This incarnation of roller derby is still in its infancy.  As time has gone by, this latest iteration of roller derby has continued to face a vast number of growing pains pertaining to many different aspects of the sport.  The main thrust of this continuing column will be to look at these growing pains, individually, and to provide possible solutions – through the initial blog post itself, and the (hopefully) ensuing conversations with you, the reader.

By now, if you’ve been paying attention to the National International derby scene, you know that the WFTDA and its leagues are preparing for their Regional tournaments.  Ten teams from each of the four WFTDA regions have accepted an invitation to play in their respective regions’ tournament in order to decide which teams will be taking part in the WFTDA Championships.

The top three teams from each region’s tournament will go on to the WFTDA Championship, a twelve-team tournament from which the eventual winner of the Hydra Trophy will be declared.  Everything make sense so far?  Good, because things will only get murky from here on out.

As a fan of many different sports, most all of which have some sort of tournament or playoff format, the first problem with the Regional tournaments is the number of teams invited to participate.  Ten is an awkward number of teams for any sort of playoff format.  This is extremely evident by the four separate brackets that are utilized throughout a single regional tournament.  To say this is messy is an understatement.

Messiness #1: Everybody needs a Mulligan

First off, having the fourth and fifth ranked team in a region play one another in their first matchup at Regionals, with the loser having no shot at advancing to the WFTDA Championship is completely unjust.  Whereas the fourth and fifth ranked facing off in their opening round is a by-product of a ten-team tournament, the immediate elimination of one of the two teams from possibly advancing to the WFTDA Championships is not so inherent.

The two teams that end up playing for a specific Region’s Championship should be awarded two of the Region’s three spots at the WFTDA Championship.  However, the third spot should be awarded to the eventual winner of a consolation bracket.  Think double-elimination style tournament set-up.  Under this format, once a team has been defeated twice, they are eliminated from the Regional tournament altogether.

Messiness #2: Who needs last place?

Under the current format, there are two unnecessary bouts taking place at each regional tournament.  Those being the bouts to decide 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th place.  The four teams playing in those two bouts will have already lost twice at the Regional tournament.  As it is hard to believe that any league would go through the cost and effort to create a banner proclaiming them the 7th (8th, 9th, or 10th) place team at their regional tournament, bouts to specifically decide these places are just not necessary.

This point is magnified by the fact that the eventual team finishing in 5th place (in the current bracket format) will have only lost a single bout, and the team finishing in 4th place will have lost two bouts.  Whether or not you’re a math major, or a statistics major, a team finishing a tournament with a 3-2 record (if they started the tournament as the 7th seed or lower and ending up in fourth place), a 2-2 record (if they started the tournament as the 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th seed), or a 1-2 record (if they started the tournament as the 1st or 2nd seed) should NOT end the tournament higher than a team with only one loss – especially seeing as the minimum number of wins to get to 5th place is two.

Solution? Five and Four or Less is More?

Have I lost anybody yet?  Thought so.  Sorry.  Unfortunately, these are some of the by-products of a ten-team tournament being run in its current format.  The easiest way to eliminate some of this injustice is to have the (in the current set-up) fifth place team face the fourth place team, then have the winner take on the (in the current set-up) third place team, to ultimately decide third place for the Region.  This alternative would keep the same number of bouts at the Regional tournament (seventeen), and provide a greater (and more fair) opportunity for teams to have a shot at advancing to the WFTDA Championships.

To me, though, there are easier solutions.  One would be to reduce the number of teams invited to a Regional tournament to eight.  Eight is a far simpler number to work with as far as a tournament set-up goes.  Though this does away with the 1st and 2nd seeds getting a first-round bye, the loss of the bye is no tragedy, as the seedings are decided by a vote, rather than a win-loss record (which is a whole other discussion).  This is also the perfect set-up for a simple double-elimination style tournament.  Two losses in the tournament, and your team is done for the season.  Simple and effective.  Furthermore, an eight-team, double-elimination style tournament shaves two bouts from the Regional tournament schedule – from seventeen to fifteen.  This makes the three-day weekend schedule slightly less hectic, and may not force bouts to start in the early hours of the morning.

What about Bigger and Better?

Another option, though less desirable, is to open the Regional tournaments up to 16 teams.  Though this allows for a greater number of teams to participate, it also means the tournament would have to be set up single-elimination style.  This would also result in fifteen bouts as opposed to seventeen bouts (in the current format), but also GREATLY enhances the chances of lower seeded teams advancing to the WFTDA Championships.  Though I am a fan of that situation in a more established sport (see NCAA Basketball), I don’t think that having high-ranked teams missing from the WFTDA Championship Tournament is desirable for a fledgling sport.  That, though, is also a topic for another column.

At some point earlier this season, there was scuttlebutt revolving around the addition of wild-cards to the WFTDA Championships.  Most of the proposed ideas for wild-cards involved some sort of vote as to which teams would get a wild-card spot, and which ones would not.  Again, this is something I am not a huge fan of.  Though I believe the idea has some merit, I also don’t trust a voting system deciding additional teams for the Championships.

Alas, we can only wax poetic about how the situation could be improved, for the seedings and brackets have been set for the 2010 tournament season.  Hopefully next season some of the messiness and confusion revolving around the Regional tournaments will be addressed.  The advances the sport has made in the past few years continues to give me hope.

Image courtesy of Mike Chexx