August 24 Analysis - What the what? Edition

Not to take away from what Charm City (#7, 11-2) has accomplished this season but the absolute demolishing of then #2 and undefeated Philly (#6, 6-1), 149-74, has to be the most surprising score in all of roller derby this season. First, one can point to their recent shared opponents. Philly beat Kansas City (#9, 5-2) by 101, Charm won in KC by 20. Philly dominated Rat City (#11, 4-5) by 88, Charm squeaked out a win by 3, both at the ECE. Another factor making this score so surprising is the style Charm City plays does not seem to lend itself to blowouts of over 70 points. Only three other games this season match that description, Maine (#42, 2-4) by 105, Harrisburg Area (#19, 3-2) by 81, and Providence (#16, 3-2) by 95, none of which being Top 10 and definitely not Top 5 teams. Their average margin of victory in their 7 other wins this season is just 28 points. Perhaps the absence of Mo Pain, Olivia Face, Persephone, Teflon Donna, and Violet Temper for Philly simply could be the difference. Was this simply a bench building exercise for a Liberty Belles squad with a swath of quality jammers in an essentially meaningless game just a few weeks from Eastern Regionals? A probable semifinal matchup between these two teams should answer that question.

The other Top 10 matchup of the weekend occurred in the mile high city with Denver (#5, 6-1) taking down Rat City, 188-135. These Western Region teams had never previously met. Thus far, this has been Denver's coming out season with two 200+ point wins and a 47 point win over Duke City (#17, 3-5) at the Four Corner Feud in February. On the other side, it's been an average season for the historically strong Rat City with wins over Carolina (#26, 1-6), Detroit (#13, 5-3), Duke City, and Bay Area (#24, 1-3) and losses to Windy City (#4, 5-1), Philly, and Charm City. In more action out west, Rose City (#10, 4-1) took down Duke City 154-69 in Portland. With these recent results, Oly (#3, 5-0), Denver, and Rose City really seem to be separating themselves from a very strong Western region. A Denver/Rose City semifinal with the winner facing a rematch with Oly in the championship is an epic possibility.

Moving to the North Central, Madison (#8, 5-1) put the second loss on North Star's (#20, 3-2) otherwise standout debut season, 142-55. The Dairyland Dolls have been on a roll since their loss to Kansas City at the ECE with wins over Tampa Bay (#31, 2-4), Brewcity (#18, 2-3), Arch Rival (#23, 5-4), and now North Star. The Supernovas first WFTDA season has thus far included wins over Ohio (#34, 6-3), Omaha (#47, 2-4), and Sioux Falls (#37, 2-2) with a close 1-point loss to Brewcity. North Star may get a chance to avenge both of this season's losses with a first round matchup against Brewcity with the winner facing Madison.

The South Central would not be left out this weekend as Houston (#25, 2-1) traveled to Kansas City and lost 145-76. In what could be a preview of one of the semifinal games at the South Central Regional in Atlanta, it became quite clear that Kansas City and Texas are the teams to beat in the region. The Roller Warriors managed to get a double-digit lead in the first half but could not seperate themselves until about 5 minutes to go in the game as the score remained between a 25-40 point margin for the majority of the second half. However, the legs seemed to go out from under the HaRD Knocks as penalties and tired blockers quickly allowed KC to put a massive amount of points on the board in a short time.

Not to be outdone, Pittsburgh hosted a Top 25 interregional matchup between the visiting Cincinnati Black Sheep (#12, 7-2) and the hometown Steel City Steel Hurtin' (#15, 7-2). Cincy came out on top 127-106, another tough loss for a Steel City team that started the season 7-0 only to lose their last two games by a combined 24 points, the other to Harrisburg Area (#19, 3-2) 178-175.

In other action, Tampa Bay won an intra-Florida matchup with Tallahassee (#41, 1-1), 124-113. No Coast (#52, 2-6) beat FoCo (UR, 0-1) 148-98 and Jet City (UR, 2-0) won over Lava City (UR, 0-1) 198-62.