travel and contact restrictions to control the COVID-19 pandemic will last for months in some areas, the Derby timetable is experiencing effects further and further into the year.

Yesterday, the WFTDA announced that they were dramatically slimming down the "post-Season" for this year, and the effects continue today.

In the last hour, the Men's Roller Derby World Cup announced that they had decided to take the sad step of cancelling the current date for the 2020 MRDWC in St Louis, in favour of a booking some time in 2021. As this is a postponement, we assume that the MRDWC 2021 will be in the same place, and hopefully will have the same teams... just in a different year.

Of course, with the near-global hiatus in team training, not to say opportunities for Officials to keep up their practice, no-one can say what Roller Derby will look like even in a year's time. Roller Derby is also sensitive to non-sport specific issues which affect all volunteer communities - the expected increase in unemployment, and other economic impacts, is likely to affect the sport worldwide.

On the converse side, the extra time and delay may also allow some teams which dropped out of contention for the 2020 MRDWC time to regroup and reapply. MRDWC is being open about allowing such teams an opportunity to rejoin the competition for its 2021, if they wish to.

The full text of the MRDWC announcement is below:

---

Friends,

We have come to a decision. We will be postponing the St. Louis MRDWC indefinitely, with a target date of March/April 2021.

Our reasoning: First, no one wants to cancel. We all want to skate. This is our best option for doing so.

Second, although the venue is perfect for our purposes, they cannot yet commit to a date. They will let us know in a few months, which is why we need to leave the date open for now. We may be able to announce the date before July, and indeed we hope so. Our host is working with the venue to make this happen.

We hope that this offers you the ability to plan, to recover costs or move bookings, and to refocus on keeping yourselves and yours healthy and safe. The host hotel will cancel all bookings for this event in a few days for those who booked with them.

See you all around the track...

http://mrdwc.com/mrdwc-postponed/

WFTDA Competitive Season Cut by COVID-19

SRD — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 19:30:00 GMT

A lot of our updates have been cancellations recently - although we hope to get more positive content in the next few weeks.

Today, though, it's still a bit negative, as the WFTDA announced the cancellation of Playoffs and Continental Cups this season. With the ongoing effects of COVID-19 responses across all of the competitive regions in which Roller Derby happens, it was inevitable that the competitive season would be at least strongly truncated - with it unlikely that we'll see anything like a semblance of "normal training" before June, it's clear that expecting teams to launch back into the WFTDA Sanctioned competition would be unrealistic (to say nothing of the expectations this would place on Officials and Volunteers)

(As far as possible, the hosts will be hosting the equivalent events in 2021, with WFTDA support for the impacts of this on the leagues.)

Whilst the Rankings Committee and Competitive Play Committee have made continual adjustments to try to allow the rankings system to support teams, it's sometimes necessary to also cut back the schedule itself.

The WFTDA are still planning a "Championships" event in November, although we would imagine that the nature of this will be strongly dependent on upcoming months.

The full WFTDA statement can be found here:

https://resources.wftda.org/3-30-20-covid-19-statement-and-update/

CaiRollers Need You

SRD — Fri, 20 Mar 2020 15:40:00 GMT

As we reported earlier, the CaiRollers , Egypt's only Roller Derby league, recently made history by playing in South Africa, in the first ever African continental bout of Roller Derby.

Unfortunately, whilst their tournament was one of the few not to be cancelled last weekend, events caught up with them rapidly, as the evolving pandemic led to many of the team having their flights back to Egypt cancelled. In addition, Egypt itself declared that it would soon be closing its borders, requiring other team members to rebook flights at short notice and considerable expense.

After an extremely stressful few days, we can confirm that all members of the CaiRollers have made it back to Cairo - some at the last moment, and many having to travel complex routes with changes in central Africa. However, all of this additional last-minute travel booking, and cancellation of other things planned in South Africa (with additional fees!), has cost the CaiRollers considerably. As well as the financial costs, they have also lost some of their kit enroute.

We, along with others like Derby Without Borders , have been keeping in contact with the team to see how we can help them.

If you would like to help the CaiRollers, please donate funds to their PayPal account at fundraising@cairollers.com or contact Derby Without Borders who are also we believe helping to organise funds and support with replacement kit.

Thank you for your time.

COVID-19 and Roller Derby

SRD — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 07:30:00 GMT

It's hard not to be aware of the effect that the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is causing on all human activity, globally, and Roller Derby is not exempt. COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, is stretching the health services of several nations. In order to control its spread, an increasing number of internal and external travel and gathering restrictions are being applied.

In Italy and China, where all non-essential gatherings are currently banned, Roller Derby has stopped along with everything else. The Chinese leagues have not been able to practice since the lockdown in their country in February (with restrictions now slowly being lifted); in Italy since the increasingly escalating actions in the last week or two.

An increasing number of tournaments are now beginning to cancel. In Italy, the Anguanas' March and April Sanctioned triple-headers have been cancelled; but even in countries with less internal restrictions, there are cancellations. Copenhagen Ladybugs have had to cancel their upcoming Sevens extravaganza due to the Danish advice, for example; and there are a host of cancellations across the continental USA, despite their government's lacklustre response to ongoing events.

We are yet to see changes to the status of the Men's Roller Derby World Cup or Rollercon, both highly-international events this year, but given the breaking news restrictions placed by the US President on travel from Schengen countries in Europe, it seems increasingly likely that there will be some knock-on effect. (They are both scheduled far enough in the future that it is possible that we could have a pandemic peak before they happen; but once an infectious disease goes pandemic, it becomes much harder to eradicate quickly.) [Edited after initial publication to note: MRDWC have announced that they will be following all local and international advice; but this has not yet resulted in an actual change to their schedule.]

The WFTDA has published risk-management guidelines for reducing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infections if you do hold public games during this period. They essentially reduce to the usual advice that minimising physical contact, and maintaining proper hygiene standards is the most effective way to reduce the spread of the virus, along with recommendations to cancel non-essential events and follow your country's own guidelines and restrictions. (As with other examples of force majeure, WFTDA will not penalise members for cancelling Sanctioned events due to public health concerns around COVID-19.)

We're hoping to chat to some of the most affected regions and at least help keep their Roller Derby in the public eye a bit, even if they can't play...

