Roll Britannia FAQ

Shout out to the Beast of the East Tournament FAQ – which we will now highly borrow tone from, CAUSE WE LOVE IT.

The Basics

1. What is Roll Britannia?
Roll Britannia is a tournament that is designed to allow all the fabulous teams from across Europe to compete together in the spirit of competitive roller derby. 

2. Where and when is this fabled tournament taking place?
The Roll Britannia 2009 tournament will be held on the weekend of July 18th and 19th in London, England. The final venue is not yet sorted.  Those of you who regularly struggle with the nightmare that is securing skating venues in UK cities will understand the hoops that must be jumped to make sure no floors are harmed, no badminton games are interrupted, and no health and safety laws are broken in the making of this game.  Don’t worry, we have backups, we just want to hear about our first choice before we make a final call. IT'S AT EARLS COURT, YO! w00t!!!

3. What is the tournament format? I don’t want to come all the way down, get my ass beat in the first game, then sit around drinking and watching exciting derby games for the rest of the weekend, taking notes on how my team can improve and kick butt next time, and occasionally turning my tipsy attention to vendor village in order to shop for new wheels and miniskirts! 
Oh…
Well, yeah ok, maybe that’s not SO bad, but I digress.
So we could have locked it down and said “right, 8 teams…3 games each, etc…”  BUT, this is the first time we have all done this, so we wanted to leave it a bit more open and see how many people we got.  Depending on the final number of entries, we have several structures in mind.  All solutions are designed to give as much play time as possible to each team, but places are limited as we can, after all, only fit so many games in. Go here if you haven't already seen it: BRACKETS

4. So, what if my team’s just not ready to compete?
Well, then we’d love you to come and watch! As well as being able to watch some live games, we’re hoping that the tournament will be a great opportunity for all of us to get to party with get to know skaters from all over Europe.

5. Why did you call it Roll Britannia? And who is that strange lady on the logo?
What can we say…the London Rollergirls really like puns!  If we can play Rule Britannia during the opening of the tournament, that would make our weekend.  The logo is our own rollergirl version of Britannia.  Google is your friend. (Britannia) 


Team Registration

1. What's the most important thing I should know about registration?
If you wanna play, you gotta get that registration form in, baby!  Don’t miss out on the chance to take part in the first tournament we've ever had in the EU!

2. What kind of teams are invited?
League travel teams, secondary league teams, mixed teams made up of skaters from multiple leagues.  Basically if you are in the UK, Ireland, or Continental Europe and you are a derby league – you can make it happen.  You must, however, be able to certify that all your skaters meet the minimum WFTDA skills.  And if you are one of those strange boys who wants to play men’s derby, don’t try and sneak in with a wig. We have ways of telling.

3. How do I register my team?
Leagues wishing to enter a travel team(s) will need to complete a registration form for each team and submit a hard copy, signed by an authorised league representative. This should be accompanied by a cheque for the registration/entry fee. Payment can also be made by BACS transfer. Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for account details. Registration will not be considered complete until payment is received.

Teams formed of skaters from multiple leagues must do the same, however an authorised team representative from each participating league must sign the application form. To qualify to register a team of skaters from multiple leagues, participating skaters’ leagues must not be entering a travel team.
Leagues can submit more than one travel team. Please designate your teams as Team 1 and Team 2. Priority on available slots for each league team will go to Team 1 applicants before we fill up with Team 2’s. We want as many different leagues as possible to be able to participate in the tournament, however we are operating on a first come first served basis.
Once registration has closed, successful applicant leagues/teams will receive written confirmation of a slot allocation.

4. What are the important dates to remember?  I will probably email you and ask again, but humour me and put it down here anyway.
Registration Deadline - 20th March 2009
Confirmation of Acceptance - 29th March 2009
Deadline for Submission of Team Roster - 5th June 2009
Deadline for Submission of Roster Changes - 19th June 2009
Tournament (this is important to note!) – 18th/19th July 2009

While the tournament is 18 & 19 July, we highly recommend you travel to London on Friday 17th and don’t plan to leave until Monday 20th. Games are likely to start at 9am on Saturday, and go until 9pm on Sunday.

5. In case you hadn’t noticed, the economy is going to hell in a handbasket.  So how much do you expect me to shell out for this roller fest of goodness?
There is a non-refundable registration/entry fee of £200 per team. That’s less than the cost of a venue for a few practises, or think of it as £10 per girl if you submit a roster of 20.  That’s like 3 pints in a London pub!  Well worth a weekend of derby…especially if you can bring your own cans.  Just to clarify, LRG will be covering the cost of the tournament, and the entry fees will NOT be enough to make us break even.  So while we know it’s not chump change, it’s a fair price to participate and help us not go broke for the love of roller derby. Awwww….. 

