There was a lot of talk about London Rollergirls heading into
Nightmare on 95, the 2011 WFTDA Eastern Regional Tournament. London
Brawling's 0-4 record in sanctioned play had lead to suggestions that
they hadn't earned their place in the top ten despite creditable
showings against teams in the top 6 of the region.

The initial showdown against #7 Carolina was always going to be as
much of a test of mentality for Brawling as of skating--the entire
derby world was watching to see if they could live up to the billing
and silence their critics. Those watching didn't have long  to wait to
see Brawling show their class, though. Tense opening jams saw scores
level at 2-2, but some fine pack play saw powerjams for Kamikaze
Kitten and Vagablonde put 32 points on the board in the fourth and
fifth jams to stretch out a lead that Carolina never managed to claw
back.
Carolina never gave up though, with veteran Holly Wanna Crackya being
particularly effective, the London pack made sure that they never lost
more than 10 points in any jam thanks to a combination of hard
hitting, last-ditch defending, and clever tactical play that kept the
Carolina jammers in check. A final score of 160-67 fairly reflected
London's start-to-finish dominance--and silenced the critics in some
style.
Several hours later London faced off against number two seed the
Philly Rollergirls. In a match reminiscent of those from Anarchy in
the UK in April, Philly raced to a massive first-half lead thanks to
before London adjusted at half-time to contain the damage. Philly
spent all of the first half forming a linked arm four-wall on the
jammer line, with some exceptionally slow starts serving to frustrate
both London's jammers and the watching crowd.
The scores from the two halves tell their own story -- Philadelphia
dominated the first 90-6, but failed to extend that lead until a
four-point final jam, taking the second half 50-47. The final score
was 140-53, but Brawling's second-half adjustments managed to win them
some of the loudest cheers of the entire weekend as they cemented
their reputation as one of the smartest teams in the entire WFTDA.
London had to wait more than 24 hours for their third game, however,
facing off against the 6-ranked Boston Massacre in the final game of
day two. Jammer penalties dominated the first few jams for both teams,
which let Boston lead for most of the game's first 20 minutes in a
back-and-forth affair. Ninjette put London in the lead with about ten
minutes to go in the half, before Kami, and Vagablonde added to the
lead while the likes of Raw Heidi and Grievous Bodily charm caused no
end of trouble for Boston veterans Sugar Hits and Claire D. Way in the
pack. This period of dominance at the death led to a 75-41 lead for
Brawling at the half, but it was far from comfortable.
The start of the second half saw lead jam calls going both ways, but
no big scores until ten minutes in when a 15-0 for Sugar Hits looked
to bring Boston very much back into contention. The next jam showed
the dangers presented by full-length jams; Vagablonde and Ivana
Shankabitch duked it out for a full two minutes, and while Boston won
the jam 3-0, Ivana finished the jam in the box. Starting the next jam
unopposed, Kami laid down a stunning 25-0 jam, darting past Boston
blockers and leaping over apexes at will making it 126-61. Good
packwork from Anna Wrecks'Ya and Etta Maims helped Sugar Hits get a
20-0 of her own almost immediately afterwards, time was running out
for Boston. Jammer defence from Stefanie Mainey on Claire D. Way
showed the way from that point on--the clock ticked away, Brawling
stayed out of the box, and it ended 142-95.
This had already been the best-ever performance by a bottom seed in a
WFTDA regional tournament, but there was on test left: Montreal in the
fifth-place playoff on Day 3. Montreal were Brawling's first opponents
in what was a historic bout at Anarchy in the UK--not only was that
the first WFTDA sanctioned bout to be held outside of North America,
it was also the first to be contested between two non-US teams. This
bout--the first-ever WFTDA tournament bout between two non-US
teams--proved to be the bout of the weekend.
Montreal started by aping Philly's successful ultra-slow jammer line
defence. With ten minutes gone the tactics had been working well, with
Montreal up 31-10. A tactical time-out stopped the rot, letting London
fight back over the next five minutes. A shift in tactics from
Montreal following a timeout of their own backfired after Iron Wench
found herself warming the box and watching as Kami put fifteen points
on the board to put London in the lead. Vagablonde and Stefanie Mainey
then further extended that lead, leaving London 22 points ahead at the
half, with the score at 68-46.
Brawling then came out firing on all cylinders in the second half,
dominating points scoring and lead jam calls and pulling out a
68-point lead following penalty trouble for the Canadians. At this
point the Brawling box started to fill up, with big jams from all
three Montreal jammers pulling the gap down to 11 points with five
minutes left to go. That lead was further cut to 6 points with 1:20
left on the clock after Georgia W Tush picked up a grand slam before
being forced to call as Kami broke the pack. A hard-fought 4-4 jam
between Iron Wench and Vagablonde was called by Wench with  3 seconds
on the clock, and Montreal called their final timeout to give
themselves one last chance.
As play was about to restart Brawling coach Ballistic Whistle called a
timeout of his own to give his team a few more valuable seconds to
compose themselves. Things started shakily when Iron Wench grabbed
lead for Montreal, but she was stopped on her scoring pass thanks to a
massive hit to the infield from Stefanie Mainey. That let Kami escape
the pack just before Wench, and picking up four of her own shortly
before Wench made another pass--which was just enough to give London a
heart-stopping 2-point  win and fifth place at Nightmare on 95, and
revenge for their 80-point loss over Montreal earlier in the year.
To cap the weekend off, Stefanie Mainey was voted by players from all
ten teams as tournament MVP for her jamming and blocking
exploits--winning her a trip to Mexico and big bag of WFTDA goodies
for her trouble.
Coming in tenth and leaving fifth, London Brawling put in the
best-ever performance by a bottom seed in a regional tournament, and
have set the bar exceptionally high for next year--with people moving
from talking to them not being worthy regional contenders in 2011 to
potentially booking themselves a trip to Championships in 2012.