Rat City Rollergirls

Tess and I have been able to make it to see the Rat City Rollergirls play a few bouts.

The Rat City Rollergirls is kind of a collective which consists of four home roller derby teams and one all-star team. They play each other, or other traveling teams. The all-star team plays teams from all over the world. Rat City has maintained a ranking among the nation’s top 10 best derby teams!

It’s a fun event to go to.  It’s a very interesting scene, attracts a strange crowd, and has its own style/fashion that goes along with it which is hard to define. Wikipedia says the aesthetic is “inspired by rockabilly or burlesque fashions". I'll buy that.

Nehi Nightmare  - she is unstoppably small! And a total badass!

The Rat City teams are the Throttle Rockets,  Derby Liberation Front, Grave Danger, and the Socket Wenches. The girls are all total badasses and each has a fun pseudonym. The names are usually a pun or a play-on-words and are often sexualized. Some of my favorite Rat City names: Slutnik,  Devilynne Syde, Moe Yadown, Ophelia Melons, Rawkhell Sqwelch, Kutta Betch, Muffstache, Tempura Tantrum, and Yoko Onoudi’nt !  I love puns and find them to be the best part of the sport. 

Roller Derby 
The sport is initially confusing to follow, but is easy to pick up. There are penalty technicalities which aren't as easy to understand, but also aren't that important to know at the start.

I’ll let the Wikipedia article describe the sport of roller derby's history, revival, and game play.

This video gives the basics of game play.

Other resources:

Rat City Rollergirls History

Why Rat City?

International Registry of Derby Names - This is fun to peruse through.