Roller Derby Recap: 2017 WFTDA Championships in Philly
feature image by Taylor Hatmaker
by Taylor Hatmaker & Evie Smith
In 2017 it may have come to your attention that there are in fact a lot of not very good things happening. At the same time, it’s important to enjoy the smattering of quite excellent things that do continue to exist, and I think we both know that I’m talking about roller derby.
Roller derby, for the unacquainted, is a sport in which women travel in circles, strategically hitting one another or not being hit by one another. I’m fairly certain that’s the most concise explanation of the game ever crafted, but if you don’t trust my description I encourage you to go watch a game in your own municipality and see for yourself!
Now that you’re up to speed, we’re going to talk to you about roller derby, which is objectively the Best Thing. My futurewife Evie, who skates under the name Raven Von Kaos, joined the sport in Santa Cruz back in 2007. She now plays roller derby here in Portland on a Rose City home team. I, Taylor, watch very many hours of roller derby and look at very many stats, which is like playing a sport but with numbers instead, for people who are bad at having fun.
Truly, supporting roller derby is just about the queerest, feministest thing you can do, and it’s at least part of the reason that we flew across the country to Philly last weekend to watch the Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby Association (WFTDA) championships, which we will hereafter simply call “champs” because that is what it is called.
On to champs! We took a red-eye from Portland on Thursday night, got in Friday morning and basically went straight to the venue and blissfully, sometimes stressfully, watched derby for the subsequent 72 hours, switching hats and bandanas approximately 3-7 times per day based on who we were cheering for.
This was probably all in a 24-hour span.
2017 proved to be a huge year for the sport in a number of ways that played out thematically over the weekend. Example: If the world ends in a paroxysm of nuclear fire, this will be the last roller derby championship ever! But happily, many other notable things about champs this year have less to do with planet-rending warfare. On to those!
Cheering for literally everyone
There are definitely skill clusters within the top 12 teams that compete at champs, but all of those teams are incredibly talented and they all have really different things going on. For me, it was fun to get to see teams that I hadn’t seen play much this season.
Teams like Crime City, Minnesota, Arch Rival and even Gotham don’t make it out to the West Coast games we usually watch, so seeing them in action was exciting! Many of the teams in the top 12 are pretty evenly matched but bring different styles of play to the game and those differences in gameplay and how they neutralize or overpower one another tend to be the most interesting thing for me.
As the skill level goes up across the board, every team is fun to watch and any bout could end unpredictably — just look at Saturday’s Texas/Gotham nailbiter (145-148). Roller derby is becoming less of a sport in which one team dominates year-to-year and that’s just another sign that the game is all grown up.
Read about this morning's thrilling game between @gothamgirls and @TXRollergirls https://t.co/egBXI1Vdps #talk2WFTDA #WFTDAChamps
— Derby Central (@CentralDerby) November 4, 2017
E: Out of the games we saw I really loved the Denver vs. Angel City match up and the London vs. Montreal game. These are teams that are similar in skill level so it’s really fun to watch them compete.
T: As a big Angel City fan, I did a significant amount of pouting when they went down 166-196 to Denver. The funny thing is that I’m also a big Denver fan, which Evie pointed out to me, but I was too busy making dejected faces to come to reason. That’s the great thing about derby, honestly. Every team offers something to love and hearing people cheer for both teams or even earnestly cheering for roller derby itself is a thing that happens. We can probably chalk that up to derby being a sport mostly built by the ground up by women, many of whom are queer.
Derby matures but holds on to what makes it special
In 2017, roller derby is all grown up (it’s on ESPN, after all!) — but not too grown up. The sport is mature enough to have developed into an incredibly deep, strategic game, but it’s young and queer enough to still be really ridiculous in the best way. There were plenty of these moments in Philly, including but not limited to a cameo by that giant inflatable dinosaur that’s very in this year, skaters hanging onto excellent derby names like Catch Mikachu, Space Invader (cute glasses btw) and Satan’s Little Helper (Satan for short), Denver’s top-notch Twitter live-gif game, and an impromptu dance session on the jam line between Denver and Gotham right in the middle of a tense bout.
