2018 Playoffs Atlanta Game 13: Rat City vs. Sun State

Rat City Roller Derby (Seed #8, WFTDA #20) vs. Sun State Roller Derby (Seed #6, WFTDA #15)

In the Sunday morning matchup between Rat City Roller Derby and Sun State Roller Derby, Rat City relied on their confident, veteran defense and nimble, speedy jammers to secure a convincing win in their last game of the 2018 International WFTDA Playoffs in Atlanta.

Rat showed they were no underdog in this matchup, despite being the lower seed. Alyssa Pray for Rat captured the first lead jammer status over Sun State’s Spinach, and put up a 22-4 jam. Due to penalties to both jammers, the next jam featured the same jammer matchup, and this time Spinach earned lead and a 3-0. While this looked to be a jammer duel the teams could expect to see throughout the game, it was not to be. In a major loss to Sun State, Spinach picked up seven penalties and fouled out with 10 minutes left in the first half.

Though both sides saw some penalty trouble early on, Rat City maintained calm while continuing to put points on the board. Fast packs and quick call-offs kept Sun State within striking distance for much of the first half, but a massive 23-0 for Rat City’s Littlefield with 12 minutes remaining opened the game up, taking the score to 98 Rat City, 19 Sun State.

Sun State finished the first half on a two jammer rotation of Alice Affliction and Rocketma’am. Rat City’s deeper rotation — they used five different jammers throughout the game — likely contributed to their big point scoring runs and outstanding lead percentage, which was over 90% at half. At halftime Rat City enjoyed a comfortable lead of 160-44.

The final jammer penalty tally for this game is going to require a bigger monitor. #talk2wftda

— señor silbador (@andrewencer) September 23, 2018

In the second half, Rat City picked up right where they left off, and more jammer penalty trouble for Sun State allowed Rat City to build on their already-intimidating lead. Sun State adjusted for the loss of Spinach by adding SX to the jammer rotation, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Rat City’s dominance. Rat City ended the game on a scoring tear, with 3 double-digit jams in the last ten minutes. Outscoring Sun State 195-21 in the second half, Rat City earned a commanding victory, 355-65.

Blocker R. Rickel explained Rat CIty’s laser-like focus in the post-game interview: “Our coach has always told us 0-0. Every single jam we start at 0-0 and just keeping that in our head helped us stay calm and make sure we were fighting through the whole game.”

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