To view my Top 120 photos from this bout, click here. To view over 600 photos of this bout taken by myself and the rest of the NSRG Media Team, click here.
I originally wasn't going to go to this bout, but then decided at the last minute I didn't want to miss it. The real thing holding me back was money - I'm pretty darn poor right now. But hell, I managed to score an online hotel booking for $39 a night, so I couldn't argue with that. All in all the weekend cost me about $150 in gas and food and lodging. Not bad.
So I went. Drove down by myself on Saturday evening and plunked into the Extended Stay America hotel. The hotel was fantastic! A little kitchen, nice bathroom, beautiful bed/living area with *two* work desks. It was really a great find. I wonder if there's a way for me to suggest to the league travel folks that they check into this hotel chain in the future? Just a thought. All this for 39 bucks made me think I had the deal of the year.
On Sunday I drove over to the auditorium and hooked up with the Northern Lights and the rest of the NSRG Media Team. Everyone looked hale and well, which is better than *I* felt. I've had the damndest lingering cold this past two weeks now, with a persistent cough that's played hell with my sleep. In Madison I felt pretty good much of the time, but there were moments when I just had to sit down and shoot from a chair. Well, that's okay. That's why we have a team. And it's fun to get a different perspective on things.
The teams warmed up and then the bouts started. The first bout was between two teams called the Unholy Rollers and the Quad Squad. Now, nobody had explained these teams to me at any point, so I didn't really know what I was seeing. I guessed that the day's derby was a double-bill of travel teams: the Madison WFTDA-ranked team vs some other city's equivalent team, and then the Madison non-ranked team (the Vixens) vs the Northern Lights. The action seemed to bear this out, because the derby in the first bout was extremely fast and damn, the jammers seemed to be on rockets. I really thought, wow. It wasn't until after intermission that Ger told me these were both Madison league teams. Then I stopped thinking 'wow,' and started thinking "Oh. My. God."
I've heard of leagues like this but this is the first time I've actually seen one. I've been told in the past how great Windy City is, for example, and how they have very disciplined skaters, amazing conditioning, super speed, etc., etc. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've always thought. You haven't seen how good our skaters are. But now for the first time I was kind of blinking at the action and thinking, holy shit. These teams are both Madison teams? This league is amazing.
When the Vixens got up against the Northern Lights it didn't start out brilliantly for us, but that never worries me. We always start out lousy in travel team bouts, it seems. It's like our team has to get out there and be spanked a little bit in order to wake up and start playing up to speed. And sure enough, as the game progressed we did get better. But it wasn't enough. The Madison level of training was just too much to handle. The final score was 159-57.
Now, I don't want to make excuses here, but it's just as unfair to ignore realities. The fact is the Madison team was very good, but the fact also is that the "Northern Lights" are not really a team at all. They're more like an NSRG pickup squad whose intention is to go out and make friends with new leagues. The Lights' roster is different from day to day, and they typically get just one or two practices before heading off to a bout like this one. So there's a very good reason that the score was so lopsided.
And it's also worth noting that in spite of all this, Naughty Kitty and Olga Ogilthorpe, who are two members of the NSRG Supernovas (the real NSRG travel team), took their Madison counterparts pretty much in stride. Kitty and Olga both decked Madison players more than a few times (see above), and Kitty scored quite a few points as jammer. If the game had been between the Vixens and the Supernovas, or the Vixens and any cohesive NSRG team such as the Deltas or the Kilmores, the outcome IMHO would have been very different.
If I sound a bit annoyed while saying all this, I am. I overheard the other day a bit of news that kind of bugs me. Apparently Derby Network News was at the bout, and their reporter was taking the score as a reflection of NSRG's skill level - which may ultimately have an effect on our DNN rankings. What??? Yes ... from what I hear, it was explained that the Northern Lights are just a scratch team, but apparently this didn't make much of a dent. If this is the case ... then WTF? Come on DNN! Surely you want to report the truth? If the Northern Lights are representative of NSRG's skill level, how do you explain the track record of the Supernovas - who haven't lost a game in a over year and a half? Who've beaten teams in our WFTDA division that are ranked not very far below Madison. Who won the Sioux City tournament just a few months ago by, among other things, beating the MNRG all-stars in the final.