Christy Demons grabbing lead like #drdmvp #talk2WFTDA #WFTDAChamps pic.twitter.com/bkADzIZ4DJ
— Denver Roller Derby (@DNVRRollerDerby) November 4, 2017
Evie adds:
“I think a lot of people would agree that one of the best moments of the whole tourney was when Gotham and Denver broke into dance toward the end of their game. What I loved about this moment is that these are two teams that have played each other four times this season. FOUR TIMES. It was very cute, fun and a well earned moment for these two teams at champs. It also reminded me of some of my old school moments of dancing on the jam line, but like, on an ESPN level. ”
Why I love derby in 20 seconds. #talk2wftda pic.twitter.com/ETYlFnZK6m
— Wrex (@lindseycore) November 5, 2017
Talent, talent everywhere
One of the raddest things about derby is that it’s complicated. That complexity means that there are a hell of a lot of ways to play the game and no single strategy, style or even body type dominates. The best teams play together, but following players who pop out of the pack for their skill, innovation, and strength is a lot of fun too.
We both left champs ranting about derby icons and up-and-coming players alike so naturally we had to make Derby Crush lists and fight about it:
Evie:
- Olivia Shootin’ John (Texas)
- Barrett (Denver)
- Tui Lyon (Angel City) [Editor’s note: Evie saw Tui in the airport and legit almost passed out]
- Freight Train (Texas)
- Gaz (London)
- Rogue Runner (London)
- Laci Knight’s shoulders
- Arocha (London)
- Tracy Akers (Denver)
Taylor:
- Blackman (Denver)
- Gal of Fray (Rose)
- Tracy Akers (Denver) (come at me, Evie)
- Falcon Punch (Montreal)
- Beyond Thunderdame (Rose)
- Soledad (Angel City)
- Smarty Pants (Texas)
- Sarah Chambers (VRDL) – (Evie adds: “Her makeup was flawless after 60 minutes of gameplay. Wow.”)
And of course shoutout here to some universally well regarded superheroes of the derby world like Scald Eagle, Brawn Swanson, Bonnie Thunders, Loren Mutch and many others— y’all are just so good… what’s the deal with that?
Evie clarifies: “I def have derby crushes at Rose City, but am opting to not ruin my semi-aloof supporter-of-my-peers vibe.” Good call.
Derby’s nefarious globalist plot
Roller derby’s showdown of the fiercest and finest included four teams based outside of the U.S. (Montreal, Victorian, London, Crime City) — and one of those teams took the whole dang thing! With a major 2017 playoff game hosted in Malmö, Sweden and a massive international presence in the high stakes bouts, derby has truly evolved into a global game. While it’s sad to see the trophy leave Portland after two consecutive hard-fought Rose City wins, the fact that it’s headed to Australia is pretty remarkable. Watching new roller derby dynasties form on other continents is pretty fucking cool.
— VRDL (@VictorianDerby) November 6, 2017
Something IDK this way comes
We’ve talked about plenty of themes from Champs this year, but now it’s time to talk about the final game: the big showdown between Portland’s Rose City Rollers and Australia’s Victorian Roller Derby League (VRDL). As someone who watches Rose City play regularly, it was difficult to imagine how anyone could take down a fully developed Rose at the end of the regular season. It’s worth noting that VRDL has beat Rose two years in a row in a mid-season tournament game, but both teams have months to tighten and develop moving into Champs.
[heart eyes emoji]
T: Acting the part of a True Believer and clad convincingly in purple, Evie did not voice these concerns at the time.
Going into the final game, I just couldn’t envision a scenario in which a team could best Rose’s wildly talented blocker lineup or its deep jammer bench, especially after such a commanding game against Gotham the night before. Portland is my favorite team to watch but since I tend to kind of cheer for everyone I remained open to this idea!
E: Having been a derby watcher for a long time, I used to get so excited for playoffs and champs. That was when the top teams would unveil the next new thing, whether it was knee starts, “stroller derby” or one of the millions of small things we all just do now.
T: Well, unveil they did. VRDL kicked off the final game by taking lead in 8 out of the first 10 jams. That set a dominant tone that VRDL maintained, ending the half up 99 to Rose’s 32. Rose perked up a bit in the second half, getting lead 35% of the time (compared to just 24% in the first half) and putting up about twice as many points, but VRDL stayed the course. The most confusing part is that VRDL made their commanding performance look effortless and that’s no small feat against a team that no one else can even touch. In the end, VRDL maintained control of the entire game, beating Rose 180-101.