...but if you want to help track all the effects on Roller Derby (or just see the results of this), we're linking to Axis of Stevil's public Google Doc for this purpose. Stevil is part of WFTDA's "COVID19 Taskforce", who are working in managing the response to the pandemic and its medical and political effects relating to the sport and its participants.

Rollercon Nations Tournament 2019

aoanla — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 20:00:00 GMT

For the last few years, the National teams bouts have become a fixture of Rollercon. Founded in 2017, before the last Roller Derby World Cup, they've been a great way for newer, or less visible National teams to be seen; and for raising awareness of the globally diverse nature of Roller Derby in general.

This year was a particularly important point in the tournament's history, as two borderless nations - Team Indigenous Rising (link to Facebook), and the new Jewish Roller Derby - competed in the tournament, and even played each other. (In fact, even the styling of the series of games as a true, all-day, tournament was a change this year, as previously there had not been enough competitors to realise this.)

Speaking for Team Indigenous, Jumpy McGee explained the importance of this to both teams:

Team Indigenous is extremely grateful to have this platform to bring our teams together and highlight that not all humans are defined by borders or citizenship. There are centuries of displacement, violence, and oppression that have occurred causing people indigenous to their homeland to create home elsewhere. We believe it was critical then to create a space where players identifying as a member of a nation had a place to belong. And when WE talk about nation, we're talking about nation in the sense of a collection of humans who have the same cultures, beliefs, languages and traditions who cannot be contained or defined by borders.

The 2019 Nations tournament was run as an efficient double-elimination bracket, with seedings voted on by the competing teams. This means that each team could lose once in the tournament - that loss knocking them out of the "winners" bracket, and into a sudden-death bracket against other teams with a single loss. The eventual survivor of that sudden death bracket, having proven themselves the best of the teams, other than sole unbeaten team, gets to play in the final against that undefeated remainder. In this case, for time, all games were single period WFTDA-rules bouts, except for the final, run as a full-length WFTDA-rules game.

As well as the two borderless nations, there were also three Asian nations represented: Team Philippines, Team Korea, and Team "Japan-fam" (so named because they did not have a tryout and offered this opportunity to all skaters of Japanese heritage). This is also an important aspect of the event, and has been since it began, with Philippines and Korea founding members in 2017.

Action from Korea versus Philippines (Photo: Tristan King [see link for license])

As ShortStop noted for Korea, in particular:

As a small nation, with relatively low representation in Roller Derby, [we] submitted an initial roster that included 8 Koreans, two skaters from OH Roller Derby Team (the only roller derby league in South Korea), and skaters from China, Vietnam, Thailand and Hong Kong. All of our non-Korean Asians are currently involved in building their own nations teams, and we thought it was a wonderful way to include them as start to gather their own teams.

For Philippines' Electric PIRANHA, it's an equally strong, and personally important opportunity:

I have played sports throughout my whole life and have been playing roller derby now for four years. I never once in my life thought I would be able to represent a national team, a team that represents my heritage and culture. I had the opportunity to represent Team Philippines at the World Cup in Manchester and just recently in the Nations Tournament at RollerCon. Words cannot describe the feeling I get skating for Team Philippines. I am surrounded by smart, beautiful, athletic Filipinas. When we are together, there is an extraordinary and undeniable bond we have, like we've been skating together as a team for years when we only have had the chance to skate together a handful of times. We represent a country that has gone through colonization, war, and the fight for independence. I skate for my cultural heritage and I skate for my family. #pamilypirst #poweredbylumpia #poweredbyrice

Even for Japan, where there has been derby in some form for more than a decade, visibility is low, as we've discussed before on this blog. Kris Rago, for Japan-fam noted to us that this was a factor in their participation here:

Japan Fam was unique in the sense that roller derby is present in Japan and that some of our skaters from both Japan and Hawaii were able to fly over and join our U.S. Japanese skaters. It was really wonderful to be able to come together and work together to represent our heritage and do amazing things on the track. My hope is more opportunities like this will help to strengthen the relationship between our U.S. Japanese skaters and skaters and leagues in Japan.

Derby without Borders: One year catchup

aoanla — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 11:17:05 GMT

Last year, we brought you an interview with Mae Dae, to talk about their fantastic project, Derby Without Borders. Since then, less than a year later, the project has gone from strength to strength, helping more leagues in more countries across the world, in more ways. With so much happening, it is past time to write an update on events.

Derby Without Borders was founded in 2017, as a project initially intended to help leagues in places where it was cost-prohibitive to get kit and other basic resources (sometimes because roller skating just wasn’t a thing in that country, often also because the cost of items was just much higher than the average wage allowed). The idea was, and still is, that donor leagues or individuals could donate “lightly used” or even new, kit to DwB, and the project would distribute items to leagues in need worldwide.

All the places Derby without Borders has provided help to teams, so far. (Black: kit donations achieved, Blue: “start up” support, Green: advice and translation, Yellow: coaching bootcamps (and other additional support), Red: pending kit donation.)

When we talked to Mae back in 2018, DwB had already successfully helped Sailor City Rollers (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Golden City Roller Derby (Johannesburg, South Africa) and the Cairollers (Cairo, Egypt) with donation packs. They’ve also collected for Roller Derby Beirut (Beirut, Lebanon) (in collaboration with Quad Skate Shop), but have had difficulties getting the kit into Lebanon. Since then, they’ve also been able to support Bangkok Roller Derby (Bangkok, Thailand), Toxic Lima Roller Derby (Lima, Peru), Kyoto Roller Derby (Kyoto, Japan), and Roller Derby Beijing (Beijing, China)…

…but Derby without Borders have also been extending their goals in order to help Roller Derby in other ways.

Firstly, DwB is no longer just Mae Dae: since the last time we spoke, DwB has recruited a second body in the UK, in the form of Rosie Peacock (who has also set up a third donation collection point in the UK). They’ve been providing much needed support, Mae admitting “Rosie has been absolutely pivotal and an amazing addition to the team - I don’t think DwB would have gotten this far without their commitment to the project”. The project has also grown an Advisory Board, positioned to steer the project in the right directions. In recruiting for the board, Mae tells us that they “reached out specifically to have Skaters of Colour on the board: they’re on the board to help steer the project in the direction it wants to be heading, which means engaging with intersectional, inclusionary and anti-oppressive practices.”

