Kiss my grits - Championships

The last two years, I posted some warm-up blogs to preview the upcoming WFTDA Championship tournament, this year hosted in Atlanta, Georgia.

Out of time constraints, I'm not going to do that this year. My tickets are purchased and I'm gearing up for a major road trip south. On Monday I'm coordinating a stopping point in Nashville, Tennessee, where hopefully I stop on Thursday night to rest before making the rest of the trip on Friday.

Championship weekend is always different. The Region Tournaments always seem so packed with derby starting early in the morning and going until late. The final tournament's one-loss-and-done format shortens the bout days considerably.

Eight teams will play Friday to determine who advances on against the No. 1 seeds, who begin the tournament with a bye. Four games for Friday means that the event starts in the afternoon and should wrap up in time for everyone to grab a beer afterward.

Saturday, is arguably the busiest day as the No. 1 seeds finally see play during the tournament, and the lower seeds hope to sneak out a win against the dominant teams in WFTDA. After the first four games, we play two more to determine the placing in the tournament and decide which teams will play for 3rd place and which teams will play for 1st place.

Sunday, the shortest day of them all, we'll only see the medal games. And since they are in the mid-afternoon that allows everyone to tour the host city or recover from their hangovers from the night before. When the games finish up around 4:30 p.m., the medal ceremony will take place with plenty of time for people to celebrate afterward.

I'm likely to head back north once the final game is over. If I can put a ton of road behind me on Sunday, that means less time I have to spend traveling on Monday.

Here's how the brackets look in text format placed in chronological order.

FridayBracket 1 - 2 p.m. Denver versus Charm
Bracket 3 - 4 p.m. Minnesota versus Kansas
Bracket 4 - 6 p.m. Philly versus Bay Area
Bracket 2 - 8 p.m. Atlanta versus Naptown

SaturdayBracket 8 - 10 a.m. Texas versus Winner of Bracket 4
Bracket 7 - Noon Oly versus winner of Bracket 3
Bracket 5 - 2 p.m. Windy City versus winner of Bracket 1
Bracket 6 - 4 p.m. Gotham versus winner of Bracket 2
Bracket 9 - 6:30 p.m. Winners of Bracket 5 and Bracket 6
Bracket 10 - 8:30 p.m. Winners of Bracket 7 and Bracket 8

Sunday
Bracket 11 - 1 p.m. Loser of Bracket 9 versus Loser of Bracket 10 for 3rd/4th place
Bracket 12 - 3 p.m. Winner of Bracket 9 versus Winner of Bracket 10

Derby journalism pool

I had a fantastic conversation with Dumptruck last night about derby journalism and the standard DIY attitude a lot of us have when it comes to giving our favorite sport (derby) the right coverage.

There are any number of bloggers, photographers, podcasters, announcers, Twitter accounts, video production, etc., types in derby, but we're all spread out.

The nature of our now-global sport is that the people who care most about it have a hard time ever coming together, unless it's RollerCon, World Cup or Championships (there are other examples, yes, but these are the top 3).

Dumptruck, of course, is world-renowned as an announcer for roller derby, and has participated in countless bouts (suck up points?). He also worked a lot with Megatron on the Derby Deeds Podcast. Beyond that, the man is incredibly knowledgeable about the sport and its recent history.

What would it take to build a talent pool of strong derby journalists using a Web-based hub to create a focal-point for derby coverage to come out of?

Essentially you could create a wealth of information as various people cover the sport from multiple angles, and it would eventually grow our product as we're providing amazing insight into a sport we care deeply about.

The Internet and social media already serves as a way for us to disseminate our writeups, photos, videos, etc., so it makes sense to create a group in which we able to share our craft. All intellectual rights and copyrights would stay with the creator, but it would give the writers an opportunity to include other voices in their blog, increasing the content, and building web hits. 

The photographers would have a place to share their work, and give the writers a launch point for story ideas. The podcasters would cover the game from a whole different angle, but give us the sound quality and bites that we so desperately crave.

The idea certainly has merit.