E: I think over the last few years there have not been too many WFTDA rule changes that have opened the door for loopholes leading to new strategies. I totally get that teams are always innovating year over year, but it’s been a second since a team caused the entire, global derby community to stop and all say “WTF?” like they did after Sunday’s game. What happened? How did VRDL not just win champs, but win in such a decisive way? VRDL straight up bested Rose (and it pains me to say that).
T: Yeah, that’s what was so mind-blowing. It was hard to even figure out what was happening as it all went down.
E: The Rose loss hurts, but I’m excited to see what’s next for derby! I feel like we witnessed the next big jump in the sport on Sunday. It’s not about a particular start, offense play or a new technique (although those are all important things to keep evolving), it’s about playing to a specific opponent. VRDL created strategies and plays that it saved for the game, and that counted.
T: Definitely. They had an answer to everything. Usually I don’t like watching VRDL that much because they play a very defensive, controlled, war of attrition style game. How did VRDL totally neutralize Mutch, one of Rose’s biggest scorers, on the outside line? What magic kept their jammers upright and in bounds, even when physics seemed to suggest otherwise? How did they stride by Rose’s killer blocking lineups right off the start? IDEK. This was a different VRDL than we saw throughout the rest of the tournament and a very different, much more aggressive team than we saw last year, even. And their jammers! Like… what even.
All told, it’s a paradigm shift for a sport that’s maturing really quickly, right before our eyes and it’s going to make 2018 that much more exciting. Much like Bitcoin, Beanie Babies, or the musical Hamilton, you should really get in on the ground floor to watch while this thing takes off.
Drawn to Comics: “Slam!” Is the “Whip It” of Comic Books
by rory midhani
Out of all the gay sports out there, and there are a lot, Roller Derby is quite possibly the gayest. It’s this super punk, super feminist, super sexy sport where women get to make up intimidating pun-nicknames, slam into each other, and celebrate their bodies in physical competition. If you’re going to tell a story about roller derby, it’s pretty much got to have tough-as-nails women beating each other up and forming deep and true and loving relationships. That’s exactly what happens in the comic Slam!, written by Pamela Ribon, illustrated by Veronica Fish, with colors by Brittany Peer and Laura Langston.
The main two characters of Slam! are Maisie and Jen, two “freshies” (new skaters to the sport) who meet during Fresh Meat Camp and become fast bffs.They help each other get better at derby, they help each other get better at skating and bumping into people, at dealing with life and relationships and school and at becoming their best selves. When it comes time for their first Fresh Meat scrimmage as Ithinka Can (Maisie) and Knock Out (Jen), they each support each other and are cheering for each other and their friendship has never been stronger. However, when they each get drafted by different teams, the rigors of derby and the spending time with new people on their teams brings some new challenges to their relationship.
So far, like the amazing roller derby movie Whip It, this comic is gay-ish, but not actually gay. There are tons of scenes where a bunch of tough women get covered in bruises and hang out together and tell each other they love each other while helping each other on their journeys of personal growth. But even if there aren’t any ladies kissing, it’s still full of powerful female characters and friendships and it’s still badass as hell. Plus, this is only volume one, so there’s still time for any of the many, many, many female characters to be shown as queer.
Ribon has done a really good job ocapturing the heart of competition and female friendship in this comic. Every page is full of great action and heartfelt connections and feelings. The art by Fish makes the pages dynamic and she does a terrific job giving her female characters diverse bodies and faces, which is then especially important when they’re actually playing the sport and are wearing uniforms. What stands out the most, though, is the complete and devoted love Slam! shows for roller derby and the people who play the sport. That love is present in every panel on every page. I greatly enjoyed Slam! And can’t wait for the next trade to come out.
I want to close today’s Drawn to Comics on a special note. This past weekend I attended Flamecon in Brooklyn, New York. FlameCon is the nation’s largest queer comic con and it is a truly special event. One of the main things I write about here is how important it is to support queer creators, and FlameCon and the people who attend it understand that down to the bone. At FlameCon creators like Kate Leth, E Jackson, Hanna Fischer, Amanda Scurti, Katy Farina, Cathy Johnson, Carey Pietch and Natalie Riess get to be recognized as the stars that they are. Queer creators, women creators and non-binary creators are making some of the best comics, art and merch out there, and I love that there are spaces where they specifically get to be celebrated. I love that there are spaces where people are excited to buy their art. I love that there are spaces where queer nerds can come together and celebrate who they are and what brings them together. If you’re a fan of this column, please consider supporting cons like FlameCon where queer creators can be supported and praised in the ways they deserve to be.
