Chicago Beef Tournament: Three Days of Peace, Love & Roller Derby
With music from DJ Phil Trocchio of All Events Entertainment, a tattoo kiosk with local artist Tina Delight, a drag show featuring Yuíza and Lúc Ami the alien superstar of Chicago, and a bake sale, it was as much a roller derby festival as a tournament at the MAX Expo Center in McCook, Illinois; wherein Chicago’s Windy City Rollers hosted the A and B teams of Gotham Roller Derby and Texas Rollergirls of Austin, as well as the A, B and C teams of Arch Rival for thirteen games over the weekend of August 9–11.
Half these leagues — Gotham Roller Derby from New York City and Arch Rival of St. Louis, Missouri — are sending their charter, or A, teams to the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) Global Championship Tournament in November at Portland, Oregon, the home of Rose City Roller Derby’s Wheels of Justice and the keepers of the Hydra trophy as reigning champions for the last five years; or since just a few months before Covid-19 suddenly shut down the world and tried to break roller derby.
One of the wonderful things about WFTDA roller derby leagues is that they are all skater-owned, non-profit corporations. While many, if not most, of the nearly 400 WFTDA member leagues on every continent of the world (except Antarctica) have a single team, many do attract enough able skaters to have A and B teams…
