WFTDA Rankings: A European Perspective

So, the May WFTDA rankings are out, and there's now quite a lot of European (and UK, and Scottish) derby in Division 1 and 2 of the table.

But there's also a bit more to talk about than just that.

Firstly, note that the WFTDA Rankings do not show the true competitive strength of roller derby teams. Notice that Gotham Girls Roller Derby still tops the rankings (and has for years), despite having lost to Rose City Rollers at 2015 Champs - Rose languish at third place, and have been as low as 4th during the past 6 months; losing to Victorian actually helped move them up from London's position!

This is because WFTDA Rankings are designed to take into account "strength of schedule" - essentially, you gain more ranking, more quickly, by playing strong opponents than weak ones, even if you dominate the weak opponents. While this encourages teams to schedule challenging bouts (which will also be actually fun to watch), it also distorts the ranking calculation itself - teams which are closer to other strong teams can gain or maintain high rankings more easily than teams which only have "weaker" teams nearby.

This is also the cause of the famous "underranked Euro teams" effect, whereby European teams will attend a US tournament and do markedly better than anyone expected from their Rankin - they had low rank due to strength of schedule, not actual ability.

The WFTDA rankings are also a differential ranking, like the Elo rankings; your ranking evolves over time, rather than being "calculated from scratch" on the basis of new bouts. This means that if you have a high rankings one month, you have a limit as to how fast you can lose ranking in the next month (changing ranking rapidly is rather hard).

With that digression out of the way, here's the ranking table with just the European, UK and Scottish leagues highlighted, along with the boundaries of the Division 1 and Division 2 (if they were selected today, rather than next month).

RANK
+/-
LEAGUE
W
L
WEIGHT
SCORE
4
  London Rollergirls
15
2
5.9
819.76
18
  Crime City Rollers
12
3
3.62
502.67
24
2
Helsinki Roller Derby
8
7
3.23
447.95
25
-5
Stockholm Roller Derby
6
8
3.17
440.32
29
87
Rainy City Roller Derby
4
0
2.93
407.1
Division 1 ends, Division 2 starts
47
  Auld Reekie Roller Girls
2
5
2.46
342.21
48
  Bear City Roller Derby
4
4
2.43
337.61
51
19
Kallio Rolling Rainbow
6
0
2.37
329.17
Division 2 ends
68
-2
Nidaros Roller Derby
8
0
1.97
273.83
75
60
Dublin Roller Derby
5
2
1.75
243
78
55
Paris Rollergirls
6
1
1.7
236.12
85
-4
Leeds Roller Dolls
3
1
1.61
224.13
88
-19
Glasgow Roller Derby
2
7
1.59
221.45
89
15
Newcastle Roller Girls
5
4
1.58
220.12
94
4
Tiger Bay Brawlers
0
5
1.56
216.25
104
47
Central City Roller Girls
4
2
1.37
190.79
122
NPR
Lille Roller Girls
4
1
1.21
168.71
124
NPR
Bangor Roller Derby
2
1
1.21
168.32
134
18
Dock City Rollers
4
4
1.11
153.84
139
31
Copenhagen Roller Derby
5
1
1.06
147.53
146
44
One Love Roller Dolls
4
3
1
139.41
163
-9
Gothenburg Roller Derby
4
1
0.92
127.08
176
4
Nantes Derby Girls
7
3
0.88
121.68
178
40
Gent Go Go Rollergirls
1
3
0.86
119.81
179
-4
Stuttgart Valley Roller Girls
4
1
0.86
119.56
198
1
Royal Windsor Rollergirls
1
2
0.77
106.96
201
-19
Oslo Roller Derby
1
4
0.75
104.61
203
-9
Brussels Derby Pixies
2
2
0.74
103.24
206
6
Nottingham Hellfire Harlots
3
4
0.74
102.48
222
-7
Amsterdam Roller Derby
6
6
0.69
96.33
234
5
Roller Derby Metz Club
1
1
0.61
85.21
238
-4
London Rockin' Rollers
1
4
0.59
81.26
240
1
Vienna Rollergirls
1
1
0.57
79.59
266
Roller Girls of the Apocalypse
1
3
0.5
64.75
274
3
Belfast Roller Derby
0
2
0.5
52.68
The first thing to notice is the huge movement from Rainy City Roller Derby, post their trip to the USA for Beach Brawl, placing them now solidly in Division 1 Playoffs territory.

Dublin, Paris, Central City, One Love and Gent have also made substantial shifts in ranking thanks to playing USA team; Copenhagen made a similarly sized leap due to their participation in the Japan Open!

Coming up this weekend, there's the chance of more movement in the rankings for next month: #47 Auld Reekie Roller Girls playing #51 Kallio Rolling Rainbow, #88 Glasgow Roller Derby playing #94 Tiger Bay Brawlers and #29 Rainy City Roller Derby; and Rainy City also taking on Kallio. (You can read about these events here.)