New Releases (Aug 23)
Wonder Woman Vol 3 The Truth TP
Jem & The Holograms Infinite #2
Mighty Captain Marvel Vol 1 Alien Nation TP
Star Wars Doctor Aphra Annual #1
Best of Josie & The Pussycats TP
Welcome to Drawn to Comics! From diary comics to superheroes, from webcomics to graphic novels – this is where we’ll be taking a look at comics by, featuring and for queer ladies. So whether you love to look at detailed personal accounts of other people’s lives, explore new and creative worlds, or you just love to see hot ladies in spandex, we’ve got something for you.
If you have a comic that you’d like to see me review, you can email me at mey [at] autostraddle [dot] com
How To Name Your Child After Beer, Brunch and Roller Derby
feature image via Little Lesbian Baby Blog
Vanessa’s Team Pick:
Does anyone else lie awake at night panicking about what you’re going to name your future spawn, or is that just me? I just get panicky, you know, because I live in Williamsburg so most of my peers are hipsters, and I just feel like I’m going to need an incredibly original baby name, otherwise I’ll be totally screwed and the other hipster parents won’t want to organize play dates with me and no one will ever offer to cover my shift at the CSA so I can take my baby to yoga. These fears don’t make sense because I don’t even like yoga, but what can I say? I’m an anxious person.
Anyway whether my fears are weird or not, it’s like Miek Bruno and Kerry Sparks read my mind. Behold their creation: Hello, My Name is Pabst: Baby Names for Noncomformist, Indie, Geeky, DIY, Hipster, and Alterna-Parents of Every Kind.
Hello, I contain a chapter titled “Names For Freaks and Geeks”
Thanks to this helpful guide, I now have a plethora of baby name ideas swimming around my brain. For example, I could choose a “Name That Kick Ass on the Roller Derby Track,” like Midge, Derby, Dixie, Betty, or Darla. I could pick a “Vegan/Gluten-Free Name,” such as Sage, Daiya, Saffron, Nutmeg, Silverstone, or Peta. Obviously I’d be happy for my future child to have one of the “Names That Are Out of the Closets and Into The Streets”: Aiken, Dumbledore, Maddow, Susan B. Spacey, Gayle, and Tinky Winky all sound like good options. The possibilities are endless! Bruno and Sparks have compiled short useful chapters on every possible kind of name one’s little Etsy-loving heart could desire, including “Names That Do Brunch,” “Names That Look Good Painted on a Food Truck,” “Names That Could Rock a Miranda July Haircut,” and “Names That Can Live on Ramen Noodles.”
The book will be available for purchase in October 2012, but if you need some child-naming inspiration in the meantime, check out their website. Then tell me what you’ve decided to call your future child who will inevitably have cute sleepovers with my future child while the grown-ups brew our own craft beer in the kitchen and giggle about the old days when Autostraddle raised $100,000 and then went on to take over the world.
New Gender Policy Ensures More Cute Girls Will Be Doing Roller Derby
There are few things that sound like more fun than drinking and watching girls in shorts glide around a ring, and around, and around, and around…
Well, anyway. Whether you’re into derby, a champion roller derby player, an avid fan, a screaming fangirl, a pissed off activist, or the kid outside the roller derby rink smoking cigarettes, even you can appreciate the recent changes the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association made to its gender policy. It’s more inclusive now – which means more girls going round / round / round!
The WFTDA is an authority on roller derby, and works to educate people on the rules and get more people involved in leagues. In other words, they want to keep roller derby alive and well. And, well, there was this little problem going on where trans women felt excluded by the WFTDA’s gender policies, and the idea that a woman-exclusive sport was only for some women if you get what I mean.
So the WFTDA fixed it head-on, and they adopted a new, progressive gender policy that is inclusive to trans and intersex women. The member leagues voted to adopt a common definition of “female,” one that would relate to the sport. The new policy, which has been in the works since 2008, involved other sports groups, government and other legal counsel, academics, and medical experts in its formation. The final verdict?
