(no subject)

[motomotoyama]

Given: I am very sensitive to negative comments about DLF. I'm always ready to jump in and defend my team, sometimes even when I don't really need to. I just want people to know that we're not bullies, we don't try to run up the score, and we are above all, not sore losers. (Or poor winners, but your perception on that might differ depending on your team affiliation.)

A Throttle Rockets fan, swejeety wrote this in her entry about Saturday night's bout:

"I have to say, I was a little disappointed by the DLF/Texas bout. The background first though. DLF bouted against the Honky Tonk Heartbreakers in Austin last May and lost 63 to 47. In true DLF fashion, they don't take losing well and came back with a death sentence for Heartbreakers. To top it off, after the Heartbreakers won three seasons, their league decided to shuffle the deck, so this was a VERY new team coming up against RCRG's strongest individual team. The first half was good and fairly close, but in this season's typical DLF fashion in the end it was a soul-crushing blowout bout to the point that it's not fun to cheer for either team because the only question is how HUGE the DLF lead will be. I hate fighting on the track and I hate to say it but really the highlight of the bout was the fight between Rice Rocket from Texas and DLF's scrapper, Burnett Down. The fight appeared to earn them both a major penalty and then one more minor in the next bout out and Rice Rocket was ejected temporarily (DLF petitioned to let her back in, and in she came after having to serve a 2 minute and three jam penalty. That was awesome. I hate to see any premiere skater get kicked out when they are traveling. I forgot to write down the final score, but it was close to a 100 point lead in the end. Yawn." [Emphasis mine.]

Now, fans will think what they want to think, but in this case, I feel that this is a serious case of mistaken identities. DLF played a good game in Austin last year, and we had a blast doing it. We did lose, and while we weren't happy that we lost we felt like we put up a good fight, and losing wasn't a terrible thing after all. We had such a great time playing the Honkey Tonks, that they were our only pick when we had to choose our visiting team, and we were happy that they accepted. Sure, we were disappointed to hear that some of the players from last year either weren't on the team anymore or couldn't make it for other reasons, but it was still the Honkey Tonks, and they're still from the league that we all look up to.

Going into this game, most of DLF was nervous. I know I was. The Texas girls are big, and very good at roller derby. When the crowd erupted in boos as they were introduced, I wanted to say, "Hey, don't boo them, they're not the bad guys." Little did I know that (apparently) we would look like the bad guys by the end of the night.

DLF's intention in every game is to win. It is never to completely crush the other team. I have no idea what has been up with the point spreads this season, but believe me, that is not the goal. (Well, actually, I have a theory about why the scores have been so lopsided, but I'll get to that in a minute.) We go into every game wanting to win, but knowing that ultimately we can lose at any time. So we just focus on playing together, and that, I think, is what wins us games. Did we want to win against Texas? Sure thing! Did we want to win by so many points that it looked like we were trying to humiliate them? No way!

By now, DLF is a well oiled machine. Most of us have been playing together for so long that we're almost telepathic. I started skating with RCRG back in the startup days, before we even split into teams. To give you an idea of how DLF has managed to stack the deck, as it were, here's a list of skaters who are still active that have been on DLF since before the first bout of the first season: Cherry Jubilee, Sybil Unrest, Mae C. Stars, Burnett Down, Lorna Boom, mommacherry, Hideous Braxley, Kitty Kamikaze, and Kim Reaper. I don't remember at this point when everyone else came on board, but I know D-Bomb joined mid-way through the first season, and this season we only had one new girl, Deadly Aim. This is why we work so well together, and why we seem to be unstoppable (Drew Blood's words, not mine) on the track.

As far as soul-crushing goes, I can't really see how putting me in a lineup as a jammer can be seen as any kind of a crushing death-blow attempt. We can't really tell Burnett Down or Meg MyDay that they can't play anymore once the score gets really uneven because that's not fair to them (we all pay, we all play), but we do try to mix things up a bit by putting non-jammers in as jammers so that the game is not all about Burnett or Meg or Ninjit Su racing around the track scoring us a million points.

Like I said, fans will think what they will, and they choose their teams for any number of very personal reasons, and I can't argue with that. I also can't convince every DLF critic that we're all really nice girls, and they don't have to hate us because we beat their team, but I don't think I'd be successful at that anyway. I guess all I can really do is whine in by livejournal about it.

Comments

[parlor-games.livejournal.com]

my shift key isn't working, so please endure bear with me...

as an outsider, it has been interesting to watch the rcrg evolve as an organization.

i think that the kind of trash talking such as the link in your journal, and the intent behind it - saying things that you would be hard pressed to say directly to someone's face without getting a fist up your nose - it is this type of crap that will, and probably already is, wreck the rcrg for a lot of people. yeah, i know it has always been there to some degree, but this stuff is really starting to show some wear on the teams and players.

i am astounded about the things i hear going on. at some point the rcrg, as an organization, is going to have make a decision - start treating the league like a business, and leave the serious trash talking to the fans, or scale back, regroup, and start acting like friends again. this stuff seems so high school to me, and people don't think about how hurtful their words are.

did anyone come up to dlf team and say, 'the second half of your bout was hard to watch. i think it is more important that people have a good time than just win by a huge spread. what can we do about this.'

or are you just going to hear about it via snarky comments.

[motomotoyama.livejournal.com]

The same poster made a comment in someone else's journal that DLF should learn how to play a close game. I asked as respectfully as I could what exactly she means by that. How would she like to see us do things differently? I am hoping that the comment will be taken as I intended (genuine concern and curiousity), since we all know that online exchanges can be taken the wrong way very easily.