Rosie and Mae were both representing the cause at this year’s European Rollerderby Organisational Conference (EROC 2019) in Berlin with a stall, and a session on “Removing barriers to accessibility in roller derby”.

“It was great to be able to talk with the theme of diversity and inclusivity, and how it relates to DwB, because it really is at the foundation of all of the work that we’re doing - this idea that we need to take down barriers to access in order to make this a more inclusive sport,”

said Mae. In addition, every time DwB has a stall somewhere, more people learn about the project, and offer to support it. At EROC, one of the attending leagues offered to host a collection at their next bout, and to raise funds for the project. That said, DwB and EROC in some senses were looking in different directions whilst supporting the same ethos. EROC is, intentionally, focused on improving Roller Derby within Europe; whilst Derby without Borders is inherently about looking outside, and working on how to support Roller Derby in other places, building in inclusivity and adapting culture to support other regions from the start.

Mae Dae on the Derby without Borders stall at EROC 2019 (Image copyright: Michael Wittig / Bear City Roller Derby)

In that spirit, then, EROC was also the last event that Mae attended before leaving Europe themself. With Rosie positioned in the UK, Mae has courageously moved to Bangkok, Thailand, allowing them to be physically closer to one big region that would benefit significantly from DwB’s support – South East Asia.

“Moving to Bangkok to help develop SE Asian roller derby has definitely been huge, and really pivotal.” Mae told us, “I’m really understanding the needs of the region a lot better than I did before - and just how different the scale of roller derby is in all of Asia!”

Since being closer to the action, they’ve launched an initiative to provide “consultation” services to newer leagues, giving them support and advice from the ground up (not just on how to start up a league, but also on developing local cultural competency). The first beneficiary of this is the first ever Roller Derby team in Bali: Hot Lava Rollers!

As with many of DwB’s new initiatives, this started with a conversation, as Mae relates.

“Someone who used to skate with Crime [City Rollers] - Glitter Punch - reached out to me; she’d heard about the project, from Hanna P, and she said ‘I live in Bali now, and I’m so sad that there’s no Roller Derby. I really kinda want to make a team, and I was wondering if you could help me’”.

At present, Hot Lava Rollers are just two people, and one set of kit (Glitter’s), and the team is just starting to recruit and look for spaces and other resources. Meanwhile, Mae is actively providing mentorship, on a regular basis.

“I’m trying to get them all the other resources that they would need, so helping them develop everything from bylaws, policies, through to making a logo, getting them social media, just… everything.” “We’re trying to focus on consistent communication - we talk once a week, even if it’s just a 20 minute check-in. I think also it will be a learning experience in how to help support someone in starting a league without being there - I’m in Bangkok and it’s not far, only an hour’s time difference - but still, not being physically there to put in the work in the same way that I would / am with Bangkok [is a challenge].”

Whilst advice and support is very important, when it comes to developing Derby-specific skills, there’s nothing better than a good coach. So, DwB has also been using its connections to organise specific Coaching Bootcamps in those regions involved.

On the 27th April, DwB and Bangkok Roller Derby are co-hosting a bootcamp run by Canberra Roller Derby League (and Team Korea)’s ShortStop; on the 12 October, Atlanta Rollergirls (and Team USA)’s Baller Shot Caller will be running a DwB organised bootcamp in Bali! A future Bootcamp is also planned for Cairo (to be hosted by the Cairollers, with Zipblock and Freight Train), but dates and funding are still in progress on this.

Hot Lava Rollers founders, Rustamia Primanisa and Glitter Punch, after their first meeting with Mae [Thanks to Hot Lava Rollers & DwB]

Being able to run a bootcamp in Bali, in particular, came as a pleasant surprise even to Mae themself.

“When Baller [Shot Caller] had reached out to me to ask what she could help the project with, I said, ‘well, here’s all the places I could use help with coaching’, and I let her pick.

And she said, ‘If I have to choose one, I would say Bali. It seems more secluded, and they probably have less resources’!

“I said, ‘it’s just two people - there’s the potential you could be teaching 5 people minimum skills’. Baller was completely okay with that, as the gain in awareness, and value in increased representation was worth it. We did choose a date later in the year to give time for recruitment, though.”

Having already organised their first DwB bootcamp with Hong Kong Roller Derby (coached by Rosie Peacock and Optimus Grime of Glasgow Men’s Roller Derby), Mae is confident, however, that both bootcamps will have significant regional attendance.

“The fact that we had 3 girls from the UAE travel all the way to HK just so they could attend a bootcamp and play a game , just goes to show you how isolated people are - but also how hungry they are for it. What I’m discovering about SE Asian roller derby, and Middle Eastern roller derby. is that when these things happen people will come from across the region to attend and come together.”

Before Bali, though, the bootcamp in Bangkok will also be significant for another reason, being the first time that Bangkok Roller Derby will field a full team to compete. The bootcamp will see two games - the usual Pan-Asian Spring Rollers v Pan-Asian Spring Rollers setup, followed by the history-making Bangkok versus Hong Kong bout!

Bout flyer for the next DwB bootcamp, hosted by Bangkok Roller Derby. [Image: Bangkok Roller Derby, photo by Teddy Tse]

Mae has also been active in providing resources and accessibility in other ways: at present, Roller Derby resources are overwhelmingly available in English (with Spanish probably the next largest). Whilst the WFTDA rules have a translation to the second most widely read language in the world (Chinese), there’s almost no availability in Hindi (the 3rd) and Arabic (the 6th – and 3rd most read as a second language) – and the most spoken Slavic language in the world, Russian, has a similar lack of support.

DwB has projects underway to translate resources into under-represented languages to increase accessibility – in the case of Arabic, with the support of UAE Roller Derby All-Stars and the Cairollers. (We’ll be catching up with the Cairollers shortly in another article, as they also have exciting news.) Russian translations of the Short Track Roller Derby ruleset have already been produced, thanks to efforts from the White Night Furies, and Abu Dhabi Roller Derby’s Spinky, as well!

In the future, Mae dreams of having a “database of different resources for leagues, in all the languages; so if a league needs a framework for a code of conduct in Spanish, they can just go to the database and find something to base it on”. That’s for the future, however: the current effort is focused on getting basic rules and coaching resources translated.

