Perhaps a little less on people's radar than the big tournaments in Europe, Latin America has been holding continent-scale invitational tournaments for at least the last 5 years.

In particular, the regular "Violentango" tournament, hosted by 2x4 Roller Derby of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is returning in April for its 5th edition.

The previous Violentango (Violentango 4, November 2015) saw two categories, featuring teams from Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay divided between the two based on skill.

Violentango 5 is almost as wide in its net, featuring new and returning teams from Brasil, Colombia, Chile and Argentina.

From Brasil: Both returning from VT-4, Sao Pablo's Ladies of Helltown and Gray City Rebels are both competing.

From Colombia: new to VT-5, Bogotá's Bone Breakers (BX3), Combativas Revoltosas and Rock N Roller Queens are all competing (Bogotá is also in the middle of its own national series - the 4^to Torneo Distrital Roller Derby -  which all are also participating in).

From Chile: returning from VT-4, Santiago's Metropolitan Roller Derby

and from Argentina: all returning from VT-4, Sailor City Rollers, Buenos Aires Roller Derby (B.A.R.D.) and hosts 2x4 Roller Derby.

At Violentango 4, hosts 2x4 Roller Derby took first place in the "upper" tier of the tournament with their A team, OSOM. In the "second" tier, Rotten Vicious Dolls (B team for Dirty Fucking Dolls of Buenos Aires) took the first place position.

However, Violentango 5 is working with a reduced format - a single tier tournament with only A teams competing - so only the one championship will be available. We expect that 2x4 will be challenged strongly by last year's second place Sailor City Rollers, who also recently became full WFTDA members.

Speaking of WFTDA, it's the current spread of WFTDA memberships in Latin America which has inspired this change to Violentango 5. As European teams well know, it is particularly difficult to gain a representative Rank with WFTDA if you can't play a large number of Sanctioned games - and particularly if you can't play high ranked teams.

All of the attendees at VT-5 are either WFTDA members (apprentice or full), or are intending to join. By holding a large number of WFTDA Sanctioned games at one time, the intent is to give a big boost to Latin America in the Rankings, partly ameliorating the issue. As part of this change to the aims of Violentango, this iteration of the tournament is also a WFTDA Recognised Tournament for 2017 - in fact, it may be the first ever WFTDA Recognised Tournament in Latin America.

As well as the tournament, VT-5 will also feature a Bootcamp run by 2x4 Roller Derby on the 15th. As well as covering all aspects of derby track skills, there will, in keeping with the theme of the tournament, be a special section covering the optimal choice of bouts in order to improve your WFTDA Ranking.

And, they're not finished, as the event also includes one of the new WFTDA Officiating Clinics, also on the 15th, to allow Latin American officials to participate in best practice from WFTDA Level 4 Certified Referee, Wernher VonBombed and WFTDA Level 5 Certified NSO Intejill! (This is a "One Day Clinic", as defined on the WFTDA website here)

As with all significant tournaments we cover, we are hoping to provide a viewing guide in the event of streaming, and other resources.

Violentango 5 can be found on the 2x4 Roller Derby Website here: https://www.2x4rollerderby.com.ar/torneo-violentango/ediciones-anteriores/vt-5/ or in the WFTDA Recognised Tournaments page here: https://wftda.com/events/wftda-recognized-tournaments/ Tickets available here: https://www.2x4rollerderby.com.ar/shop/tickets/ (options for whole tournament, day pass and whole tournament + commemorative teeshirt).