Journals Russ Reads

As soon as I heard the WFTDA championships would be in Malmö, Sweden, I blocked my calendar. I bought my train tickets in April as soon as they were available to purchase. (You can only get them 6 months in advance.) I applied to be a volunteer when that opened, and I checked the box to say I was interested in a leadership role.

A bit later, I got an email with a list of the domains asking which one(s) I would be interested in leading. Based on my skill set, I put food and volunteer coordinator. I got food lead. I wasn't expecting it to be 2 full days, rather split over all four days (four half-days), but I was on site making coffee, putting out food, making more coffee, and solving the problems I could solve without bothering the event producer or the other food lead (a local, who took over the last 2 days). I had assistants for each shift, so it wasn't just me. I like having mid-level authority, with a set of decisions that I am able to make and some people to delegate to, while there is someone above me to deal with the more complicated shit.

I got a lanyard and a staff badge out of it, though!

I like volunteering in the food room, because I get to meet people and chat with them and see old friends. Only volunteers, officials, and announcers were allowed in there, not the teams, but a third of the volunteers were from German leagues, so I knew a bunch of them already. Also at that venue, there's direct access to the track, so you can still watch some of the games.

We had a feed of the scoreboard on the closed-circuit TVs, and we developed a sense of what was going on outside based on the sound of the crowd. For example, if a European team was playing a North American one, any time the European team got lead or scored, the crowd was LOUD. If the NA team got lead or scored, you could hear cheering, but just a fraction of that for the Euro team.

I don't have stats, but I'd guess that most of the spectators were European, because it's the first time Champs were held in Europe, which means it's the first time Champs were affordable for the Euro derby community, so everyone who could swing the time off work etc came. And all the Euros were cheering for "any team that's not North American," basically. (I was cheering for any European team, then any team that's never won it before, but the final four were the exact same teams as in 2024, just in a different order. Yawn.) No European team has made the final four in a long time. I think London did a few times, but they never won.

There was a lot of bullshit surrounding the decisions of how many officials from each region were selected, but that's all WFTDA internal, so I will only complain internally. But I talked to a bunch of refs from the US while I was working, and they asked what differences I saw over here, because I got my start over there. I have 5x the games in Germany as in the US, so my experience is skewed, and my NA (southeast) experience is old. But one thing that occurred to me while I was watching one of the medal games was that there are SO many more non-cis-dude officials in Europe. We could use more officials of color, for sure; roller derby in general could be less white. But depending on who applies to a game/event, you can fully staff a ref crew (7) and most of an NSO crew (10) with people of marginalized genders.

In fact, most of the leagues I've worked with (in Germany primarily) say they'll preferentially staff marginalized people. We have a check box on our application form for "I belong to a disadvantaged group." Euro Derby actively wants to include people who aren't cis white dudes and to develop newer officials; that does not seem to be a priority for NA Derby. A lot of the refs who were at champs were the same ones who were at the playoffs (some of them more than one playoff!) and who are at champs again and again. In fairness, officiating at that level of play does take a lot of experience, but there didn't seem to be a lot of spaces for first-time-champs officials. (I didn't apply; I don't have the skills or experience. I'm fine not being at such a high-stakes event! It seems stressful.)

Anyway, though, I had a fun adventure on the train (direct to CPH on the way there, change in Hamburg on the way back) with only minor annoyances. Though the DB app told me my connection was no longer available (because the train to CPH was delayed, so I wouldn't make my Öresund train) while still showing my train arriving; the app has some issues. I tried to work a bit on the way there, but my old Chromebook running Linux is annoying to work on. The way back, I didn't even bother trying to work or read. I tried to nap some, but mostly chatted or faffed around on my phone.

(And in all this, my cat had an ear infection, so my sitter had to try to get her to eat tuna with pulverized amoxicillin in it, which she did ... until Saturday night. So I'm shoving pills into her mouth now. But also I'm leaving this afternoon for another derby event, so I got an appointment with a house call vet who's supposed to bring an injectable that lasts 48 hours, which will last until I'm back home Sunday evening. And get to shove pills in her face again. Everyone hates it.)