Battle of the Allstars State tournament 2015

Ten different state teams gathered somewhere in Pennsylvania to battle out who was to win the trophy and the medals in a double elimination tournament. Once again I had the honor and opportunity to play on Team New York... And did I get to play! It was so much fun, but also one of the hardest weekend on my body ever.

On Friday we only had 9 skaters and we managed to pull a win over Virginia that played really well. This set us up to play against Maryland on Saturday, this time we had a 13 count of skaters, and it was a very tight and exciting game with eight lead changes and great plays from both our and their side, Maryland came out the leader of that one and dropped us down to losers bracket. Since it was a double elimination tournament you had to loose twice to be out.

Sunday we were down to 12 skaters and knowing we probably would have to face both Maryland (again) and  Pennsylvania to win. We played Virginia in the morning, and won, advanced to play Michigan two hours later, and won, just to be facing off Maryland 30 min later. That was a tough game, but I think we all pulled out the last energy we had to win, and we won. We all pulled it together and it made me so proud of the team. BUT this meant we were set up to play Pennsylvania 30 min later. And so we did, exhausted and with smiles on our faces. 

I had an amazing time, and to my suprise I got tournament Blocker MVP! It really meant a lot to me. Sometimes you need a boost, and even if my body is aching today and I feel like I got hit by a train, I love Rollerderby.. 

But if anyone asks me to play 4 full length games during a day again, i might not be totally psyked about it... Hahaha

Yay... it's such an honor!!

So I jammed once, this is the photo evidence.... 

StateWars 2014 in Daytona Beach

Photo by Ken LeBleu

I wasn't sure if I was going to go or not, but in the end I couldn't say no to such a opportunity. I was in Sweden so I was supposed to fly into Ft. Laurendale late Thursday, rent a car and drive up to Daytona. 

Well, Norwegian Air had different plans for me, since their the flight was 11h delayed. I came in early Friday morning and missed my first game against Iowa. I guess shit happens. But the next game was just a few hours away and we played Oklahoma, and secured a substantial win.  I was superexcited to see my roommate Vish and brother from another mother Kenbo, but in all honesty I was the most excited to see Carnage who's arms I just ran into when I saw him. The Men's New York team only had nine players, still they looked really strong. 

Saturday we started off the day playing Mass - even if I went to bed thinking we were supposed to play Wisconsin or Alabama. The scedual kept on confusing me, but I cant really say that I made a huge effort to understand it, I just showed up and played rollerderby. After beating Mass we played Georgia, and we won that game too.  So according to scedual we were supposed to play Iowa (again) and we decided that we wanted to play them again. Because we thought we could win, we were wrong. 

Loosing to Iowa set us up to play Texas 8.30 am on Sunday morning. The Texas game turned out to be superclose, first we had a substatial lead, and then in the second half they pulled away for a bit. Maven had an amazing last jam, but in the end they beat us. We really wanted to win, but our bodies were just tired and we were exhausted, my toe was really hurting and taking my skates off was sort of a relief. I still love rollerderby, and I would gladly have played two more bouts.

In the end Colorado went on and won it all, thier team looked superstrong and they played Texas in the final. I guess I can be ok with loosing to the team that took second.

I had an amazing time at StateWars, got to play five bouts and got to spend time with old and new friends. After party was a few beers and a burger for me, the burger was the real highlight. i took a slow walk on the beach and it was really peaceful before I went back to our crowded hotelroom.

I am thankful and happy that I had an opportunity to skate on Team New York. And congratulations to Team Colorado for taking home the win! And congratulations to Carnage on the New York Mens team that took home tournament MVP.