Come on DNN. Get a grip!
If DNN ranks NSRG poorly because of this, I swear, I am going to write them an email so hot it's going to set fire to their fucking server. I mean it. This bugs my ass. NSRG has worked very hard the past two years to gain the respect of other leagues throughout the midwest. To have all of the travel and bouting and hosting and money and sweat and time trumped by a single DNN reporter having a bad hair day is just plain tragic. It's also sloppy, second-rate reporting. And downright unfair.
Come on, DNN. Don't let me down. Do the right thing.
[Hey readers - turns out DNN did the right thing after all. Please read Medusa's comment to this post. Thanks for the update, Deuce Coupe!]
After the bout there were a couple of fun things. First, someone put Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" on the loudspeakers, and the Vaudeville Vixens came over and mingled with the Northern Lights and everyone sang along. Then the teams went out into the lobby where they have tables set up in an autograph area. This is a really nice feature and it'd be great to see it at NSRG bouts in the future; each team stands behind a table with a collection of non-permanent magic markers and for about half an hour chats with the fans and signs any hat, program, arm, leg or other body part (within reason) presented. It's really a nice party atmosphere, and it's a great chance for skaters and fans to mingle and bond. There was one fellow there who was obviously a regular Mad Rollin Dolls fan; he had a baseball cap and jacket festooned with buttons. Earlier that day I had seen him at the ticket windows saying proudly, "I guess that makes me first in line again!" I thought, man, fans like that are just fantastic. Non-creepy, genuine fans of the sport and all the wonderful wittiness that goes with it. You have to hope you have fans like that. They're the ones who'll keep coming back and supporting the league, season after season.
I actually almost never interact with fans at NSRG bouts, because I'm so intent on photographing skaters. It occurs to me right now that maybe this isn't the right balance? Maybe we need more fan-fun shots on the NSRG website to show fans how much they're appreciated? It's something to think about. Fan dedication is no small thing. It can go a long way to not just creating a great atmosphere, but actually putting real money in NSRG's coffers. I also shoot for the Saint Paul Saints baseball team, and that's probably the best example I can think of where a big emphasis on fan fun at every single game (activities, mascots, special days, kid-friendly stuff, etc., etc.) translates into tremendous fan loyalty. That team has had seasons where they flat-out suck but the fans could care less; they show up in droves because they consider themselves part of the family, and as a result the stands are rarely below 70-80 percent capacity.
I'll be sure to suggest this to the Media Team sometime. Anything we can do to help might be a big help to NSRG.
Hey Preflash! :)
ReplyDeleteI have to comment on the DNN reporter guy. Kitty and Olga explained to him who the Northern Lights were and weren't and it got cleared up.
The next day I e-mailed two of the other guys from DNN to make sure they understood that the Northern Lights for us were not our main travel team - the Supernovas - and that I was worried they wouldn't realize that.
They assured me that when they calculate their rankings (and these are unofficial rankings anyway, not official WFTDA rankings) they only take into account games played by the all-star teams from each league. They also said that many other leagues around the country struggle with the same problem - four home teams, an all-star team and a B team - not many have mastered the B team part.
Don't worry. When we get into Regionals and go play some really highly ranked leagues like Madison, Windy City, and Cincinnati, we'll prove that we're here to stay. We'll probably get a couple losses to add to our record but we'll play our hearts out and prove that we deserve a decently ranked position.
It'll all work out. No need to go after the DNN guys - the one reporter was just confused about who we were in Madison, that's all. And it sounds like the Northern lights had a great learning experience out there! :)
Dusa
You rock, as usual. Thanks for clearing this up. Man that had me upset!
ReplyDeleteI can sleep better now. :-)