Structure for the 2016 Men’s Roller Derby World Cup in Calgary

Adam Roush sent us more information about the structure for the 2016 Men’s Roller Derby World Cup in Calgary (Canada)…

Teams will be split into four groups, which will play a round-robin of 30-minute games. Top two from each group will advance into the quarter-finals, and play off for the championship in a knockout format of full-length games. Teams finishing below second place will play additional full-length consolation games in small brackets based on group finish, to give a final ranking picture.

Groups

Teams will be placed into four groups, two groups of five and two of six. These groups will be created as follows:

Teams 1-4 from 2014 will be placed into groups 1-4, respectively
Teams 5-8 from 2014 will be placed into groups 1-4, in reverse order
As there are two teams ranked 7th, a draw will determine which is seeded as 8th
Remaining teams will be split up into Europe and Rest-of-World pots
Teams will be drawn from the Europe and Rest-of-World pots to ensure that each group has no more than 3 teams from each region

This way, the groups are both competitively fair and geographically balanced.

Group Stage

Teams will play a full round-robin schedule of half-hour games within each group. This means either 4 or 5 games, totaling either 2 or 2½ hours of roller derby.
These games will be played in accordance with the Rules of Flat Track Roller Derby, with only minor modifications to fit the format, such as teams being limited to one timeout.
At the conclusion of the group stage, teams will be ranked within their groups according to the number of wins, then by points difference. If necessary, head-to-head record will be used to determine which of two tied teams will advance.

Knockout Phase

The knockout phase will consist only of regulation games, according to the Rules of Flat Track Roller Derby. At this stage, every game will open with the anthems of the teams competing. It can be broadly broken up into two parts: cup games and ranking games.

The Cup

Teams finishing first or second in their respective groups will play off for the cup, in a 3-round structure. On one side of the bracket, the winner of group 1 will play the runner-up from group 2, and the winner from group 4 will play the runner–up from group 3. The other side of the bracket will mirror the first, switching runners-up for winners and vice-versa.
Teams losing in the quarter finals will compete for 5th place. Teams losing in the semifinals will compete for 3rd place. The two teams losing the quarter finals and the subsequent game will end their tournament tied for 7th. Teams winning the semifinals will compete in the championship game.

Ranking Games

Teams finishing third and fourth in their respective groups will play 2-round, 4-team knockouts against the other teams that finished in the same position. The results for teams finishing third will determine 9th – 12th place, and teams finishing fourth will determine 13th – 16th place.
Teams finishing fifth and sixth in their respective groups will play either one or two consolation bouts against each other–those from six-team groups playing only one and those from five-team groups playing two. These teams will be ranked by winning percentage of the games in this stage. 

Read our page of the 2016 Men’s Roller Derby World Cup