Reports form the Corners of the Internet: Edition 10
Academic Laps & the CUSTARD Report
This is by no means a complete list.
THE PRODUCTION OF WOMEN ONLYNESS: WOMEN’S FLAT TRACK ROLLER
DERBY AND WOMEN-ONLY HOME IMPROVEMENT WORKSHOPS (2011)
How Media Frame Roller Derby Around the World in 20 Different Countries 2012
Roller Derby as a Secular Alternative to Religion
Articles
The CUSTARD report
We tracked 437 groups in the Continental United States
Classified them into 5 categories
This was done by asking these Questions…
Is it a club or a team? (Do they bout? )
For Type answer the following (some teams self identify by listing it on their website/social media.)
Where?
How often?
Home = bouting location better than 50 percent of bouts at one location.
Travel = bouting 50 percent of less at a singular location in one season.
Pick-up= bouting in multiple locations and/or not under an organized league.
Is this a league? two yeses needed to be a league, three or more is better. Possibly 6.
Are there multiple teams?
Did they produce over 2 bouts in a season/year?*
Do they host scrimmages? Mash ups?
Are there intra league/home teams?
Travel teams?
Is this a minor league?
Does the intra /home teams play 3+ times a year/season?
Is this a major league?
Officials Training program/detailed information?
(Extra credit* Are the trainings available to non league members?)
Although other rulesets are less popular than Flat Track, it is more likely to find Major leagues. I chalk this up to the needed infrastructure. Banked track leagues having a higher percentage of Majors.
Arizona Derby Dames (AZDD) in Phoenix, AZ
Borderland Roller Derby in El Paso, TX
Derby Dolls in Vernon, CA
Texas Roller Derby (TXRD) in Austin, TX
USARS has two clear Major Leagues
Fountain City & Lockford
The MRDA Major League is Pittsburgh Roller Derby
2 out of 21 but with Many USARS teams active in Flat track. This greatly affects the percentage.
Banked with 4 out of 11 of the Mapped is not quite 40 percent but in comparison to
Flat Track (Independent, WFTDA& MRDA) 26 out of 418 which does not adjust for the multiple teams is roughly 6 percent.
Less than 6 percent of Flat Track groups are Major Leagues, while the majority are travel teams.
But hands down all the fighting leagues are Majors. They, much like the Banked track leagues need to have infrastructure. I didn’t make them instagram posts because most of the fighting leagues have a much better social media presence than I do.
Who Played Who in 2022/2023?
12 percent of Flat track does not Bout.
the 52 clubs played no one. Some had one bout, a few with each other but with the exception of Borderless teams, one bout a year does not make a team.
In 2023 I made a Mirr board with all the schedules.
Already I see a marked decrease in USARS bouts. There was a Winter Nationals in Waco and will be another Nationals this Summer, As noted above many teams are active in the Flat Track rule set in 2024.
The RDCL Battle of the Bank will be hosted by Derby Dolls this summer. Which happens to coincide with the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association North American Southern Regional Champs. Various Banked tracks are hosting their own tournaments, with pick up teams popping up at the events.
While two of the fighting leagues routinely play each other the other two host Intra league bouts and mash ups.
This leaves the world of Flat track with both WFTDA & MRDA sanctioned teams and a slew of independent teams. Including Pick up teams which often show up at tournaments.
The 18 minor leagues have intra league bouting but a few Major leagues send out home teams to bout travel teams. A practice I have numerous questions about giving Sanctioning, Ranking and various other items on teams wishlists.
With the rebuilding of several MRDA teams, tournament play has returned. Several tournaments are mixes of sanctioned bouts for JRDA, MRDA, & WFTDA as well as regulation bouts against independent teams.
Have pods formed?
In the first Who’s Playing Who, four regions or pods existed in North American with a few teams crossing many miles but many teams bouting within these imaginary boundaries. The factors of course are numerous with ability to travel on the top of the list. Many teams who engaged pre pandemic picked up in 2023 with similar opponents as before. Fewer teams with a handful forming a coalition, several new as well as mergers not drastically changing the landscape of the derby verse. Sanctioning returned with WFTDA bringing back regions, (the regional championships are required along with 5 close bouts to make entrance)
CUSTARD has different names with sub regions to handle to amount of information.
CUSTARD has 12 subregions with an additional listing of Pick up teams that may not appear on the maps. We simply haven’t figured out mapping.
The list of teams not currently mapped is made up of Borderless, state, pick up and bitraxual although we were able to map teams showing up at banked and usars tournaments.
List of unmapped teams as of February 2024
Clown Town, Midway Magic, The Trans Agenda, Roll Modelz, Iron Front, Rollin with the Homies, Jaw Breakers, Illuminators, Awesome State Stars, Derby without Borders, Trans Rollers United, Small Wonders Skate Club, Team Up, Michigan, Tennesee, Arkansas, Black Diasporia Roller Derby, Jewish Roller Derby, Team Indigenous Rising, Fuego Latino Roller Derby, Team Philippines, East Coast Satellites, Cuddle/cunt/cbd, Gender Rollers, Queer Skate Alliance, Ruff Ryders
Next update begins in august 2024, One can find individual skater sign ups by clicking through the scrim calls stories on the CUSTARDvillain Instagram. Teams can check Opponents call. We are hoping to begin reposting these in 2025.