MRDA Champs

If you are keeping track at home, you will notice that I traveled to Baltimore three times in the span of a month (August into September) and in October I found myself rolling down 87 thrice for adventures in NYC/Long Island - the Gotham Boot Camp, CDTA vs NYSE, and on October 22 - Men's Roller Derby Association (MRDA) Championships. The event took place at Skate Safe America (also LIRR's venue) and was hosted by the New York Shock Exchange.

New York Shock Exchange

My second post ever on this blog was about men's roller derby. Since then I've come to appreciate it more and more. I definitely see some differences between the way men and women play, but I like watching both.

MRDA Champs featured six teams from around the United States:
Dallas Deception (Texas)
Magic City (somewhere in Florida)
St. Louis Gatekeeper (Missouri)
Puget Sound (Seattle area)
Pioneer Valley (Western Mass)
New York Shock Exchange.

woohoo, PVRD!

PVRD is my favorite MRDA team. Ever since I saw them last year, I've been all about the mustaches.  I also love the Shock Exchange, cause hell yeah New York! Plus they're all super awesome. Side note: CDTA is obviously my favorite not-yet-MRDA team.


The other four leagues I didn't know much about.  Dallas?  Texas has roller derby, that's cool.  St. Louis? The guys with beards. Also, where the heck is St. Louis? Puget Sound = Quadzilla.  Magic City? wow... those are some ridiculous names on that roster.

So that's what I was working with going into the tournament.

It was a solid event of all-day derby - there were 8 full length men's bout, plus one women's bout in the middle to break things up.  I hung out mostly with the dudes from CDTA and there was also a bunch of people from the Utica Quadfathers there and Central New York players there.

Capital District Trauma Authority
Roarshock, Jonny Malice, Massacre, Wellen Dowd, and Museknuckle

Being the top two ranked teams, St. Louis and NYSE had a first round by. NYSE ended up playing Magic City in the first game, and the score was a lot closer than I expected.

Grambo from CNY volunteering at
MRDA.

Magic City is ridiculous.  I mean that in a mostly good way, although at first I was not sure how I felt about them. Rumor had it that most of their skaters have a background in jam skating. They definitely had some fancy footwork. Overall, NYSE played a tighter game strategy-wise and were able to take the win. Check out the Derby News Network recap here. There's a comment which is a bit critical of NYSE's strategy that won them the game, but heck - that is the way derby is played these days. It's just playing smart based on the rules of the game.  Anyway, the first picture on that article where Magic City (green) is facing reverse direction pretty much sums up the whole game.  It was an exciting game to watch.

PVRD had a tough first game against Puget Sound, who are a powerhouse in the west. After losing to them, they played Dallas Deception, which was a little bit closer.

The best game of the day, in my opinion, was Magic City vs. St. Louis. Two teams I knew little about going into it, but I think this bout exemplified some of the best men's derby has to offer. The two teams were very well matched game and I decided I just really like to watch Magic City skate.
If you watch any videos of the bouts from MRDA Champs, I definitely recommend Magic City vs St. Louis.

These are just my basic impressions from Champs.  If you want some real stats based, unbiased recaps you should check out DNN here, here, here, here, and here.

Congratulations to Capital District Men's Roller Derby on winning their first ever bout!

Last weekend, CDMRD became the new sweethearts of the Capital Region. The boys switched out of their stripes to roll in their own game:

Broller Derby

Dangle Derby

Merby

Men's Roller Derby

A Ladd Insane jamming, Roarshock blocking, the Fox as Pivot, and Wellen Dowd
Photo by Walter Romero

Several of the men on the team are also Hellions referees: The Fox, Massacre, Hart Attack, A Ladd Insane, and Roarshock. Many of the other men also got their start as referees...I've seen Wellen Dowd at Albany All Stars bouts since I can remember.

I love men's derby. My second post on this blog was actually about men's derby. There are not too many men's derby teams in the world, but it's slowly gaining popularity.  An interesting statistic from the recently released WFTDA 2011Demographic Survey:

Current female skaters show a greater support for men’s roller derby than those not involved in the sport. Twenty-eight percent of skaters support men’s roller derby at least on an equal level as women’s roller derby, significantly more than the thirteen percent of fans who express equal or greater support for men’s roller derby.

When it comes to Men's Roller Derby, I say don't knock it 'til you try it. After watching the CDMRD's Capital District Trauma Authority (CDTA) take on the Utica's Quadfathers this weekend, I think many fans who came in skeptical left thrilled by the action they witnessed.

I was about 10 minutes late to the bout because I had driven down and back to Long Island that morning for a scrimmage with the Hellions. When I walked into the Armory, CDTA was winning 24 - 1.  I couldn't believe me eyes. I quickly found the rest of the Hellions who came to cheer and proceeded to scream my head off for the next hour.

The seemingly untouchable Die-Lon. Photo by Walter Romero.

Die-Lon bench coaching our December
bout. It's all good! Photo by
Walter Romero.

The hits were big and the pace was fast.  CDTA was great about making way for their own jammers. Also, Wellen Dowd, who ended up earning MVP, really shined with his clear knowledge of the game and he actually really kicked ass in terms of play, especially hitting.

Die-Lon, of the Quadfathers, acted as the antagonist of the bout in the eyes of the local crowd...CDTA's fans cringed when they saw Die-Lon lay on the big hits, and cheered when CDTA managed to dodge his strikes. This dynamic further lifted the boys in blue from the Capital District into the hearts of their fans. A quick note about Die-Lon, though. He's a great guy and an incredible skater who knows the game. He actually benched for the Hellions "Nice" team back in December for our "Naughty vs Nice" intraleague bout. Haters gonna hate; skaters gonna skate.

The final score of the game was 110 CDTA - 77 Quadfathers.

Read a great blog post by CDTA jammer Johnny Malice over on the TU Roller Derby blog and a recap of the game from the perspective of the Quadfathers on their blog.