WFTDA Championship Preview - Uproar on the Lakeshore

Last year, I said that nationals was the most anticipated roller derby event in modern history which was probably true. This year, Westerns took some of the luster away from "The Big Show" by having six of the top teams in the country fighting over three spots along with some sort of crowdsourced PR campaign. Despite all the hype over Westerns, this year's championship is shaping up to be a heavyweight slugfest between the East and the West. 

WFTDA Championship (as seeded):

Gotham Bracket
1: Gotham Girls Roller Derby (#1, 10-0)
2: Texas Rollergirls (#3, 6-7)
3: B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls (#13, 7-6)

Rocky Mountain Bracket
1: Rocky Mountain Rollergirls (#2, 11-1)
2: Minnesota RollerGirls (#19, 7-2)
3: Charm City Roller Girls (#8, 8-7) 

Kansas City Bracket
1: Kansas City Roller Warriors (#15, 8-4)
2: Philly Roller Girls (#5, 12-4)
3: Mad Rollin' Dolls (#17, 3-8)

Windy City Bracket
1: Windy City Rollers (#14, 7-5)
2: Oly Rollers (#4, 12-1)
3: Nashville Rollergirls (#24, 11-4)

Champion: Gotham. If Westerns was the new Nationals then the semifinals might be the new finals. Gotham will probably be meeting Rocky Mountain in that game. Those are the top-ranked two teams in the Derbytron, DNN, and Dyte Rankings. This season so far has been all about the West but the championship may be all about Suzy Hotrod. The star jammer is moving to Philadelphia and won't be playing another game for Gotham. You better believe that not only will Suzy come to play but the rest of the team will step up as well because Gotham may not be able to stay in the title hunt in the future without their two-headed monster of Suzy and Bonnie Thunders.

Runner-up: Oly. Not only has a former champion never repeated but the reigning champion has never even made the championship game. Texas won in 2006 and finished 3rd in 2007. Kansas City was the champion in 2007 and didn't even make nationals the next year. Gotham of course won in 2008 and was knocked out by Oly in the quarterfinals last year. Oly will have to break this pattern just to make the championship game but if the Oly/Gotham championship game prediction is correct, no matter who wins, it will be the first time roller derby has had a repeat champion.

3rd Place: Rocky Mountain. This is the team to pick for the championship if you're a history buff. If the trend of former champions not repeating continues then this would be the team to pick. Even if you don't care about history, this may be the team to pick. Suzy Hotrod and Bonnie Thunders may be Gotham's two-headed monster but DeRanged and Psycho Babble may be the country's two-headed monster. DeRanged might be the best jammer in the country and Psycho Babble is, well, psycho. These two transferred from Pikes Peak last year and have already taken this team to a title contender. I have no doubt they'll finish a season on top before they're done but it may have to wait until next year. 

4th Place: Philly. Philly may be on the receiving end of the Suzy Hotrod move which could send them to the favorite for next year's championship but it's still 2010. When Philly took on Oly in February and lost by 66, they weren't quite there yet. The Liberty Belles have steadily improved throughout this season and could even be peaking right now but Gotham proved that Philly isn't a championship-calibre team at Easterns with the 133-104 victory that wasn't nearly as close as the scoreboard indicates.

Quarterfinal Dropouts: Texas, Charm City, Kansas City, Windy City.

First Round Dropouts: Bay Area, Minnesota, Madison, Nashville.