As well as translation, another issue, especially for countries with more filtered access to the Internet, can simply be access to resources at all. In China, for example, common hosts for Roller Derby resources like YouTube, Google Drive, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, Medium and WordPress are all either permanently or irregularly blocked. Derby Without Borders is actively working with the Chinese Roller Derby community to provide access to the resources that the community needs, using hosts which are acceptable to the Chinese government.

And Derby without Borders continues to pursue its original goal of providing kit for skaters, as well. One of the first things that Mae noticed at Bangkok was that many of the skaters had inflexible, heavy mouthguards designed for Muay Thai. As theytold us, this isn’t really ideal:

“you can’t really speak when you’re wearing them, and can barely breathe in them. So I just emailed SISU and said ‘hey, can you like just give us 20 mouthguards’ and they were like ‘yeah, sure, and just shipped them over’.”

As well as SISU, other derby-related businesses - Steaks, Riedell, and Bont - have shown interest in supporting the project, especially as it has gained more visibility in the community. (Bont-sponsored skater Shortshop has managed to provide a set of wheels as a “prize” at her bootcamp in Bangkok, for example.)

Bangkok Roller Derby with SISU donated mouthguards, thanks to DwB [Image: Derby without Borders]

All of this additional activity, however, is only sustainable if Derby without Borders continues to grow itself. Mae is currently working towards a new model for the organisation: regional “chapters” which can help to organise and manage the effort which DwB brings. (The Asia chapter will almost certainly be the first to be established, with recruitment happening now.) The project is already growing fast enough to need this right now.

“One thing that I’m learning is understanding my own bandwidth and capability - how much I can do as one person.” Mae told us “Particularly, at this point, I’m doing all of this work because I want to do it - there’s no funding. Understanding my own bandwidth has been important because I’ve had two people reach out to me who were interested in doing the same thing in India, and whilst I absolutely want to help someone start a league in India, I think I might need to focus on one at a time, for now. I think with them I’m going to have to take a step back.”

Team India Roller Derby have since agreed to help support these potential seeds of Roller Derby, in collaboration with DwB, but the project still needs more people - and leagues - to join in.

One Derby without Borders initiative which has been active for the start is the idea of “Sibling Leagues”: an opportunity for established leagues to pair up with specific leagues elsewhere in the world to offer them support. This support could be in terms of equipment donations, as the scheme was originally formulated with Texas collecting kit to donate directly to the Cairollers. However, as DwB evolves, it could equally be provided as knowledge exchange, guidance, and political and social support.

“I would love to see that kind of Sibling league relationship develop with more leagues.” Mae told us, “instead of needing to come through DwB [to give support], it could be more like a mentorship: one league can mentor another league, and develop all their resources between the two of them. That’s what’s going to make it more sustainable in the long run [and] that’s the point of the project, creating these things for the sake of sustainability.”

Quito, Ecuador’s Forajidas Roller Derby, post-recruitment in January. (Photo: Forajidas Roller Derby)

Whilst we’ve mostly focused on activities in Asia in this update, that should not imply that DwB is not working for other regions as well. Mae told us that they have been in contact with Forajidas Roller Derby, who are currently trying to (re)establish the only league in Ecuador (in Quito, the capital).

Whilst the Forajidas have a GoFundMe ( https://www.gofundme.com/help-bring-roller-derby-to-ecuador ), they also need guidance and support in forming their league. Mae is actively looking for either a Sibling League, or a coach, or both, who can help to support the new team.

And, as well as helping to nurture and advise new and developing leagues, DwB is also working to support Roller Derby in other ways. Derby Without Borders can host crowdfunders for such leagues to allow them to raise funds more easily: at present, they’re hosting a GoFundMe to support Buenos Aires’ 2×4 Roller Derby on their current international travel requirements. (You can donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/2x4-international-tour-2019 )

Derby without Borders is open to assisting any league or team who need their support: regardless of if that’s in SE Asia where Mae is currently focused, or in Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe or Africa.

Similarly, if you, or your league, or your company, want to support Derby without Borders in any way mentioned in this article (or another way you can think of), we encourage you to join in. Derby without Borders can only get better as it gets bigger - and it can only get bigger with more of the community pitching in to support it.

You can support DwB via their Donation page [ https://derbywithoutborders.org/donate ] and by buying their merch (which also lets you raise awareness of the project by wearing it everywhere) [ https://derbywithoutborders.org/merchandise ]. Mae Dae and DwB central can be contacted by email at: maedae@skatingoutofbounds.com

UAE All-Stars: A National Team for the Emirates

aoanla — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 12:27:42 GMT

Whilst we often talk about Roller Derby in North America, and Europe and Australasia, and somewhat less about Latin America (at least, in English - en español, a lot is said) we speak much less about Roller Derby in the rest of the World. Part of this is because of a similar tendency to only talk about teams which compete internationally... of which there are much fewer outside of those above regions. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy, of course, since isolated teams, inherently, find it hard to find any local opponents: and they can't find international opponents if people don't talk about them.

The United Arab Emirates has had two Roller Derby leagues: Dubai Roller Derby, and Abu Dhabi Roller Derby, for more than 6 years, the two forming within a few months of each other in late 2012. It's been hard for them to find opponents elsewhere, however, especially given the roster sizes for the two.

So, this year, members of both teams decided to collaborate on a bigger thing: a Emirates-wide Travel Team, UAE Roller Derby All-Stars, representing the country on the international stage. (Between them, Dubai and Abu Dhabi represent about 2/3s of the population of the UAE, but there are 5 other Emirates which could still develop teams.)

We spoke to two of the main agents of this initiative, Mean Curls and Inga Knee’her, about how this got organised, and what their plans are.

As long ago as 2013, Dubai and Abu Dhabi Roller Derby had discussed the possibility of forming a national, potentially WFTDA-sanctioned, joint team. However, with both leagues also organising their individual affairs, it wasn't possible to achieve this until recently: there wasn't enough time, or experience, in the teams to build the bigger plan.

In 2018, however, Inga Knee'her became one of the most experienced new members of Dubai Roller Derby - transferring to the team after 10 years of experience in Steel City Roller Derby (at the time WFTDA D 1 team), and Tokyo Roller Derby. As well as spearheading the adoption of Rolla Skate Club's Short Track Roller Derby ruleset to enable Dubai to play more derby in more places, she's also become part of the trio behind the UAE All-Stars. With Spinky (president of Abu Dhabi Roller Derby) and Mean Curls, the plan has gone from a discussion over ice-cream to reality. As Inga and Mean Curls tell it: "In less than two months, we [] created the team, organized weekly practices focusing on Short Track coached by Inga, and played our first international game in Hong Kong as part of Pan Asian Spring Rollers (prompting the self-proclaimed name of the “Get Sh*t Done Team” :D)."

