I'm assuming that these are just projected brackets until the WFTDA actually announces the official word.

Any sports league subdivided into divisions/conferences/whatever ((which is pretty much all of them)) is going to periodically run into stretches where worthy teams from conference/division X are not going to make it to the playoffs, while less-worthy teams from weaker conference/division Y do ((case in point: The NBA in the last few years, where decent teams from the tougher Western Conference routinely fail to make the cut for the playoffs, while clearly lesser teams wind up making the playoffs in the softer East)). The value proposition here ((note: I have absolutely NO idea what "value proposition" actually means, but i thought it seemed like a good phrase to use)) is whether or not the good that comes from regioning -- i.e. intensified regional rivalries, increased feeling of peer community, etc. -- is enough to offset the negative repercussions, like some great teams being shut out from nationals. I think it probably is, but, then again, i live in the North Central region, which has had the same trio of regional powerhouses in its top three since its inception.

The idea of a Wild Card berth for Nationals is a pretty flawed one. Winning at Regionals wouldn't have a hell of a lot of luster if teams knew they were bound for Nationals win or lose because of a high regular season ranking.

Since i hate any tournament structure where the number of teams involved isn't a power of two anyway, perhaps a bit of the edge could be taken off derbydom's collective anguish by expanding the number of teams in the Nationals tournament to sixteen total. That would at least reduce the odds of a "deserving" team winding up on the outside looking in for Nationals. Of course, this also increases the odds of a "less deserving" team making it into Nationals, thus might serve to piss the West off even further.

Another possible solution is to re-draw the regional boundaries: Move the Colorado teams to the South Central region. Or move 'em to the North Central. Or, heck, split 'em up between the North and the South, see what i care. Any way you slice it, that reduces the logjam of "worthy" teams in the West, and increases the amount of "worthy" teams in other regions. The teams in the South/North won't go for it, but, i dunno, them's the breaks! Trouble is, this approach is symptomatic, and is based on the ((almost surely incorrect)) assumption that the balance of power will remain at its current status quo in perpetuity; alleviating a logjam in the West might just be building a future logjam in the South or North.

Or, the WFTDA could just do what the NCAA does for the four regions of their basketball tournaments: Assign seedings and regions after the post-season participants are known. That approach is rife with geographic weirdness -- like a team from the east coast playing in the western bracket, etc. -- but, if nothing else, it does do a good job of equitably distributing teams across four regions of the country ((in their case East, West, Midwest and South)). But this approach, of course, kind of undermines the point of divisioning.

I kind of forgot where i was going with this post. In any event, i'm sure something or another is an outrage!

Actually, they are training them for US! My city has a number of great colleges. Just like Tucson Derby Brats (and TRD) trained Luce Bandit for TXRG, Rose City Rosebuds and Rat City's junior league will probably be training their kids to skate here in Rochester. Because snowy is just plain more fun than rainy, ya know?

Somebody owes my city SOMETHING for losing Bloody Mary to TXRG and Mindianapolis 500 to y'all before our league even got started. Just sayin'.

Is the tournament format official? As in 1 vs 8/9, 2 vs 7/10?