Championship season for roller derby now a distant specter and we have so much to look forward to in the new year.
Today the Jam City game by Frozen Codebase came out for the Wii Ware to purchase. Jam City is a high tempo roller derby video game for your Nintendo Wii. It seemed like everywhere I turned at a derby event, Norb (an announcer based out of the Fox City Foxes in Appleton, Wis.) was there giving people demos of the game.
Plenty of my favorite team and derby idols are featured in the game and you can even create your own roller girl ... or so I've been told. I'm having a helluva time trying to get my version of the game to download. I'm off to a FAQ forum pretty soon to see if I can work out whatever bugs may be prevent me from downloading this treat.
My own home team, the Quad-City Rollers have been making a little name for itself. The Rollers recently hosted their mega-mixer tournament, an annual event every January. This year, the tournament's third, featured players from Circle City, Madison, and plenty of other leagues around the area. The caliber of players and crowd constantly swell in their ranks and this year's turnout was incredible.
Our new team, the Rock Island Line, mixed it up with one of Peoria's team at their home venue, where the Peoria Rivermen, a semi-minor league hockey team, play. The Line pulled away in the first half, but fell into penalty trouble in the second frame, and Peoria's jammers started to eat into the lead. The game came down to the last jam with the Line holding a slim two-point lead over the Peoria Push. The Push's Paula Bunyon managed to earn lead and make a quick scoring pass opting to go around an additional turn. Quad-City's Lady Gotcha managed to answer with enough points to force Bunyon into an additional scoring pass. The pair of jammers repeated before the jam was finally called in a neck-and-neck battle for a few points. Peoria needed a 3-0 swing to manage a one-point win.
As the officials sorted through the scoring the home crowd started booing as the Quad-Cities held on to the lead. That same crowd roared into a standing ovation with the Peoria score was pushed over Q-C's points by a slim margin. When the officials finally added up the Line's score, they managed the minimum point differential possible for the win, 81-82.
The win for the Rock Island Line is their second road win in a row having bested Rockford's A/B team mixed Ragdolls in a previous bout, giving RIL a 2-2 record for their inaugural season.
The Ragdolls and Line will squareoff again on Feb. 4, when Rockford comes to town. Meanwhile, the other local team, the Farm Fresh Roller Girls will host their first home game on Feb. 5. Farm Fresh previously held a mixer at home, but this will be the first time they will play as a team at the Quad-City Expo Center, and they'll play Eastern Iowa Outlaws' B-team in rematch, hoping to avenge their loss from this weekend.
I've got plenty of things to keep me busy in the next few weeks. Mostly preparing to meet Rockford again. I'm also working on a story for Five on Five magazine and there are still plenty of e-mails to send out.
