Qualifiers are over and teams are gearing up for the 2018 MRDA Championships in Portland, Oregon.
Meanwhile in Aberdeen, Scotland…Granite City Brawlers are preparing for their first MRDA endorsed tournament; the Silver City Cup. This tournament will see six MRDA teams take to the track on 22-23 September to take home the cup. The teams are Crash Test Brummies, Derby Club Le Crès Lattes Montpellier, Nottingham Roller Derby, South Wales Silures Roller Derby, Tampere Rollin’ Bros and of course hosts Granite City Brawlers.
We caught up with the tournament hosts and representatives from some of the participating teams to find out what their goals are and what they’re most looking forward to.
MRDA: Tell us a little bit about the tournament
GCB: This tournament was specifically targeted at unranked teams or teams that hadn’t passed the 40th rankings (by the spring rankings!). We really wanted to host something that would help give opportunities to teams in these positions and give them 3 sanctioned games in one weekend. Ultimately to help provide more eligible teams for 2019 european qualifiers.
Bringing higher level derby and sanctioned games to Aberdeen is great for our local community also. Showing visiting teams our city and shire and what we can achieve up here in the north of our wee island!
MRDA: What is your goal for the tournament?
TRB: This tournament is really a kickstart for Rollin’ Bros. We’ve been on hiatus and the team has changed a bit since the last time we played. We just want to get back into it basically. We also have a few skaters making their debuts. But we’re not coming there as tourists and we’re up for a fight, that’s for sure! Still it’s always hard to predict how we will do.
NRD: Our experience at MEQ has helped us to really bond as a team, we’ve got a lot closer and it feels even more like we’re all pushing to get to the same place. We want to start harnessing that energy and using it to help us pick up the wins we know we can achieve. One of our goals will be to even the score with the Brummies after their win against us on September 1st.
CTB: Our main goal is to play together as a team. We’ve had a tough year with a lot of turnover and had to play games short against some really strong opponents. We’ve lost some players and support team and thankfully we’ve gained some fresh faces as well as levelling up our existing ones. Now we’re finally in a place where we can say “This is the Crash Test Brummies”.
GCB: Our goal is to put into practice everything we’ve worked on for the last year; working as a unit, communicating and being effective. We want everyone to experience the excitement of a tournament and hopefully inspire the team to want to do more tournament style events!
MRDA: What are you most looking forward to?
CTB: Personally, I’m looking forward to playing against Kamiquadz. I’ve never played them before, so it will be exciting to see what they can bring.
TRB: There is so much. I’ve always wanted to play SWS so it’s nice to meet them finally. Also seeing new teams (for me) like Smash Brollers and Granite City will be so cool. We’ve played Montpellier and Brummies in the past and it’s going to be nice to catch up. Finally I’m making my debut as a blocker so it’s sure to be an exciting event on many fronts!
GCB: We’re really looking forward to putting on a good event and hosting these teams in our city. From a gameplay perspective though we’re really looking forward to seeing Brummies. We played Beta Test Brummies almost two years ago which had a lot of their regular players but playing in different positions. It will be great to see them at full capacity with their new team! And although I’ve seen skaters from Kamiquadz and Tampere play at MRDWC, I’ve never seen the teams play so definitely looking forward to that too.
NRD: I’m personally most looking forwards to stopping at a Tim Hortons in Glasgow on the way up AND the way back, because no matter how well my diet and gym routine are going, a boy needs his timbits and large dark roast double-double.
From a derby point of view I’ve not seen SWS play in ages so it’ll be good to see them and I’ve been a fan of the Tampere uniforms for ages, so hopefully they’ll have some there to pick up.
If you want to know who answered the questions…
Granite City Brawlers; Pudz & MoMo (skaters)
Crash Test Brummies; Doom (skater)
Nottingham Roller Derby; Cupid Stunt (bench coach)
Tampere Rollin’ Bros; Kenny Superpowers (skater)
More information on the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/616684768693015/