I don’t do recaps, and given that I was wearing many different hats at Wild West Showdown this year, the total number of full bouts I watched can be counted on two hands. Regardless, the three tracks of derby at the Wild West Showdown did manage to leave a number of impressions on me:
Hellarad. You can’t stop Hellarad, you can only hope to quarantine against it. Though the mag may have been banned from the venue, a large portion of the skaters, fans, volunteers, and the rest showed their support throughout the weekend. Makes me wonder if the Wild West Showdown Derbonic Plague wasn’t a gift directly from the Bay Area.
Fans. At a multi-day derby event, if you’re not drawing fans, you aren’t doing it right. A number of the teams participating in this year’s event had a sizable base of support. Relative proximity definitely played a role, but Sacred City had an awesome show of support, and they drove to Bremerton from Sacramento, CA!
Rivalries. As the sport continues to age, rivalries have started to develop. From the top teams, all they way down to the challenge track, there were some great match-ups. Though I may be a little biased, the Rose City and Rat City rivalry is the definition of a perfect regional rivalry. Both teams have beaten each other, and no matter how each team looks going into the bout, you’re sure both teams will try and play above their heads.
Men’s Derby. As much as the women’s game has evolved, the evolution in men’s derby is also taking shape. I was fortunate enough to call the opening bout in the Friday night men’s round-robin style tournament. There was some amazing footwork, speed, strength, and agility out there on the track, and the strategies keep developing.
Rules tests. On Saturday, Jet City’s B-52s played in a thirty minute bout with Rat City’s Rain of Terror. In their bout, the lead jammer could only call off the jam if she was upright (on skates) and in-bounds. Team Sharkasarus and Rose City’s Axels of Annihilation played by that same rule Sunday morning. In my opinion, the results were, at best, inconclusive. Since the bouts were only half-bouts (thirty minutes), there was not a lot of time to experience the modified call-off rule. Maybe it would have more impact in a sixty minute bout, but there were only a handful of jams (in both bouts combined), where there would have been any issue at all.
Maybe it would have more impact in a sixty minute bout, but there were only a handful of jams (in both bouts combined), where there would have been any issue at all.
The other rules test bouts were ones in which there were no minor penalties. Jet City’s B-52s played Rose City’s Axels of Annihilation by this rule on Saturday, while the Vagine Regime Orange and Gray teams faced off with this rule in play on Sunday. There has been much discussion as of late, surrounding whether or not the WFTDA should keep minor penalties as part of the ruleset, and these were additional opportunities to test the theory. Obviously, this had more of an impact on play than did the modified call-off rule. The basic changes were:
No penalty for a illegal procedure – false start, as long as the skater yielded position.
No penalty for attempting to call off a jam when not lead jammer, unless the jam was actually called off, then there would have been a major penalty assessed.
However, any track cut was a major penalty.
The result? The style of play didn’t seem very different, but it seemed like there were more times where a jam started at full strength than when it didn’t (note: I would be very interested to see the stats books for these bouts). The bout did not turn into Elbow-palooza, nor did I think that it made the bout less safe. My only wishes were that the bouts testing the no minors rules had been full-length (sixty minute) bouts, and that there were outside pack refs. Once we can see a bout or two like that, then we will have a better feel for whether or not the minors should go altogether.
the bout did not turn into Elbow-palooza, nor did I think that it made the bout less safe.
All in all, the Wild West Showdown was a great three days of derby. It felt somewhat like a kick-off event for derby in 2011, despite some of the teams having already skated earlier this year. Needless to say, if the derby throughout the season is as great as it was this past weekend, we should be in for another amazing season.
Photograph courtesy of Skippy Steve.