6. How do the team roster rules work?
Every team has a TEAM ROSTER that can have a roster of up to 20 people on it. That is the roster you should submit by the 5th June 2009.. But, remember that only 14 players are allowed to be on your GAME ROSTER and only those may be on your bench during a game, (plus up to two coaches/team managers). Still, WFTDA rules allow swapping people between your GAME ROSTER and TEAM ROSTER between tournament games, so there's still a point in bringing more than 14 players if you wish to do so. Please, do not forget WFTDA Rule 1.3 that says that players swapped out of a GAME ROSTER during a tournament CANNOT come back on it for a later game. Under the 4.0 rules, players from the roster of 20 can now swap in and out during the whole tournament (but not DURING a game of course).

7. Refs confuse me with their funny hand signals and screams of “Go to the box!”…so can you help me understand the rules of the game for this tournament in a derby-girl-speak kind of way?
Sorry, but nothing can translate ref logic to derby girl brains.  But, how about this:

The tournament will be played using the current WFTDA Standardized Flat Track Rollerderby Rules as at 20th June 2009 (4 weeks before the tournament). This means WFTDA 4.0. Any new ruleset featuring major changes published within 4 weeks of Roll Britannia is unlikely to be adopted. This is to ensure a high quality of game knowledge by skaters, and high quality refereeing. The exception will be that some games (such as consolation games, or early group stage games) may be shorter than standard WFTDA game length).

8.  I need more info on my team roster…how does this work….can I enter members of the GGRD All Star team as subs?
Please note the following Team Information from the ruleset:
1.1 Teams shall consist of a maximum of 20 skaters that have passed the standard eligibility
requirements established by the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA).
1.2 At most, 14 skaters may be on the roster for a specific game. Leagues may rotate their
game roster from their team roster between games.
1.3 During a tournament, leagues may substitute alternates from their team roster.
1.4 A league may have more than one team.

ALL skaters may only be registered on one (1) team, and MUST be at least 18 years of age, female, and a skating member of an active European league. ‘Guest Skaters’ are not permitted on league teams. Leagues wishing to submit a team using guest skaters must apply to enter a mixed team. The team roster does not need to be submitted with the registration form; the team rosters will need to be submitted at least 6 weeks before the tournament, and changes to the 20-skater roster will be permitted up to 4 weeks from the Tournament.

REALLY important stuff!

1. What should I wear?  What kind of wheels do I need?
Its smooth concrete...not coated or painted.  There are a few seams here and there, and we may have to put some tape over a random spot or so.  This writer skated on it once with a green fugitive and pink flat out combo and found it fine.  Probably a good in-betweener kind of suface...not super grippy but not super slick.  Bring a few sets of wheels so you can figre out what works for you. Our resident wheel nerd Fox Sake also skated on it recently and posted her thoughts here.

As for outfits… each team will be required to have two (2) jersey colours: one light and one dark. This is to ensure that there is high contrast between teams.  Don’t go buying new uniforms yet though – you should wait until we have confirmed your colour choice on your registration.  Oh, and this particular FAQ writer will personally buy a few bottles of champagne for whichever team rocks up in a uniform similar to the Windy City Manic Attackers Manictard.

2. Derby bores me, what if I want to get out of the venue and do other stuff?
Heathen. But we will definitely be pointing out some places to go/eat/drink in the general vicinity.  You can go to Harrod's or something....Plus, hello…it’s London!

3. Can my derby widow/kids/BFFs/grannie come and watch??
Abso-smurfly!  Roll Britannia will be open to the public, and we will offer different levels of tickets for purchase to the public.  Nobody will be getting in free, however, unless they are officially part of a team or ref crew, or volunteer staff.

4. Where do I sleep?
While there are tons of small tourist hotels near Earls Court, we have identified discount rates at a variety of hotels and hostels in the Euston/Kings Cross area instead.  This is because the after party is going to be in that area...which is what really matters. 

There will be no overnight kipping in the penalty box.  Raw Heidi – this means you.

5. I am not in a derby league in Europe and/or I just want to come over and help out…what do I do!?!?!
We’ve got options for you.  I mean first of all, you can sort yourself out with a super fantastic European holiday that just happens to take in a derby tourney.  Not to mention, we are taking names of people who are interested in volunteering to work the tournament.  You will get in free, get lots of derby girl love, and maybe even a snazzy T-shirt!  If you can translate penalty calls into German…we need to talk, schnell!

6. Um, you STILL didn’t answer my question. EPIC FAIL!
Jeez, sorry.  Tell you what…just drop us a note at rollbritannia@londonrollergirls. com and we can hopefully sort you out, m’kay?