Upsets wreck mayhem on NC's mid-field

Now that I’m back in the Bat Cave, I need to start working. A whole Region Tournament season comes to a close as the final 3 seeds have been chosen to represent the globe at the Continental Divide and Conquer, the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association Championship Tournament, for the Hydra Trophy.

Monumental Mayhem, the 2011 North Central Region Tournament, upsets a lot of conceptions about a parity lack in the region (Including my own, but I’m willing to admit my mistakes). Last year, Windy City walked through the team’s three matchups to repeat as NC champions and heading into this year’s tournament, Chicago looked to three-peat with ease. Naptown and Minnesota would disagree however, both teams managing to put the No. 1 seed in danger of its region loss. Detroit proved it belonged at the top of the North Central dogpile with a 174-59 win over Brew City, only to fall to Minnesota with a 21-point loss, setting them up for the third-place game with tournament host Naptown.

The remaining six spots in the region were up for grabs, after a 119-116 loss to Arch Rival Roller Girls, the Chicago Outfit went 3-1 on the tournament to improve four spots and claim the fifth place spot with wins over Brew City, Mad Rollin’ Dolls and their ARRG rematch. Improving ninth to fifth in the North Central Region was only the start for the Outfit. Flatrackstats.com ranked the Funderdogs 17th in the top 20 teams. Chicago Outfit will likely move up a spot or two from their Derby News Network Power Rankings standings, currently at 20 of 25. Captain Sweet Mary Pain also won the tournament’s Most Valuable Player award, capping off a long 12-7 season.

Losing the fith-place game, ARRG moved from eighth place to sixth, with wins over first-round opponent, Outfit, and Cinncinati, which came into the tournament with Seed 5, and ending in eighth place.

Cinnicinnati and Mad Rollin’ Dolls take the biggest falls of the tournament, slipping three and four points respectively, including a Madison loss to Seed 10 Ohio. Cinncinnati losses came from Naptown, Brew City and Arch Rival, in the Black Sheep’s 1-3 region tournament effort.

I have notes for these games – Brew City-Ohio, Detroit-Brew City, Cinnci-Ohio, Detroit-Minnesota, Windy City-Naptown, Arch Rival-Outfit fourth round, and Windy City-Minnesota – so look forward to some write-ups.

Original seed/change
1. Windy City (0)

2. Detroit (-2)
3. Minnesota (+1)
4. Naptown (+1)
5. Cinncinnati (-3)
6. Mad Rollin (-4)
7. Brew City (0)
8. Arch Rival (+2)
9. Outfit (+4)
10. Ohio (+1)

North central region tournament - Brew city vs. ohio

The best game of the first day was Arch Rivals versus The Chicago Outfit, but sadly we arrived late and missed the first half. So I settled for write-ups of Ohio-Brew City and Detroit-Brew City.

In Ohio's first foray into the North Central Region Tournament, they put up a greater effort than I think most gave them credit for. Keeping the game close in the face of Brew City's devastating defense lead by Servin' Justice, a wrecking ball at the top of the pack, and the Black-and-Gold's deep roster of star scorers.

In the second game, No. 7 Brew City maintained much of the control in the game versus No. 10 Ohio, grabbing an overall 50 percent average at earning Lead Jammer in the first half. A mental error by Ohio helped Brew City keep contol of the matchup, despite several box trips and a misconduct upgraded to a gross, and subsequent expulsion of Milwaukee jammer Zotay, No. 716.

While only a marginal lead at the half, Brew City's 44-30 spread would portend the final outcome. After Zotay's expulsion, Milwaukee relied heavily on a jammer rotation of Carrie A. hacksaw, High D. voltage and Moby Nipps. The trio scored only 27 of 39 points post Zoltay's exit, instead focusing on keeping Ohio's scoring to a minimum at 24 points.

Brew City moved on with a final score of 104-78, to play No. 2 seeded Detroit in the second round. I believe Ohio will play Cincinnati at 11 a.m. Saturday.

North Central Regional - Preview

So far the regional scene has largely played out as we expected, with a few exceptions.
1) Rose City finally managed a berth into the championship tournament.
2) Texas managed to best Kansas City and reclaim the No. 1 spot in the South Central tournament, while Nashville managed to hold onto their No. 3 spot against Atlanta, and return to the championship rounds.

Three of the regional tournaments have finished, and now we head to Indianapolis for the North Central Regional Tournament, hosted by Naptown.

Monumental Mayhem, Oct. 7-9, will see the best of the best from the North Central Region compete for the last three remaining spots in the championship tournament.

The No. 1 seed Windy City, looks to improve on their 10-2 record, likely adding three more victories in route to Denver, where the top 3 seeds of each region will compete for the coveted Hydra trophy as the best team in the world.

From here the metagame is a bit tricky. Both Detroit and Minnesota managed better finishers than last year’s NC2 team, Madison, who’s been on a bit of slide since their 2010 Championship tournament appearance. Madison’s 1-6 record includes their only win against Brewcity and three other losses to fellow North Central Region teams -- Detroit, Minnesota and Naptown – with a 122 point differential loss to Detroit and a 152 point differential loss to Minnesota.

Arguably the middle eight spots are anyone’s to grab. Detroit, Minnesota and Naptown are looking to represent the region as the No. 2, 3, 4 seeds respectively. Like Windy City, Detroit gets a first-round bye as the No. 2 seed, and will play the winner of Brewcity versus Ohio. Naptown takes on Cincinnati, and Minnesota will get first crack at Madison. One loss can send any team back to the consolation rounds, and with Naptown, Arch Rivals and The Chicago Outfit in the pool, this tournament has the makings of being a bracket buster.