Roller derbyä, mitä sitten?

Suomessa on käynyt tämän kevään aikana mm. Tukholma, Malmö ja Dublin pelaamassa. Pelejä joilla ei ole mitään muuta virkaa kuin olla vain pelejä pelien vuoksi. Joku näistä peleistä saattoi vaikuttaa WFTDA-rankingiin, joka saattaa vaikuttaa joukkueen mahdollisuuteen päästä syksyn finaaliturnauksiin. Tätä ei juurikaan mainosteta, kukaan ei oikein ymmärrä kuinka järjestelmä toimii, eikä ketään kiinnosta. Kuka esimerkiksi tietää monenneksi Barcelona on rankattu Uefan listoilla? Tai Suomen lätkämaajoukkue IIAF-rankingeissa? Rankingit ovat kiva juttu, ja ajavat asiansa turnausten seedauksessa, mutta eivät ne joukkuelajin olemassaolon perusta voi olla. Varsinkaan kun Euroopassa ei juurikaan edes pelata rankingotteluita. Koska ranking on rikki. Mikä taas johtuu siitä että jostain syystä WFTDA haluaa tehdä kaikki asiat omalla tavallaan, eikä toimivalla systeemillä. Vinkkinä WFTDA:lle, googlatkaa Elo rating. Se toimii.

Tampere vs Lahti. Voitto näkyy sarjataulukossa.
(C) Marko Niemelä

Toinen ongelma on turnaukset jotka eivät ole turnauksia. Yhteen paikkaan saadaan monta joukkuetta ja mahdollisuus tehdä jännittävä viikonlopun mittainen turnaus joka huipentuu sunnuntaina finaaliin. Mitä siis tehdään? Järjestetään kasa pelejä ilman minkäänlaista sidonnaisuutta toisiinsa? Esim. viime vuoden Wet Malmössa pilattiin tällä. Sen piti olla turnaus jossa selvitetään Euroopan paras joukkue. Mutta se olikin nippu otteluita joista ei selvinnyt mitään. Tämä johtui siitä, että joukkueet eivät suostuneet pelaamaan otteluita jotka vaikuttaisivat rankingiin. Yhtenä perusteluna sanotaan sekin, että yleisöä kiinnostaa enemmän tasaiset pelit kuin blowoutit. Ensinnäkään ei kiinnosta, katsokaa mitä tahansa olemassaolevaa joukkuelajia ja sen yleisömääriä ystävyysotteluissa ja sarjamatseissa. Toisekseen ottelut eivät ole sen tasaisempia vaikka pelit päätettäisiinkin etukäteen. Katsokaa esimerkkinä vaikka Wetiä.

Roller Derbyllä on ongelma. Suurin osa peleistä on merkityksettömiä ystävyysotteluita, jotka eivät pidemmän päälle kiinnosta ketään. Mikäli roller derbyä halutaan kasvattaa sellaiseksi, että se kiinnostaa suurempaakin yleisöä kuin harrastajia ja paria muuta ihmistä, tarvitaan sarjataulukoita tai oikeita turnauksia. Tietty jos halutaan pitää derby pienen piirin marginaalitouhuna, niin sitten ei ole mitään ongelmaa, on Suomi täynnä myöskin jazzbändejä jotka soittaa muille jazzbändeille. Mutta yleisesti ottaen yleisö olisi ihan kiva juttu kaikkien mielestä.

HRD vs. Dublin. Ihan sama.
(C) Marko Niemelä

Euroopassa tämä on onneksi tajuttu. Suomessa on Suomi Cup ja Pohjola cup, Ruotsissa on Elitserien, myös Saksa ja britit ovat aloittaneet oman sarjansa. Monessa muussa maassa järjestetään viikonlopun mittainen mestaruusturnaus. Tasoerot ovat toki harmittavan suuria vielä maan sisällä, mutta ne pienenevät. Minulla on haaveena tulevaisuudessa futiksen mestarien liigaa vastaava järjestelmä Euroopassa. Tai pienemmässä mittakaavassa pohjoismaiden mestaruusturnaus, jossa olisivat kansallisten liigojen voittajat.

Euroopanlaajuisen liigan toteutuminen tuntuu kyllä harmittavan kaukaiselta haaveelta, koska WFTDA haluaa tehdä asiat omalla tavallaan. Lisäksi se vaikuttaisi joukkueiden rankingiin. Antti Peltola

Greetings from EROC

The European Roller Derby Organizational Conference (EROC) was hosted by Bear City Roller Derby for the 5^th time in February 2014. This time around, EROC was bigger then ever with approximately 200 league representatives participating.  

Whilst taking part is plenty of fun it’s also exhausting as EROC lasts two or four days depending on whether you participate in the workshops. The weekend is packed full of informative sessions followed by official afterparties as well as unofficial get-togethers at the Tiki Bar which is practically an institution for the seasoned EROC-goers. It is also a big responsibility to represent your league and to bring home useful information as each league gets to send only four representatives.

EROC offers tips and updates for older and newer leagues and both skaters and officials can benefit. This year, the sessions contained everything from tournament organization to mental coaching and visual training.  At least I filled a whole notebook with thoughts and ideas, including the very useful note for myself: get some muscles to become a better derby player.

