Texas Shootout Bout Preview: (East #1) Gotham vs. (West #4) Kansas City
Posted by Justice Feelgood Marshall on September 26, 2007
Gotham comes into the Texas Shootout opener riding one of the most impressive winning streaks in roller derby, appearing to have very little trouble dispatching the toughest competition in the East during Heartland Havoc. They notched the biggest point spread of the whole tournament in going 206-47 over Grand Raggidy, bounced the 4 seed Philly 139-81, shut down Detroit by a margin of 157-56, and, in the championship bout, handled a Windy City team who had previously upset both the 1 and 3 seeds, 134-71. They also have an advantage unique to the tournament — with Fisti Cuffs and Hard Anya on their team, both of whom were playing for Tucson in February, they have two players who have already faced KCRW in tournament play (Tucson defeated Kansas City 127-47 in the the Dust Devil semifinals).
While Kansas City has the toughest seeding for the West, they recently had a warmup bout against Minnesota and came away with a solid win, 112-84. It’s always tough to compare point differentials across different leagues, but that 28 point win was only a few more than Detroit’s 22 point win over Minnesota a month ago at Heartland Havoc … and with Gotham having taken down Detroit by a hundred points, it’d seem that Kansas City will have to put in a truly spectacular performance to advance past the first round of the Texas Shootout. That said, given KCRW’s thrilling upset victory over 4th-ranked Arizona Roller Derby at Dust Devil 2007, Gotham would be well advised to not look past them. (Update: Muffin of Duke City Derby reminds me in comments that Kansas City also took an August rematch against Arizona by the impressive score of 153-51 … all the more reason this match might have a different outcome than the seeding would imply.)
Players to keep an eye out for in this one: Gotham’s Beyonslay has established herself as one of the toughest blockers in the whole sport, while Beatrix Slaughter, Suzy Hotrod, Bonnie Thunders and Cheap Skate are a virtual Murderers’ Row of a jammer lineup, with not a weak point in the crew. On the Kansas City side, star jammer and speed demon Snot Rocket made a huge impression at Dust Devil 2007, managing to average 30 points a bout against some of the best defense in the game, including bouts against Arizona, Tucson and Texas. Fearlys is also trouble at the jammer line, team captain Bruz-Her lives up her name with intelligent and punishing blocking, and Muffin reports from the recent AZRD / KCRW game that jammer Xeclerator is a force to be reckoned with, putting up an amazing 66 points in just 6 jams. The winner of this one faces the winner of Tucson / Carolina Sunday at 11am.
80 Ginger Snap (captain) // 10 Kandy Kakes // 31 Hela Skelter // 2 Donna Matrix // 7 Anne Phetamean // 141 Hard Anya // 2cents Cheap Skate // 241 Fisti Cuffs // Top 40 Beyonslay // 55 Suzy Hotrod // 00 Ana Bollocks // 01 Rolletta Lynn // 99 Surly Temple // 340 Bonnie Thunders // 60 Brigitte Barhot // 201 Sweet Sherry Pie // 67 Raggedy Animal // 42 Beatrix Slaughter
244 Bruz-Her (captain) // 11 Jessika Rabid // 42 Red Ripper // 34 Xcelerator // 111 Annie Maul // 4 Snot Rocket // 911 Patti Wackin // 23 Xavia // XOXO Princess Slay-Ya // 19 Rita Ploy // 59 Archie Lee // 007 Dee Claw // 816 Jade Lightning // XX Dominant Jean // 7 Ami-Geggon // 999 Bad Omen // 12 Fearlys // 66 Snap Dragon // 13 Speed Razor // 1UP Missile Toes
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Muffin said
Don’t forget that Kansas City recently routed AZRD: KCRW 153, AZRD 51
In that game, Xcellerator (previously not on the KCRW travel team) delivered 66 points in 6 jams – 11pts per jam.
The indomidable Snot Rocket notched up something like 45 points in 6 jams.
This is actually the matchup that I’m looking forward to the most of day one – some of my favorite skaters, a new star I’ve been dying to see in action, and the west’s first introduction to the fearsome Gotham girls!
Shawn Fahrer said
You’ve forgotten two important things:
1) GGRD met KCRW in the 2006 Dust Devil– and with a lineup that was not quite as powerful as the 2007 lineup, GGRD lost to KCRW by 36 – 32 in the first round minibout. This leads to–
2) the reason why there is a rivalry of sorts between KCRW and GGRD: the sharksuit. Goes back to the time when Lil Miss Stuffit (formerly of KCRW, now in GGRD and a member of the 2006 travel team) managed to get hold of the KCRW sharksuit and bring it with her to GGRD when she moved to the Big Apple.
Needless to say, KCRW was a bit miffed at finding this out and a war of words, if not deeds, broke out over this. I don’t know where the shark suit is now– my guess is that it is back in KC since GGRD lost the first bout– as a result, I have already dubbed this match “The Battle for the Shark Suit Round II”. (This shark suit could wind up being like some of the trophies you hear about in college football rivalries if we play our cards right.)
And since I am a proud New Yorker: Let’s Go GGRD!!!!
Lois Payne said
Where’s KC’s DAMN shark suit!?