Recognizing that there are many definitions of “female,” the policy clearly defines what the term means for the purposes of WFTDA-sanctioned competition. It states that a female is someone “living as a woman and having sex hormones that are within the medically acceptable range for a female,” to include male-to-female transgender and intersex persons.
WHAT! AWESOME! So in order to play in the WFTDA you have to live as a woman. In order to play a woman’s sport you have to live as a woman. This sound great and common sense-y. And to make WFTDA even more approachable, the new policy also does not require the transgender athletes show any documentation of their gender – and, if an issue is raised, that all the paperwork and other things will be handled in a way that is private and relies on a medial expert of her choosing. The WFTDA does not want to make this hard for anyone.
If you want to play roller derby well then, god damn it, get in that rink.
The policy will go into effect January 1, 2012 and applies to skaters on member leagues’ 20-person WFTDA-chartered teams (the teams that compete for WFTDA rankings and tournament eligibility).
And now, pictures of Ellen Page doing roller derby:
all this could be yours
Whip It! Behind-the-Scenes Featurette, Sandra Bullock, Same-Sex Counseling, Soda Addiction! Sunday Funday Daily Fix!
What’s up. Are you still drunk from last night? If you aren’t, do you feel like this website leaves you out? Don’t worry, one of my three BFFs Haviland never drinks alcohol ever. So you’re not alone. Although she did promise me that if I got a book deal she would have a shot. That may never happen. Where was I? AH YES. Today on AUTOSTRADDLE. Well, people on twitter can be dumb & homophobic, and y’all are f*cking cute as hell. Healthcare is really screwed up! TALK HARD!
SAME-SEX COUNSELING: “A big source of what led [clients] to their habit was a . . . kind of a self-hatred … And I started to say, ‘I wonder what would happen if we were able to create something that taught gay and lesbian folks that their relationship was normal and empowered them with skills they could rely on to keep the relationship together — if they would start feeling less illegitimized and more validated.”
SANDRA BULLOCK WTF: “Sandra Bullock’s latest, All About Steve, is one of the worst movies of her ‘career.'” Who else felt she could’ve gone either way after Speed and instead went towards um … Sweet November? But then there was good stuff like Ms. Congeniality … why Sandra, why? Did she have the potential to be the next Julia Roberts or Meg Ryan (disclaimer: clearly those women have not precisely changed the world, but they’ve done some moderately challenging shit in their lives) and she blew it? Or is she just the rom-com’s quirky/eccentric-girl-next-door (a la Two Weeks Notice) forevs & evs? Three Reasons Why Sandra Bullock is going to be Just Fine.
WHIP IT! A new behind the scenes featurette!
HAVILAND STILLWELL GORGEOUS: Look at what Haviland does without me. What’s happening here? WHAT’S HAPPENING?
Welcome to Haviland Stillwell Dot Com – You’re all Beautiful from Haviland Stillwell on Vimeo.
GOSSIP GIRL: Neal Bledsoe Is Not Afraid To Talk About His Gay Smooch : RIESE IS NOT AFRAID TO ASK PEOPLE TO READ THE M*THERF*CKING GOSSIP GIRL BOOKS IN WHICH CHUCK BASS WAS FULLY BISEXUAL IF NOT TOTALLY GAY THANK YOU LOVE TINKERBELL. (@theadvocate)
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In The Sydney Roller Derby League, Even ‘Girly Girls’ Hit Hard
Roller Derby is part athletics, part theatrics, part sex appeal, part show. It’s part sport and part subculture. And after rolling into relative obscurity in the late 80’s, Roller Derby is making a major comeback right now — momentum that is certain to break into a sprint and onto every girl’s lips with the upcoming release of Drew Barrymore’s Whip it!, an homage to the sport starring grrl favorites Ellen Page, Juliette Lewis, Kristen Wiig, Alia Shawkat and Eve.
Personally, I first discovered the roller derby in 2005 as a 20-year old band manager on my first trip to Austin, Texas for South by Southwest. I was out drinking with my band at a rough ‘n tumble dive bar, the Jackalope, when in rolled (literally!) the fiercest girls I’d ever seen.