With Dubai and Abu Dhabi also the most populous cities in the UAE (and their eponymous emirates), and fairly closely located, the All-Stars can alternate training between the two easily, helping to build a sense of equal partnership in the national team. At present, the team is working on helping to develop visibility and interest in Roller Derby - and Roller skating - in the UAE, where historically there hasn't been much. (At present, all of Dubai and Abu Dhabi's kit comes from abroad via international shipping.) One aim of this increased visibility is towards developing the skill levels for their member skaters, by providing opportunities for higher level play that would otherwise be inaccessible. Inga's contacts with the Pan-Asian Spring Rollers (the Roller Derby collaboration between Beijing, Shanghai, Hong-Kong and Bangkok we've covered previously) immediately paid off in this sense. Having played against the Spring Rollers as part of the Women's Roller Derby Japan team at the Tomodachi Roller Derby tournament in Okinawa (2017), she was hoping for opponents to play Short Track derby with. As it happens, the timing of the Spring Rollers bout against Hong-Kong was too good to pass up: Mean Curls, Spinky, and Inga were able to make the trip to join Pan Asia v. Hong Kong as members of the Spring Rollers team. (Their team ended up winning too, 159 to HKRD's 127.)

That bout also helped to build even more contacts: Derby Without Borders' founder Mae Dae has recently relocated to Bangkok, and was present as part of the Hong Kong event. We're promised future collaborations with Derby without Borders, supporting their mission in the Middle East and Asia so watch this space! (Mae themself has also been busy since moving to Bangkok, and we'll be catching up with them in a future article.)

Two of UAE All-Stars' skaters (Mean Curls, Spinky) in blue as part of the Pan-Asian Spring Rollers team against hosts Hong Kong Roller Derby. Photograph by Teddy Tse

At home, they're focusing on Short Track Roller Derby as it makes practice much more accessible: not only is it easier in terms of numbers, the smaller space needed (the Short Track track fits inside a standard basketball court) makes it much easier, and cheaper, to find spaces to practice in. With the UAE's regulations limiting other opportunities (public events need licenses, for example), having more options in hosting always helps.

However, UAE All-Stars aren't limiting themselves to a single ruleset for future games. Inga and Mean Curls emphasised "we are interested in any and all roller derby opportunities for our skaters. We are lucky to live in a place with direct flights to so many cities, making it relatively easy for us to visit other teams as well as to host events in the future."

And, whilst the team has not ruled out applying to join the WFTDA in the future, they're also setting their sites on the most international of competitions. "Our ultimate goal is to represent the UAE at the next Roller Derby World Cup," the team told us, adding "Mean Curls is the only current Emirati roller derby skater (that we know of) and will represent us on the Nations Committee".

Short Track Worldwide Update (2019 Feb)

aoanla — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 13:12:02 GMT

Since our first article on Short Track Roller Derby, back in 2018, the new ruleset has continued to spread, in almost all the places in the world where Roller Derby is played. As such, we thought we’d follow up, just 4 months later, with some of the exciting developments in Short Track worldwide.

Firstly, as readers of What A Bout magazine will already know, Short Track Roller Derby has spread further-and-wider than we could have hoped: to Russia, and Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, already. You should read the full article in WAB Issue 3 for full details, but look out for several Short Track tournaments in Moscow, and other Russian cities later in the year. Dubai’s interest in Short Track has also led to bigger things which we’ll get to later in this article.

Short Track is continuing to enable more teams to play derby, even now.

In Poland, Gdańsk’s Chrome Sirens are playing their first ever public game, thanks to Short Track rules enabling them to put together two competitive teams (and use more accessible venues). This double-header event will be coming to the city in the middle of next month - March 16th!

In the Americas, Short Track Derby is also taking off: ruleset creators Rolla Skate Club having provided initial impetus with a comprehensive series of trial sessions across Canada and the North-west of the USA. In Latin America, meanwhile, there is interest in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in exploring the ruleset, as it solves several of the challenges of the many teams in the city.

Illinois Valley Vixens Roller Derby during their first public bout under Short Track Rules.(Photo used by permission of Dave Schrader under license. [not covered by site CC license] )

In the USA, though, public bouts have already started, with the ruleset enabling teams to play their first games in years!

For Illinois Valley Vixens Roller Derby, who played their first public bout for 3 years thanks to Short Track back in February, the ruleset has been a revelation. Whilst some venue issues meant that they had to modify the track slightly, the bout was a complete success - despite only using word of mouth and social media for advertising, they managed to fill all the available seating. Speaking for the league, Lemon Squeezer told us : “We now know that a smaller track definitely does not mean less exciting or intense, quite the opposite! I can't remember a time I have heard a crowd this engaged before and the feedback from spectators was that they are looking forward to the next one and bringing friends. We also had several former skaters come to check it out that are now interested in coming back.”. I.M.GROOT added, “The fact that all players have to both jam and block really takes you out of your comfort zone. It pushes you to use all the skills you have learned, not just the ones you prefer. Short Track has the ability to really push skaters to be stronger, better and more adaptable in game play.”

In an even more striking mode, the USA has also brought us the first ever “Short Track” league: Pittsburgh Short Track Roller Derby, founded by a group of skaters who retired from “competitive” Roller Derby, but still wanted to play a friendlier version of the sport. Their league aim, as expressed on their website and Facebook page, “We are a group of friends who wanted to create a safe, stress free environment to get together and skate. Community over competition.” encapsulates the entire point of Short Track as a ruleset and community. (You can find out more about them on social media and their website.)

Further in the future, there’s also exciting news of potentially the first ever international Short Track Roller Derby Tournament. The newly created UAE All-Stars, the United Arab Emirates’ official travel team, are exploding onto the scene, and one of their first public plans is to play Short Track Derby! Formed of skaters from Dubai Roller Derby and Abu Dhabi Roller Derby, the team plan to play all kinds of Derby, but Short Track is definitely a solid component of their goals. [We have more about UAE All-Stars themselves in another new article here, which we’re going to publish soon - and their first ever public game will be this weekend, 2nd March, in Hong Kong, as part of the Pan-Asian Spring Rollers].

