Both Rat City All-Star teams in LA this weekend for Pac Destruction

It’s called Pac Destruction and since the seven teams taking part this weekend in that Los Angeles mega-bout all hail from coastal Pacific Ocean cities the “Pac” part makes sense.

Throw in Rat City Rollergirls two all-star teams, AST and the Rain of Terror (ROT) and all those other squads will soon learn where the “destruction” part of the title originated.

Five bouts are on the card for Saturday, beginning with a bout between ROT and the Angel City Derby Girls “B” all-stars, the Rocket Queens. That match starts at 9 a.m. At 10:45 the Angel City “A” team, the Holleywood Scarlets, and Rat City’s AST will take the track. AST carries an international Womens Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) ranking of 14. The Scarlets are ranked at 6.

Neither Rat City team plays again on Saturday. AST will have two bouts Sunday, challenging the tenth ranked Victorian Roller Derby League from Melbourne, Australia, at 11:45 and coming back at 3:15 to play the 23rd ranked Santa Cruz Derby Girls Boardwalk Bombshells.

The Drive-By City Rollers, an LA men’s team,  will be on the track at 1:30 Sunday against ROT. These bouts are always fun, though Drive-By probably shouldn’t push the ROT competitive button to hard. 

The Bombshells bring a 6-1 record to the weekend fracas. Media Relations Director for the Santa Cruz teams, Rachel Scott, said that the Bombshells one loss was to Baltimore’s Charm City Roller Girls, 193-120. Santa Cruz and AST have had a common opponent this season. Sacramento’s Sacred City Sacrificers fell to Santa Cruz 213-107. That’s the same Sacrificers team AST humbled April 12 by a 444-58 score.

Angel City Public Relations Director Rachel Johnston clarified why the Angel City team is not an all-star collection of players from the teams in their league, but the charter representative for WFTDA bouts and rankings.

“The confusing thing about roller derby is that leagues can organize themselves differently depending on the business model that works best for their membership,” Johnston said. “The teams that compete for the WFTDA rankings worldwide are the CHARTER teams that represent the league. For some leagues, the charter is an ‘all-star’ team made up of members of each of the league’s home teams (like Rat!).  Angel City Derby Girls are not a home-team structured league. Our teams compete solely against outside leagues and teams, not internally. With the extreme saturation of roller derby in Southern California (there are over 30 leagues within 2 hours of LA), this was a better structure for our membership (ACDG vs the world!).” 

“Our charter team is the Hollywood Scarlets, they represent ACDG internationally in the WFTDA rankings.  Our regionally competitive teams are the Rocket Queens and Shore Shots (some might call them ‘B Teams’) and our locally competitive team is the Road Ragers.”

The seventh team in the Pac Destruction event is the Mission City Brawlin’ Betties from Santa Barbara.

Monday following this weekend of bouts is the 30th, the day that closes out the next WFTDA rankings period. AST hopes to move up two spots at least to the number 12 ranking. That would assure them a top 3 seeding at the playoff tournament. A good showing over the weekend against teams ranked 6, 10 and 23 will be part of that.

SATURDAY, June 28 – DAY 1
Game 1- 9am: Rocket Queens (Angel City) vs Rain of Terror (Rat City Rollergirls, Seattle, WA)
Game 2- 10:45am: Hollywood Scarlets (Angel City) vs Rat City All-Stars (Seattle, WA)
Game 3- 12:30pm: Victorian Roller Derby League (Melbourne, AUS) vs Boardwalk Bombshells (Santa Cruz Derby Girls, Santa Cruz, CA)
Game 4- 2:15pm: Rocket Queens vs Mission City Brawlin’ Betties (Santa Barbara, CA)
Game 5- 4pm: Hollywood Scarlets vs Victorian Roller Derby League (Melbourne, AUS)

SUNDAY, June 29 – DAY 2
Game 1- 10am: Hollywood Scarlets vs Boardwalk Bombshells
Game 2- 11:45am: Rat City All-Stars vs Victorian Roller Derby League
Game 3- 1:30pm: Drive-By City Rollers (LA Men’s team) vs  Rain of Terror (Rat City)
Game 4- 3:15pm: Rat City All-Stars vs Boardwalk Bombshells 

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