And it's official...

ROSEBUDS!



Rose City Rosebuds with 1st place trophy.  Photo by Bradley Bartlett

That's right, the Rose City Rosebuds completed their season with an undefeated run in the championship tourney, winning three EXTREMELY close bouts.  Add to that their wins in every bout they played this season, and you have an absolutely astounding undefeated team.

But as someone said this weekend, a lot of the bouts amounted to who was ahead when the time ran out.  Yes, these bouts were that close, these teams that closely matched.  While there was only one switch in the championship results from the season standings, it could have very easily been completely switched up.

Bout one saw the Galaxy Girls vs the Reservoir Dolls, and the tourney was off with a bang.  Galaxy took a tough fought bout in this one. 

In bout two, Kitsap took to the track against the I5 Rollergirls.  While I5 took the victory, Kitsap was clearly in control for a good portion of the bout, keeping the I5 speed team in check with some extremely tight pack work and some seriously well timed jamming.

Game 3?  The Galaxy Girls, winners of bout one, faced off with the Rosebuds.  This one, quite literally, came down to the last jam.  With the Galaxy Girls up by just a few points and a scrum holding back the jammers, Jesus Feist took a star pass and managed to score four points, taking the lead (a feat they would repeat later on down 13 in the last jam against I5 in game 5).

See what I mean?  Every team brought everything they had and left it on the track.  Both I5 and the Galaxy Girls played four bouts through the weekend as they would their way to 2nd (I5) and 3rd (Galaxy Girls) place finishes, while the Buds and Dolls played 3 of their own in the stifling Sk8 Town heat. 

I saw girls fighting through pain and fatigue to keep the jams going, girls who were clearly at the end of their reserves dig deep and find something else to keep on skating.  There were apex jumps, muscling through scrums, extreme agility as they shrugged off hits or barely kept their feet inbounds to force a track cutting penalty on a passing jammer, and a Pegassist (Jesus Feist lifting Anaphylactic Shock past the scrum with I-5 to snag lead jammer).  I saw refs, NSO's and volunteers giving everything THEY had to keep each other going, and trying to keep up with these phenomenal girls. 

In short, while the Rosebuds went home with the 1st place trophy, the real winner was roller derby.  If anyone had any doubt about junior derby going into this weekend, they should not have a shadow of a doubt going out.  This was, far and away, the best derby I have seen this past year.  These girls amaze me, these people amaze me, and I am so very proud to have been a part of this event.  Thank you, girls.  Seriously.

2012 has been great, and 2013 cannot come soon enough!

And now, three cheers for each team!  Each of them is chosen for their excellence during this tournament.  While these are the three from each team who stood out in my kind and in the stats I tracked while I was not annoucning, there are so many more I could call out for each team!

5th place - Kitsap Derby Brats
Quarter Poundher
Red Rager
Little Mean Sunshine

4th place - Reservoir Dolls
Spunkee Bruizer
Rattle Skate
Tiny Badness

3rd Place - Galaxy Girls
Enurgizer Bunny
Flyin' Hawaiian
Beatin' Bam!!B

2nd Place -  I5 Roller Girls
Hunt-her Down
Smash Ketchum
Dee Stroir

1st place - Portland Rosebuds
Cheese Grater of Despair
Scream Cheese
Anaphylactic Shock

NOTE!!
Yes, this is not truly a recap of the blow by blow action.  As Elwood Bruise (who kept stats every game) compeltes his recaps, I will be putting links to those recaps.  Thanks for readin, and head on over to Elwood's page for more!

Game 1 - SDB v Reservoir Dolls
Game 2 - Kitsap v I5
Game 3 - Rosebuds v Galaxy Girls
Game 4 - Reservoir Dolls v Kitsap Derby Brats
Game 5 - Rosebuds v I5
Game 6 - Galaxy Girls v Reservoir Dolls
Game 7 - I5 v Galaxy Girls
Game 8 - Rosebuds v I5

There you go!  All 8 games from the tournament.