UAE Roller Derby All-Stars practising on the Short Track [courtesy of UAE All-Stars]

Thanks to the support of GO-GO Gent Roller Derby, who had been investigating hosting an experimental Short Track clinic for several months, UAE All-Stars will be travelling to Belgium on the 1st and 2nd of June. The first day will be a Short Track Roller Derby training workshop, allowing the experienced skaters from Dubai’s testing of the rules (and potentially other skaters who’ve tried Short Track from the rest of Europe) to explain and demonstrate the potential of the ruleset to attendees. The second day will be a tournament event: the structure of which is still under development. Teams are welcome to participate from across Europe, and we know that there’s been interest from several regions already.

Even further in the future, there’s the possibility of Short Track bootcamps in other parts of Europe, including the UK, and other plans afoot about which we can’t speak at this time. Stay tuned for further updates as they occur!

Non-US/Canadian Derby Roundup: 15th/16th December Edition

aoanla — Wed, 12 Dec 2018 16:13:17 GMT

We’re bringing you another roundup of the upcoming Roller Derby this weekend from across the world. As always, we’re using Flat Track Stats for much of this information – for regions with less good coverage, we also do a bit of intensive searching using a tool which scans the Facebook events of Roller Derby leagues known to Derby Listing.

Predictions of bouts are from FTS, if possible, and from our own SRD Rank where FTS cannot make predictions (for example: Latin America, or non-MRDA men’s bouts). (SRDRank also has recent WFTDA rankings, including the 31st June ranking, as well as SRDRank, and allows you to make predictions from them.)

If we’ve missed you from our roundup, please let us know! [Or add yourselves to FTS and/or Derbylisting]

We're trying a new colour coding this week, to differentiate BOUTS from RECRUITMENTS and OPEN SCRIMs, and BOOTCAMPs.

Scotland

Scotland is surprisingly busy this close to Christmas, with Glasgow Men's Roller Derby hosting their MRDA-policy rookie skater game on the Saturday, and also their returning mini-bootcamp series.

Wed, Edinburgh: Edinburgh's first Junior Derby team, the Boardwalk Bombs practices and recruits at The Boardwalk, every Wednesday [EVENT]
Thurs, Dumbarton: Chicks in Bowls Scotland host Quad Meet sessions [6-10pm, Unit23 Skatepark][EVENT]
Fri, Glasgow: Glasgow Men's Roller Derby's ongoing new skater intake continues every Friday, for the foreseeable future! [EVENT]
Fri, Grangemouth: Bairn City Rollers rolling recruitment continues in their Friday sessions. Open to all genders. [EVENT]
Fri, Grangemouth: Bairn City Rollers combine the above with an Open Scrim (presumably Open To All genders), with a Christmas theme [EVENT]
Glasgow: Resistance Roller Derby, Glasgow's Junior Roller Derby club for queer and trans young people continue their training sessions open to new skaters and existing. [EVENT Flyer]
Grangemouth: Glasgow Men's Roller Derby host an MRDA-policy centred Debut Skater game, aimed at encouraging and developing the MRDA side of the sport in Scotland. [EVENT]
Sun, Aberdeen: Chicks in Bowls Scotland host a Sunday Skate followed by a park skate outside [Transition Extreme Sports] [EVENT]
Tues, Aberdeen: Chicks in Bowls Scotland host a regular Quad Meet (Transition Extreme) [EVENT]
Tues, Edinburgh: Glasgow Men's Roller Derby host the 8th edition of Jammer Club, their irregular series of Jammer "mini-bootcamp"s, coached by Optimus Grime. Open To All genders. [EVENT]

United Kingdom

Christmas in the UK as a whole means "scrimmage", and there's a huge number of open scrims of various gender policies across the country. The only actual public bout we know of is in Halifax, however.

Wed, Swansea, Wales: Swansea City Roller Derby host a Christmas Open Scrim, open to WFTDA gender policy conforming skaters (and all referees, NSOs). [EVENT]
Thurs, Leeds, England: Leeds Roller Derby host a Christmas Guest Skater night (essentially an open scrim and training), open to WFTDA-gender-policy conforming skaters. [EVENT]
Thurs, Middlesbrough, England: Middlesbrough Roller Derby host a Christmas themed Open Scrimmage (team Santa v team Elf). No gender policy stated. [EVENT]
Fri, Barrow-in-Furness, England: Furness Roller Derby host a Christmas Roller Disco to close out the year. Appearance by Santa Claus guaranteed for the children attending. [EVENT]
Fri, Stratford, England: London Rockin' Rollers host a "meet the Rookies" event, as a social welcome to the league. [EVENT]
Basingstoke, England: The Basingstoke Bullets host a Xmas Fun Skate, open to all skaters of all abilities, fancy dress encouraged. [EVENT]
Leeds, England: Double Threat Skates host another of their regular Pop Up Shops "Up North", with a free open skate too. [EVENT]
Lincoln, England: Lincolnshire Bombinos host a Junior Derby open mixed scrim (open to Junior skaters, entry fee applies) [EVENT]
Lincoln, England: Lincolnshire Bombers also host a Christmas Roller Disco, raising funds for SANDS (Sillbirths And Neonatal DeathS) [EVENT]
Nottingham, England: Nottingham Hellfire Harlots host a Christmas Craft Fair (with free entry), supporting homemade and local crafts. [EVENT]
Oldham, England: The Knights of Oldham host a "Saturday Knight Fever" Roller disco... [EVENT]
Sun, Grimsby, England: Grimsby Roller Derby host "Home Alone" an Xmas Charity Scrim event. (Actually two scrims, both raising funds for the charity "Not Home Alone"). [EVENT]
- WFTDA-gender-policy scrim
- OTA genders scrim.
Sun, Halifax, England: The Bruising Banditas host a double header "Snow Brawl" [EVENT]
- WFTDA-aligned Skater Debut bout: Jingle Belles versus Candy Canors
- Bruising Banditas (Halifax) versus Spa Town Roller Derby (Harrogate) [FTS]
Sun, Manchester, England: Manchester Roller Derby host their End of Year, Mixed Level, Open To All genders Open Scrim! [EVENT]
Sun, Nottingham, England: Nottingham Hellfire Harlots follow up their Fair with an Open Christmas Scrim, open to WFTDA-gender-policy conforming skaters. [EVENT]
Sun, Oadby, England: Leicestershire Dolly Rockit Rollers host "Propeh Scrimbo", an Open To All genders Open Scrim. [EVENT]
Sun, Wallasey, England: Wirral Roller Derby and the Pack Animals co-host a Super Sunday Scrim, a scrim event Open To All genders, with WFTDA-gender and MRDA-gender policy lineups for max inclusivity [EVENT]
Tues, Sheffield, England: Sheffield Steel Rollergirls host their December Megascrim, 90-minutes of Open scrim, open to WFTDA-gender-policy conforming skaters. [EVENT]

Europe

Europe... and especially France... is very much still in bouting mood this close to Christmas. There's a huge number of tournaments (and single headers) across the continent, including Belgian Championship games and German Bundesliga fixtures.

