The Return of International Roller Derby Championship Playoffs
There has not been a roller derby playoff tournament in five years.
Finally, the brutal, fun, thrilling, high-quality roller derby championship competition is back, as State College Area Roller Derby (SCAR Derby) hosted the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association’s (WFTDA) 2024 North America-Northeast Regional Roller Derby Playoff Tournament at the Pegula Ice Arena on the campus of Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania, over the weekend of May 17–19.
There were not many surprises, as the Final Four came down to the top four seeded teams: Arch Rival of St. Louis, Missouri (1) vs. New Skids on the Block of Montreal, Quebec (2); and Gotham Roller Derby (3) of New York City vs. Windy City Rollers of Chicago, Illinois (4). But it sure felt great having a weekend of near constant high level roller derby competition back in the wider world of competitive sports.
For readers new to the modern sport of roller derby, the game fundamentally remains a race between two jammers, across a series of two-minute jams in which the jammers score a point for each of the opposing team’s four blockers that they pass on each lap around the track. The first jammer out of the pack of skaters earns lead jammer status, allowing them to begin scoring and the option to strategically call off the jam…
