8/16/2011 - 12/15/2011

Banked Rank: Division I

Banked Rank	Prev	BT Inter Record	Next Game	Comments
1 L.A. Derby Dolls	2	2010 6-1 2011 6-3		LADD’s $10,000 prize bout against Rocky Mountain at the Chicago Invitational had 9 lead changes and 3 ties, including the second to the last jam at 108-108, but LA took the prize 113-108.
2 Rocky Mountain Rollergirls	7	2011 3-1		While Rocky lost to LA after a second-to-the-last-jam 108 point tie in a Power Jam, they came out on top against Gotham after a 153-153 tie in the second-to-the-last-jam.
3 Gotham Girls Roller Derby	8	2011 1-2		At one point, Gotham’s choice of clean, disciplined play cost them, leaving them behind Rocky 120-43. But as Rocky’s ejections piled up, Gotham tied them 153-153. But Gotham handed Rocky a last jam Power Jam, slimly losing 156-153.
4 Team Legit	1	2010 2-3 2011 4-0		Drops down on strength of LADD, RMRG, GGRD
5 San Diego Derby Dolls	3	2010 6-0 2011 3-3		Drops down on strength of LADD, RMRG, GGRD

Banked Rank: Division II

Banked Rank	Prev	BT Inter Record	Next Game	Comments
1 Windy City Rollers	Div-I 9	2010 0-1 2011 0-2		Suffering strong defeats at the Chicago Invitational, WCR would be a good contest against AZDD and TXRD.
2 Arizona Derby Dames	Div-I 4	2011 3-2		With AZDD’s defeat at the hands of SDDD 235-65 at BOTB IV, WCR’s 209-78 loss against a stronger LADD puts them over AZDD.
3 Orange County Roller Girls	Div-I 5	2011 2-1		OCRG falls in the upper-pack in Div. II with the re-organization. Recent personnel changes will make things more challenging for them in early 2012.
4 Lonestar Rollergirls	Div-I 6	2011 2-3		TXRD defeated Missile Mountain 139-115.
5 Missile Mountain Roller Derby	-	2011 0-1		One of the newest banked track leagues, Missile Mountain enters at Div II #5 with a strong showing against TXRD
6 Tilted Thunder Rail Birds	Div-II 1	2011 2-3		Tilted Thunder's 138-112 win against Terminal City their respectable 157-111 loss to Rat City's Grave Danger and, their B-Team's win against the Dockyard Derby Dames have been giving them needed experience to move up in 2012.
7 Terminal City Rollergirls	-	2011 0-1		Terminal City’s 138-112 respectable loss to Tilted Thunder, puts them on the Division II map at #7.
8 South Side Rollerderby	Div-II 2	2011 0-3		South Side’s less agressive approach to interleague keeps their current competitive level an unknown.
(Not Ranked) Sugartown Rollerderby				Sugartown recently jumped into the WORD/BTA community from the old school NRDA. With LADD, OCRG and SDDD in the neighborhood, they have a lot of resources to catch up quickly on the training side.
(Not Ranked) Kansas City Banked Beauties				Their track was battle tested by LADD, Rocky and Gotham, and they have the only banked track in the entire Midwest.

The rules for inclusion in the Banked Rank can be found at the bottom of the page.

The mission of the Banked Rank isn't a system for honoring achievement. It asks the same question the DNN Power Rankings asks: If two teams met at the time the rankings are published, who is likely to win? There's no formula, statistics are a useful tool. But in the end, it comes down to what a panel of people who watch, play and have dedicated their current lives to the sport of roller derby, think.

There are some changes to the Banked Rank for the end of the year. When you look at both flat and banked track, there is clearly a steep drop off between the teams at the highest level of performance, and the next level. With the recent Kitten Traxx Chicago Invitational, LADD, Rocky and Gotham were within a total of 10 points from top to bottom. The 100+ point differential between Windy and both LADD and Gotham, slots them in with the higher performing teams in Division II.

Rocky Mountain, Gotham and Windy City’s inclusion in the Banked Rank earlier in the year, sparked some controversy. At the time, most people thought it was just a one off, and not to be repeated soon. It hadn’t even been a year since the Banked Jam in Chicago in which Windy City became the first ranked WFTDA league to play on the banked track. For both Rocky and Gotham, they not only returned to the bank within the same calendar year, but only a week after WFTDA Championships.

Divisions I and II have been re-evaluated overall. For Division I to mean what it was intended to mean, which is: top performing teams competitive with each other at the highest level of play; some shuffling had to take place. Any of the 5 teams in Division I can hope to win against one another in their next meeting on the track, if they played as they did in their most recent games against the top teams. With large gaps between serious interleague games in banked track at this time, there isn’t a lot of overt evidence of what the teams are doing to prepare for next year, except for LADD, which debuted it's 2012 all-star team at the KT Chicago Invitational.

The ranks should be able to act as a scheduling guide for leagues, and a guide for fans to get in the ballpark with their own handicapping.

That said, some of the Division II leagues have been bringing in outside trainers and have increased their interleague scheduling, so expect big improvements next year.

Rules For Team Inclusion in the Banked Rank

The team is a travel/all-star team from a banked track league.
Pickup teams can be included with at least two banked track games in separate events, if that team has a consistent core of at least seven members.
The team is from a WFTDA league with at least 10 members of their travel team, and no team membership outside of the league. If a listed WFTDA league does not play another banked track game within 13 months, they will be de-listed.
All interleague games must be played under the most current WORD/BTA rules with WORD officiating standards. Inclusion of games based on WORD rules with significant deviations, will be considered on a case by case basis.
Existing ranks will drop over time if no rankable, WORD rules games are played for an extended period of time, as the team composition and current competitive level against current teams can't be determined.

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