Thurs, Prague, Czech Republic: the Hard Breaking Dolls host the first of 5 open training sessions, for interested potential competitive skaters, referees or NSOs. (Skaters limited to WFTDA-gender policy.) [EVENT]
Thurs, Toulouse, France: Roller Derby Toulouse host the last of their Recruitment days for their Men's Derby component (QuadGuards et al). [EVENT]
Fri, Tallinn, Estonia: Tallinn Roller Girls continue to host their open training sessions on Fridays for all interested attendees. [EVENT]
Fri, Tartu, Estonia: Tartu Roller Derby also continue their open training sessions for all interested attendees. [EVENT]
Fri, Rotterdam, Netherlands: Rotterdam Roller Derby host an "Open Holiday Scrimmage", the second of three (one each Friday before Christmas). We think these are OTA, and are also open to NSOs. [EVENT]
Fri, A Coruña, Spain: As Brigantias host a Recruitment / Intro To Roller Derby outreach event, with the assistance of the City Council [EVENT]
Oulu, Finland: Oulu Roller Derby celebrate the festive season with a B teams single header [EVENT]
- Oulu B versus Tampere B [FTS]
Anglet, France: Roller Derby Côte Basque host a Happy Derby Christmas event... [EVENT]
- Valient Bitchiz (Bayonne) versus Botxo Killers (Bilbo) [FTS]
Charleroi, Belgium: The Blackland Rockin' K-Rollers host a quadruple header as part of the Belgian Championships. [FTS tournament][EVENT]
- Blackland Randy Devils (Charleroi M) versus RATM (Arras M) [FTS]
- Atomium Kittens (Brussels B) versus Blackland Rockin K-Rollers [RD.be D 2]
- Brussels Derby Pixies (Brussels) versus Namur Roller Girls [RD.be D 1]
- Atomium Kittens versus Holy Wheels Menace (Leige) [RD.be D 2]
Bordeaux, France: Roller Derby Bordeaux Club co-hosts a weekend of open skating events, with skating from 2pm on Sat, and all day on Sun [EVENT]
Brest, France: B.M.O Roller Derby Girls host a single header for Xmas [EVENT]
- Toutes Étoiles (Brest) versus Les Duchesses (Nantes) [FTS]
Cholet, France: Cholet Roller Derby host an recruitment day as part of the Cholet Decathlon, including a demonstration [EVENT]
Clermont-Ferrand, France: the Auver'Niaks host a festive double header("Le Père Noël est une jammeuse."). [EVENT]
- Auver'Niaks B (Clermont-Ferrand B) versus Bloody Angels (Melun) [FTS]
- Auver'Niaks A versus Reaper's Crew (Epinal) [FTS]
Sat+Sun, Dijon, France: The Velvet Owls host a weekend of Roller Derby, "Jammer is Coming". [EVENT]
- Namur Glorious Basterds (Namur M) versus La Raclée (Dijon M) [FTS]
- Zombeers (Calais M) versus Namur Glorious Basterds [FTS]
- La Raclée versus Zombeers [FTS]
- Dead Dragibus (Calais J) versus Les P'tits Bou'Niaks (Clermont-Ferrand J) [FTS?]
- Velvet Must'Hard (Dijon B) versus Black Tagada (Calais) [FTS]
Sainte Geneviève des Bois, France: The Psyko'Quads host a single header event with little fanfare [EVENT]
- Psyko'Quads (Sainte Geneviève des Bois) versus Knock'n'Roll Cannibals (Creil) [FTS]
Sat+Sun, Strasbourg, France: Hell's Ass Derby Girls and Les Menneles co-host Bretz'Hell Battle, a "Coed" Grand Tournament, with several OTA teams competing. [EVENT]
- Le Peine Capitale (Paris O) versus Strasbourg Roller Derby (Hell's Ass + Les Menneles | Strasbourg O)
- UB (open subs OTA team) versus Orcet (Orcet RD + Wolfgang | Orcet O)
- La Peine Capitale versus UB
- Strasbourg versus Orcet
- Le Peine Capitale versus Orcet
- Strasbourg versus UB
- "final" and "3rd place?"
The Hague, Netherlands: The Parliament of Pain host "The Fight Before Christmas: Onion Edition". This is a triple header of OTA derby, with open-subs teams, and a raffle! [EVENT]
- X-Mas Circus versus X-Mas on Ice
- X-Mas on Ice versus X-Mas at Iron Mist's
- X-Mas at Iron Mist's versus X-Mas Circus
Sat-Sun, Candeán, Spain: Lobishomes Men's Roller Derby host their first mixed tournament, Full Moon Showdown. There's not much public info about the teams attending, however. [EVENT]
- Teams Attending:
  - Jabatas Roller Derby (Ourense)
  - Lobishommes (Galicia/Vigo M)
  - "Spanish mash-up team"
Geneva, Switzerland: Genève Roller Derby United host "Les Matchs del la marmite" (referring to the pot, not the savoury spread), a double header event. [EVENT]
- Les Taxider'Biches (Léman A) versus Mères Royaume (Geneva) [FTS]
- Cannibal Marmots Cééé (Grenoble C) versus Black Votchkas (Neuchâtel + Fribourg mix)
Sun, Braine-le-Comte, Belgium: Manneken Beasts host a triple header of MRDA derby games in the return of their "Merry Hitmas" event [EVENT]
- Manneken Beasts (Brussels M) versus Panam Squad (Paris M) [FTS]
- Tampere Rollin' Bros (Tampere M) versus Panam Squad [FTS]
- Manneken Beasts versus Tampere Rollin' Bros [FTS]
Sun, Dijon, France: Roller Derby Dijon (we assume) host a Round Table on the future of Junior Roller Derby in France. [EVENT]
Sun, Ligugé, France: Les Broyeuses du Poitou host the third edition of their winter tournament, Winter is Rolling. This edition is a triple header [EVENT]
- Marcheuses Blanches versus La Garde de Nuit ("White Walkers" versus "Night's Watch"), mixed teams.
- Broyeuses du Poitou (Poitiers) versus Pirnanas (Chateauroux) [FTS]
- Grandes Goulges (Poitiers O?) versus Royales Mandales (Rennes O?)
Sun, Lille, France: Lomme Roller Girls host a triple header event to close the season, against all of Paris! [EVENT]
- Tétons Flingueurs (Lomme C) versus San Culottes (Paris C) [FTS]
- Glorious Bâtardes (Lomme B) versus Quedalles (Paris B) [FTS]
- Bad Bunnies (Lomme A) versus Paris All-stars (Paris A) [FTS]
Sun, Montpezat-sous-Bauzon, France: The Criminal Nurses of Aubenas host a Christmas double-header, the 4th edition of "Track's Anatomy". [EVENT]
- Criminal Nurses (Aubenas) versus Head Hunters (Narbonne) [FTS]
- White v Black UB (open subs) game.
Sun, Sainte Geneviève des Bois, France: The Psyko'Quads return with a second fixture, a Scrimmage/Friendly game [EVENT]
- Psyko'Quads (Sainte Geneviève des Bois) versus Channibals Lecters (Creil B) [FTS?}
Sun, Karlsruhe, Germany: The rocKArollers host one of the last sets of Bundesliga Div 2 fixtures in this season [FTS Tournament][EVENT]
- Delta Quads (Mannheim) versus Riot Rollers (Darmstadt) [Bundesliga D 2]
- rocKArollers (Karlsruhe) versus Demolition Derby Dolls (Hannover) [Bundesliga D 2]
Sun, Västerås, Sweden: Västerås Roller Derby host "All I Want for Christmas is a Roller Derby Double Header"... a Roller Derby Double header. [EVENT]
- Västerås Roller Derby versus LKPG Go'Rullaz (Linköping) [FTS]
- Västerås Roller Derby versus Sundsvall Demolition Rollers [FTS]
Mon, Warsaw, Poland: Worst Warsaw's Open recruitment continues for interested potential members in any roles! [EVENT]
Mon, Zürich, Switzerland: Zürich City Roller Derby host their next open tryouts for those interested in joining the team, in any capacity. Open To All genders. [EVENT]
Tues, A Coruña, Spain: As Brigantias follow up their open recruitment day with an outreach event at Centro Social A Comuna [EVENT]
Wed, Ostrava, Czech Republic: Trojhali Ostrava Roller Derby continue their open training and rolling recruitment [EVENT]

