This is a guest post by Skateful Dead derby girl WD Forte.

If you only attended one KDG event this year, season closer Back to Cruel III was the one to see. The foundation of the Memorial Centre rocked with a packed house of nearly 1,500 people on their feet for two of the best roller derby games this city has ever seen at this doubleheader, and the cheers could be heard a block away.

The highly anticipated Battle for the Boot between KDG’s home teams, the Rogue Warriors and the Skateful Dead, had fans on the edge of their seats until the very last second — all the way into overtime! The Dead took the lead early in the bout and maintained that lead for most of the game. The Dead’s star jammer TyKnee Smasher was a force to be reckoned with as she dodged and weaved her way through the pack over and over throughout the night, attaining lead jammer status every jam until the last one.

A successful power jam by Rogue jammer Nikki Heat near the end of the second half brought the score much closer as the two teams traded the lead back and forth throughout the second half, neither team giving an inch. Rogue coaches Glitter Bomb and Reba Smackintire sent out power blocking lines, and rotated through excellent jamming from Kimminent Danger, Bad Princess, Nikki Heat, Zesty Enterprise, and Lusty B Fearsome, but their success against the Skateful Dead blockers including Coop de Loop, Newey and Improved, and Booty on Duty, varied. Superb coaching by Sir John Eh Smackdonald throughout the season had given this team new skills and strategies, and the previously undefeated Rogue Warriors were struggling.

By the final jam, the score was tied at 125 apiece, pushing this nail-biter of a match into overtime — an almost unheard-of event in roller derby. In overtime, the final jam goes the full two minutes, with no lead jammer; the first pass is a scoring pass. TyKnee Smasher lined up against Nikki Heat on the jammer line and the tension was almost unbearable. TyKnee had not yet been bested by a Rogue jammer, and with Kimminent Danger in the penalty box and Rogue blockers Cat O’Clysm and AmandaTory Sentence sitting in the changeroom having been ejected from the game for too many penalties, it looked like the Dead had the game sewn up. The crowd rose to its feet to see the final jam, where Nikki Heat raced through the pack and took the game for the Rogues 138 to 132, and the Rogues walked away with the golden rollerskate, league champions for the year. Nikki Heat was voted MVP for the Rogues, and Skate at Home Mom took MVP for the Dead.

The second bout of the evening pitted the Disloyalists against Toronto Roller Derby’s Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, the D-VAS. Earlier in the season the Disloyalists trounced the DVAS, but under TORD’s excellent coaching and with several new transfer skaters, the team they faced was an entirely different matter. The DVAS brought everything they had and both teams left it all on the track for this fiercely competitive match. The DVAS’ Getcha Kicks and Taranasaurus Rex were both fantastic jammers, making their way through the nearly impenetrable wall of Disloyalists on the track. Equally, Manic Breeze darted through the DVAS with relative ease to keep the score between the Disloyalists and D-VAS close throughout the entire game. The crowd roared as Luci Fleur donned the jammer panty and made many successful trips around the track, adding to the Disloyalists’ score. Vagina Dentata, one of the Disloyalists’ star blockers (and well known for her menacing face paint), showed amazing skill as a jammer, bringing the crowd to its feet to lap the D-VAS’ jammer over and over and bringing the score to almost a tie. Alas, the Disloyalists couldn’t quite sneak out the win, with a final score of 149-132 for the DVAS in this tight game.

All four teams gave the packed crowd the show of a lifetime. Keep your eye on all three KDG teams next season — after winter training and our upcoming fresh meat camps all three teams are sure to bring more skill and determination to the track than ever before. Thank you to all of our volunteers for making the night work so smoothly, to our special guest announcer the Derby Nerd, to our all-star crew of refs and officials, and to our fans for screaming the house down. Stay tuned to this website and our Facebook page to find out what KDG is up to in the off season and we’ll see you in May!

- WD Forte