06 maja 2007
FTW Edges VICE in Controversial Finish
The last two minutes decided it all.
I'm saying that because one person on Kevin Smith's Rock 'n' Roller Blog told him not to start his entry on the bout that way. Well, Kevin, I've relieved you of the burden.
Both teams got into a great deal of accumulated penalty trouble late in the bout. This is understandable, a game this close is going to have all sorts of errant elbows and other "minor" penalties, even if the game is relatively clean (this one, not so clean). This foul trouble caused several of the final jams to start with one team or another having no jammer.
VICE Squad was able to build a small lead before the final jam, helped out by a couple of jams with no FTW jammer due to penalites. For the final jam, it was Sloppy Flo versus Penny Tenchery. Tenchery already had 3 minor penalties. Another minor would get her thrown out, leaving Flo free to score with no answer from VICE Squad.
Sure enough, Tenchery had a false start, which the referees called as a minor penalty and earned her a spot in the penalty box. This left Flo free to wipe out VICE's lead, and VICE with no chance for a comeback before the buzzer blew.
The ending confused many fans. My section had both VICE Squad and FTW fans, and the end left all of them scratching their heads trying to figure out what had happened. Many of us didn't realize that a false start was a penalty at all, we just thought that they did a restart and that was it. This would have been a good chance for the announcers, including guest announcer Bolshe Vixen who gave detailed rules explanations throughout, to explain this rule to the fans. It might have taken the confused looks off of our faces.
The teams are informed of who has got how many penalties, which leaves me to wonder why Tenchery was put in in that crucial jam. Even without the false start, there was a risk that any minor infraction would have resulted in her being sent off. At the beginning of the jam, her team was ahead by seven points. Tenchery has shown an ability to pile on the points, did this mitigate the risk of her getting thrown out?
I don't know the calculations VICE's coaching staff made. It is possible that other jammers were also in penalty trouble. Also, whatever jammer they picked would have had to go up against Sloppy Flo. But, I wonder if Flo would have been able to pile on enough points to save FTW in a single jam if a VICE jammer was also scoring a few points, even if she wasn't lead jammer.
Needless to say, VICE Squad fans are not happy with the ending. Smith's blog already has a post by a VICE fan quoting the WFTDA rules chapter and verse, and he hasn't even written about the match yet. Fan Tanya Binford wrote:
The two sections she quoted deal with the definitions of minor and major penalties. 6.2.1.6 defines a false start as a major penalty (which would send the offending skater to the penalty box), and 6.2.2.3 defines false start where advantage is yielded as an illegal procedure that "can be rectified without calling the jam or having little impact on the game," but still defines it in the section on minor penalties (the accumulation of four of which would send a skater to the penalty box). So, a false start is still regarded as a "minor penalty," even though any advantage gained can be obviated without ending the jam. Many of us fans, and possibly skaters too, did not realize that this has been counted as a minor in the past because skaters aren't necessarily sent to the penalty box immediately.
One VICE Squad fan I spoke to, Tom Greeley, a guy I've known forever, thought that it was a bit harsh to count a false start as a penalty at all. Maybe, but I wonder if it wasn't counted as a penalty if that would lead to momentum killing gamesmanship on the part of some teams, expecially in a match as contested as this one.
Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.
I'm saying that because one person on Kevin Smith's Rock 'n' Roller Blog told him not to start his entry on the bout that way. Well, Kevin, I've relieved you of the burden.
Both teams got into a great deal of accumulated penalty trouble late in the bout. This is understandable, a game this close is going to have all sorts of errant elbows and other "minor" penalties, even if the game is relatively clean (this one, not so clean). This foul trouble caused several of the final jams to start with one team or another having no jammer.
VICE Squad was able to build a small lead before the final jam, helped out by a couple of jams with no FTW jammer due to penalites. For the final jam, it was Sloppy Flo versus Penny Tenchery. Tenchery already had 3 minor penalties. Another minor would get her thrown out, leaving Flo free to score with no answer from VICE Squad.
Sure enough, Tenchery had a false start, which the referees called as a minor penalty and earned her a spot in the penalty box. This left Flo free to wipe out VICE's lead, and VICE with no chance for a comeback before the buzzer blew.
The ending confused many fans. My section had both VICE Squad and FTW fans, and the end left all of them scratching their heads trying to figure out what had happened. Many of us didn't realize that a false start was a penalty at all, we just thought that they did a restart and that was it. This would have been a good chance for the announcers, including guest announcer Bolshe Vixen who gave detailed rules explanations throughout, to explain this rule to the fans. It might have taken the confused looks off of our faces.
The teams are informed of who has got how many penalties, which leaves me to wonder why Tenchery was put in in that crucial jam. Even without the false start, there was a risk that any minor infraction would have resulted in her being sent off. At the beginning of the jam, her team was ahead by seven points. Tenchery has shown an ability to pile on the points, did this mitigate the risk of her getting thrown out?
I don't know the calculations VICE's coaching staff made. It is possible that other jammers were also in penalty trouble. Also, whatever jammer they picked would have had to go up against Sloppy Flo. But, I wonder if Flo would have been able to pile on enough points to save FTW in a single jam if a VICE jammer was also scoring a few points, even if she wasn't lead jammer.
Needless to say, VICE Squad fans are not happy with the ending. Smith's blog already has a post by a VICE fan quoting the WFTDA rules chapter and verse, and he hasn't even written about the match yet. Fan Tanya Binford wrote:
I also hope you review the WFTDA official rules, specifically with regards to 6.2.1.6 and 6.2.2.3, which address false starts. Penny yielded the advantage after her false start, then got sent to the penalty box… basically, the refs handed the game to FTW from my perspective in the last jam.Wow...Roller Derby is all grown up. We have rules geeks now!
The two sections she quoted deal with the definitions of minor and major penalties. 6.2.1.6 defines a false start as a major penalty (which would send the offending skater to the penalty box), and 6.2.2.3 defines false start where advantage is yielded as an illegal procedure that "can be rectified without calling the jam or having little impact on the game," but still defines it in the section on minor penalties (the accumulation of four of which would send a skater to the penalty box). So, a false start is still regarded as a "minor penalty," even though any advantage gained can be obviated without ending the jam. Many of us fans, and possibly skaters too, did not realize that this has been counted as a minor in the past because skaters aren't necessarily sent to the penalty box immediately.
One VICE Squad fan I spoke to, Tom Greeley, a guy I've known forever, thought that it was a bit harsh to count a false start as a penalty at all. Maybe, but I wonder if it wasn't counted as a penalty if that would lead to momentum killing gamesmanship on the part of some teams, expecially in a match as contested as this one.
Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.
