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 |