10 Things You Need to Know If You Missed A Wild Wichita Playoff
Wichita was a great open to the 2016 WFTDA Playoffs. We saw 5 bouts come down to the final jam (within 15 points) including two 3 point bouts and a 1 point victory. On top of that, Wichita saw 6 seeding upsets including the first ever 7 upset of a 3 seed and 8 upset of a 2. No one’s bracket was safe.
If you missed the weekend below are a quick 10 things you will want to brush up on.
Time Management Was a Trainwreck
Listening to Ohio Coach Andrew Marron call some of the close games of the weekend you could feel his frustration through the broadcast as team after team made serious missteps with the clock running down. The basics — if you are ahead you want to control lead and kill clock and if you are behind you want to grab lead and extend the game using your timeouts, official review and call offs. Instead what we saw was — teams opting to not call a jam to extend the game when down (Boulder v Jet), teams using their official review with no time outs after the jam clock already ran down (Blue Ridge v Brandywine), Brandywine giving that advantage right back grabbing lead and calling a jam to extend the game with 50 seconds left, and teams ahead using their own timeout to allow the other team to regroup (Houston v Boulder). There are even more examples, these are just the ones off the top of our head. With increased defensive strategy and solid jammer rotations it was clear that these finer points are what is separating the top end of D2 from the bottom of D1. Coaches and skaters have to be on the same page and run these scenarios together so that when the time comes there is no room for error.
Tucson Losses the Seeding Battle But Comes Out Ahead
Tucson was a big question mark this weekend having played only a handful of sanctioned games this year. They lost their first match up against Nashville 152–149, unable to hold off their come from behind push, and would grab another tough loss to Houston in the consolation bracket 197–173. The losses ensured they would come out no higher than a 7 seed after coming in as a 6 and although the losses had to hurt, Tucson can find solace in the fact that their WFTDA game scores were actually great. Pittsburgh’s Steel Hurtin’ (Steel City) Coach Dad (@CoachDadSays) has run the tournament game scores and Tucson went 22% over their average by his calculations — that’s the 3rd best over average result from the weekend behind just Brandywine 30% and Boulder County 24%. They may have dropped in the tournament seeding, but they will certainly rise in the WFTDA rankings thanks to this showing.
The Passive Offense Had Everyone Screaming at Their Computers
Coherent offense was what separated this field in Wichita, with Brandywine’s transition to O from solid defensive positions ensuring three straight wins even in games where they took too many jammer penalties. We saw it all; full powerjams being killed without a pass as blockers watched their jammer struggle, passive offense with blockers OUT FRONT of the pack starring at their swallowed jammer. In the final, Blue Ridge jammers twice grabbed powerjams only to give them back up on track cuts while their blockers watched them struggle. Teams have to get automatic with sweeps and active offense. Have you been beat? Count 1–2–3 in your head and try to release your jammer before reforming your defense.
Dr. Octopushy (and Lady Rider) Are Legit
The Blue Ridge jammers went 1 and 2 in tournament scoring and point differential with 288 and 287 / +154 and +140 through 4 games. Octopushy impressed with her fast feet and backwards cross overs out of the pack, while Lady Rider was always a threat by putting consistent pressure on opposing defenses. Dr. Octo put together back to back jams against Nashville in Jam 39 and 40 putting up 33–7 points to hold off another come from behind win for Nashville. That both sealed Blue Ridge’s invite to D2 Champs and her Tournament MVP Pick. Even Blue Ridge’s 3rd option had a solid tournament with Hurrycane Jackie grabbing lead 52% and pulling in 136 points. Alongside most teams, Blue Ridge’s lock down defense with this jammer rotation will keep them in the game. Against tougher competition they are going to have to work on giving offense to release these jammers (their lead % dropped to 45% against Brandywine).
Nashville Never Gave Up
Nashville went 1–2 in Wichita and left a 4 seed after coming in a 3, but their ability to regroup in the 2nd half was awesome to watch all weekend. Against Tucson they took 17 minutes in the box in the 1st and trailed big. They responded with just 5 minutes in the box in the 2nd. Against Blue Ridge, they took their lead jam % from 28 to 50! Down 82 to 36 at half against Jet City they stormed back going 82 to 50 in the 2nd to just come up short. Like Tucson, the close losses made sure they stayed positive in their WFTDA game score averages. With so many retiring and transferring skaters you wish they could have had more time to complete some of these come backs, but there is no way any Nashville fan felt cheated this weekend. They left it all on the track. They crawled in the mud, but they never gave up.
We Wanted More Slayer Moon from Houston
Houston had a rough weekend entering as a 2 seed and leaving as a 6. Slayer Moon was amazing for them, finishing with the 3rd best per jam differential over the tournament with +2.8 behind just Dr. Octo and Lady Rider at +3.0 (30 jams to be eligible). The problem though is that we saw so little of Slayer Moon, with her jamming just 36 times across 3 games. Houston has lots of great options in a deep and physical jammer rotation and maybe Slayer was nursing an injury, but in tournament play it is so vital to ride a hot jammer. No other Houston jammer over 10 jams came away with a positive point differential this weekend, Slayer was +100 in 36 jams.
*We are also still not ok with the Houston decision to jam defensively off the line in their last jam loss against Boulder.
Brandywine’s Blockers Will Make You Wish You Never Started Playing Derby
Their 3 jammer rotation of Raggedy Aneurysm, Buenos D. A$$ and Lurz Lemon was a study in consistency this weekend in Wichita and we could write a whole other point about them. What teams who played them will remember though is their blocking core. Think you are going to draw back their jammer? Think again. This team punished opponents all weekend and they were able to successfully tight walk that line between controlled aggression and recklessness. Slamshine Allie lead the way absolutely destroying opposing skaters (jammers AND blockers) with massive timely hits.
Punish the Pivot
We saw lots of star passes this weekend and as we all know not all star passes are created equal. Lots of passes behind or within the pack led to disaster for the passing team and we finally started to see some teams gamble in match ups they liked against opposing pivots. We can’t wait to see more of that to counter this strategy as the best pivot is at the bottom of a teams jammer depth chart. Is your defense in a good place? Is your top jammer out? Roll the dice. In Jam 41 of the 2nd half of Nashville v Tucson, Tucson jammer Shana Banana Hammock star passed to pivot Blaxican Bomber who was a one woman wall all weekend. Blaxican picked up multiple penalties though in that jam as a jammer, allowing Nashville’s Zip Drive to put up 19 points. Iced in the box, Blaxican got out and lead in the next jam but immediately called it off 0–0 extending the game for Nashville.
The Derby Gods Smiled on Boulder County
Boulder County beat Kansas in Kansas by 1, then beat 2 seed Houston by 3 to grab 5th place. After a last jam gaffe against Jet City, that saw them fail to extend the game, they regrouped and stunned two straight teams to provide lots of drama and intrigue in the consolation bracket. Smashalotapus and Feist E. One finished 3rd and 4th in jammer scoring for the tournament at 282 and 260. Feisty’s last jam icing of Houston was beautiful as was Smash’s 16–9 jam to top Kanas. We would back a move to rename the team the Boulder County Ice Veins.
Everyone Who Bought the WFTDA Pass Got Their Money’s Worth
Feeling the FOMO reading this? Get your pass for Lansing/the entire Playoffs and Champs. The announcer crew in Wichita was great, the refs didn’t sway games (there were barely any foul outs) and WFTDA has started to do some new things with their broadcast that we love (Facebook live interviews post game with Double H). Yes, there were some technical issues, but WFTDA was always responsive and it always got resolved quickly. Get your pass and join the fun on the #talk2wftda tag.