Pacific

It... seems... very quiet in Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region this weekend, but it's also possible we're missing events. Do let us know if we've missed you.

Sun, Westbury, TAS, Australia: Devil State Derby League host their regular Monthly Scrim, Open To All skaters. [EVENT]
Sun, California Gully, VIC, Australia: Dragon City Roller Derby host "Wreck the Halls", a Christmas Scrimmage event. Open to WFTDA-gender-policy conforming skaters, 16+ age. [EVENT]
- Low contact Scrimmage
- Full contact Scrimmage

Latin America

The big event in Latin America is the Huiñas returning tournament Quad Beer II, covering teams across Argentina!

Fri, Córdoba, Argentina: Insubordinades Roller Derby Disidente host their third intraleague game with almost no notice (event announced the day before) [EVENT Flyer]
Sat+Sun, Bariloche, Argentina: The Huiñas Roller Derby host their second Tournament, Quad Beer II. [EVENT]
- Teams:
  - Huinas Roller Derby
  - Hijas de Pantano
  - Ambulatory Derby Team
  - Barderas Insurrectas (Neuquen)
  - Hienas de la Calle (Neuquen)
  - Moron Roller Derby (Moròn)
  - Zapala Roller Derby
- Day 1 schedule:
  - Huiñas versus Moron [FTS]
  - Ambulatory versus Zapala
  - Moron versus Barderas Insurrectas
  - Zapala versus Hienas de la Calle
  - Barderas Insurrectas versus Huiñas
  - Hienas de la Calle versus Ambulatory
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Avas Roller Derby host a recruitment day for interested new skaters. [EVENT]
Valdivia, Chile: Roller Derby Valdivia celebrate their 3rd birthday with a triple header event! [EVENT]
- Indomitas RD (Valdivia) vs Diosas Volcánicas (Puerto Montt)
- Indomitos RD (Valdivia O) vs Coed Chillan (Chillan O)
- Colusion Austral (Valdivia? M) vs Chillanrrolleros (Chillan M)
Bogota, Colombia: Rock N Roller Queens celebrate their 9th birthday with a "Tropical Queens" party event! [EVENT]

San Jose, Costa Rica: Panties Dinamita Roller Derby host an international game to finish their year! There's only a mysterious instagram post to confirm this... [EVENT Flyer]
- Panties Dinamita (Costa Rica/San Jose) versus Burdel Zombie (Mexico City) [FTS]
Ciudad Juarez, Mexico: Medias Rotas Juniors host their final home-teams game of the year [EVENT]
- Grinch versus Santa Claus (Junior home teams)
Sun, Buenos Aires, Argentina: Kamikazes Roller Derby celebrate their 6th birthday with a party - which is also raising funds for local animal shelters. [EVENT]
Sun, São Paulo, Brazil: the Ladies of Helltown are hosting an "open training" session for any interested potential members who want to experience the sport. [EVENT]
Sun, San Joaquín, Chile: Unión Subversiva Roller Derby host a "Roller Derby Flea Market" as a fundraiser and source of unique festive gifts [EVENT]
Sun, Mexico City?, Mexico: Jaibronas Roller Derby are hosted for triple-header "friendly" against two of Mexico City Roller Derby's teams, which is a debut for the Jaibronas! [EVENT]
- Jaibronas (Tampico Madero) versus Quadtlicues (Mexico City)
- Jaibronas versus Catrinas (Mexico City)
- Quadtlicues versus Catrinas