Finnish representation

This year’s EROC had a great turnout from Finland; Helsinki Roller Derby, Kallio Rolling Rainbow, Tampere Roller Derby, Lahti Roller Derby, Dirty River Roller Grrrls, Shitty City Roller Derby and P-Town Brawlers were all there. The Finnish representation was pretty great especially considering that in 2013 only the two leagues from Helsinki went to Berlin. 

National roller derby organizations were also invited to participate in the extravaganza and Roller Derby Finland was there to share the Finnish success story. Finland is in some way unique in Europe as we are the only country that organizes the national championships as a cup that runs throughout the year. This means more opportunities for Finnish leagues to play but in addition everyone taking part can also try their hand at organizing bouts. The Finnish Cup is going to be particularly exciting this year with the addition of four new leagues in the 1^st Division.

Hopefully, next year, we’ll get to see even more Finnish leagues taking part because EROC is a great opportunity to forge relationships with other leagues, whether it may be through agreeing your next bout or just by having a beer with a skater that you didn’t know before.

We’re all Europeans

EROC kicked off with discussion sessions which were held separately for veteran, intermediate and rookie leagues. Kallio took part in the intermediate leagues session and at least there it quickly became clear that most European leagues suffer from similar problems as us: there’s never enough training space for on-skates practice and never enough funds to do all the great things we would like to do. Volunteers seem to be another problem as we all just want to skate but unfortunately running a competitive league requires a lot of work.  It’s somehow really comforting to know that we are not alone with these problems and to see how other leagues have tried to solve these issues.  

At the same time, we learned many positive things too. European leagues co-operate a lot with each other even across country borders. And having so many different ways of doing things enriches the European roller derby culture.

WFTDA and Europe

WFTDA relationship with Europe seems to be this year’s hot topic along with junior derby and thus a lot of time was dedicated to discussing WFTDA with both member and non-member leagues. Many Europeans still see WFTDA as an organization representing mostly the North American leagues and at present there’s perhaps has some truth in that: only 10% of the WFTDA leagues are based in Europe. However, our influence in WFTDA has been increasing and will likely continue increasing as more and more European leagues are thinking about becoming members. At least in Finland, HRD is already a member, KRR is currently going through the AP process and there have been rumours that some other Finnish leagues are also considering starting the application process.

Another concern in Europe is the WFTDA rankings system. The feeling is that new members and AP leagues are having some difficulty in finding opponents for their mock sanctioned bouts and also the first sanctioned, but un-ranked, bouts. We are all pleased to hear to WFTDA has heard our cries and it currently considering various options on how to improve the situation.

Until next time

After a month I have finally recovered from the long weekend in Berlin and have had time to introduce all the new ideas to my league. Now I’m already looking forward to next year and next EROC. Can’t wait to see what great things are in store for us then.

// Schlagerlöf

Ranking Derby Teams

As the European roller derby scene grows and the skill levels of the top teams increase, the WFTDA rankings are sure to become a more and more important indicator, especially as success in those rankings will be a ticket to a whole new level of game play i.e. the championship games.

Roller derby as a sport is going through a period of metamorphosis during which both international organisations as well as national associations are trying to find their own place. Even the WFTDA rules are in competition with other roller derby rule sets but at least we can say that the teams that play under the WFTDA or MRDA rules have one thing in common: the rules. Each derby team has a different season and different culture. Some leagues play interleague bouts whereas others organize big tournaments or competitive tours. One thing we know for sure is that everyone wants to be the best. But how do we measure this?

Considering that not all leagues and teams, that play under the WFTDA and MRDA rules, are members of the international governing body and that mixed teams don’t even have the option of becoming members, it is difficult to determine how to rank these teams and especially how to compare the skill levels of the European all-star teams with their American counterparts. The answer is to develop a ranking-system based on bouts that the teams play. But because bouts are still arranged only occasionally and rather irregularly, the teams don’t necessarily fully know their opponents level and thus bouts may end up being pretty unequal matched. Therefore, the ranking system can’t just be based on the score difference. It is also important that the rankings also support the teams in picking their opponents. As a result, various ranking-lists have sprung up based on different formulas and it seems each one of them has something to offer. Some listings don’t compare the number of bouts won to the number of bouts played whereas some have split teams into different divisions, which don’t really reflect reality. At the moment, it seems a lot of people are talking about WFTDA’s new, division-based ranking system that also affects the seeding of WFTDA member leagues i.e. how the tournament places in the championships are distributed. As a result of the teams being split into different divisions, many teams are unwilling to play any opponents ranked lower than them because a surprise victory would mean a big drop in rankings. For example, this means that it doesn’t make sense for the London Rollergirls’ all-star team to play at all in Europe because LRG is ranked far above any other European leagues. So why have such a ranking system?

Mathematics instead of geography

The teams in the WFTDA championships have so far been selected on the basis of the leagues’ geographical location and playoff tournaments in North America. Until now, the playoffs regions were Eastern USA, Western USA as well as North Central and South Central USA and, at the WFTDA tournament in each region, 10 teams competed for three places at the championships, which are arranged every autumn. The regional split will still remain as there aren’t sufficiently many European member leagues competing at the top level to justify setting up a separate Europe-region. The teams from outside USA will compete in the region that they are geographically closest to, for example the European teams would belong in the Eastern region. After the geographical split was set up and up until 2013, WFTDA used voting-based rankings, which took into account the bouts each team played over the course of the year, to determine the placing of teams within a particular region. During 2013, the fully mathematical Competitive Division System stepped into play with the hopes of some day getting totally rid of the geography-based system.