by Jim Almy
The Rat City Rollergirls All-Star Team (AST) sort of got their wish to move two places in the latest Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) international rankings based on play through June 30.
They hoped to move up two spots from the number 14 ranking to number 12, thus guaranteeing themselves a top three seed in the playoff tournament.
Two loses over the weekend of June 28-29 at the Pac Destruction mega-bout in Los Angeles resulted in a two place move, not up, but down in the rankings, leaving the AST at 16th with a 350.36 rating worldwide entering tournament play.
Now ranked fifth, Victorian Roller Derby League from Melbourne, Australia, moved up five spots after laying waste to roller derby teams from the east coast to the west coast. They handled AST 240-105 at Pac Destruction.
The other top ranked team AST played in Los Angeles, the Angel City Derby Girls’ charter team Hollywood Scarlets (it was 250-79, the 79 belonging to AST) dropped one spot from sixth to seventh after that weekend’s play.
Gotham Girls, the perennial number one team in the world from the Big Apple, held that spot with a ranking total of 561.91. They were followed by B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls with 499.09 ranking points, then the London Rollergirls and the Rose City Rollers.
One other team ranked ahead of AST will visit Seattle next month for the final bout of the year at KeyArena, August 9. Rain of Terror (ROT) Rat City’s B all-star team, will open the night, skating against the Denver Roller Dolls’ B team, Bruising Altitude. Eighth ranked Minnesota RollerGirls will take the track against AST.
Other west coast ranked teams are the Oly Rollers at 17, the Santa Cruz Derby Girls at 25, Jet City Roller Girls at 30, SoCal Derby at 38, Tri-City Roller Derby at 40, Sacred City Derby Girls at 45 and the Emerald City Roller Girls at 84.
Playoffs begin the weekend of September 5-7 in Sacramento. AST, seeded fourth, will open in the fifth game on Friday against the Terminal City Rollergirls from Richmond, B.C. Terminal City is currently ranked 18th.
Winning their opener could be one of those disguised blessings as their next likely opponent in game nine will be Gotham. You never know.
Denver, Minnesota and Santa Cruz are also in the Sacramento pairings, as well as teams from Tampa, New Hampshire, Kansas City and Blue Ridge. The complete bracket can be viewed here: Sept. 5-7: Sacramento, California, USA – Women’s Flat Track Derby Association wftda.com
